Topics
Capital Markets and Finance
Construction cost inflation continued to moderate in 2024. According to the global construction consulting firm Rider Levett Bucknall, cost inflation for North America increased 1.11 percent in the fourth quarter and rose 4.69 percent on a year-over-year basis. However, the Trump administration’s push for higher tariffs is reigniting concerns around higher costs ahead for real estate developers.
Two of the three leading indicators for U.S. commercial real estate ended 2024 on an upbeat note, particularly on the lending and construction phase, while design billing continued to lag.
Speakers mixed good news and uncertainty at the “ULI New York: Real Estate Outlook 2025" event, held January 22, 2025, at the Stern School of Business at New York University in Manhattan by ULI New York in partnership with NYU Stern | Chen Institute.
Design & Planning
The third annual Urban Land Institute Award for Excellence was presented to Walt Disney World/Reedy Creek Improvement District (RCID) at ULI’s November meeting in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
Yesterday, more than 400 commercial real estate professionals and elected officials gathered at the National Building Museum for the third annual Future Forum, a regional conference for public and private-sector leaders.
Business and political leaders are quick to celebrate mixed-use developments as a way to build sustainable, vibrant, and resilient communities. The journey from conception to ribbon-cutting can be daunting, though. At their outset, these developments face cyclical challenges, such as high interest rates, increased construction costs, labor shortages, and access to capital. Then come structural challenges, such as hybrid work models, changing retail habits, demographic shifts, and rising environmental expectations. Together, these things make completing mixed-use developments complex.
Development and Construction
A major investment in the long-term future of professional soccer is set to dramatically transform the last major land parcel in downtown Oklahoma City. Thanks to a successful public/private partnership, America’s 20th-largest city is seeing a continued resurgence in its downtown.
Optimism is often misunderstood as wishful thinking or blind positivity. In reality, fearless positivity is a leadership strategy—one that allows organizations to not only endure change but leverage it as a catalyst for innovation. Research shows that organizations led by optimistic leaders outperform their peers. Optimistic leaders foster more engaged teams, make bolder strategic decisions, and create cultures that embrace adaptability rather than resist it.
According to CBRE’s “North America Data Center Trends H2 2024" report, the overall vacancy rate in primary markets fell to a record-low 1.9 percent at year-end. Only a handful of facilities with 10 MW or more are slated for delivery in 2025 and are not yet leased, reflecting the scarcity of large-scale available inventory.
Resilience and Sustainability
ULI Europe is calling for innovators from across the built environment and technology to submit groundbreaking solutions to tackle the dual crises of housing affordability and decarbonization of the built environment, in the ULI PropTech Innovation Challenge (PIC) 2025.
India, one of the fastest-growing economies in the world, is urbanizing rapidly. By 2030, more than 40 percent of its populace is projected to live in urban areas, contributing there to more than 70 percent of the nation’s greenhouse gas emissions. The demand for commercial and residential spaces is surging, which attracts global investors eager to capitalize on this dynamic market. This rapid growth comes with a pressing question, however: can India urbanize without following the carbon-heavy trajectory of other developed countries?
Building on ULI’s impactful work accomplished at the city scale, a neighborhood-focused workshop brought together industry experts from across Europe and from the United States, representing a wide spectrum of the real estate value chain. The aim was to share diverse insights, cross pollinate ideas and develop practical solutions towards decarbonization and for a better collaboration.
Issues and Trends
October 1970: In a story titled “Computerized Cash Flow Analysis: A New Way to Evaluate Cash Project Feasibility,” the authors, John Hysom and Charles Juengling write, “In land development, cash flow has always been an important factor. In 1970, however, with both long-term and short-term financing at record interest levels, it has now become imperative that buildings and developers have as accurate a projection of cash flows, expenses, and income as possible.”
When my wife and I moved back to the Los Angeles area in 2000, we bought a three-bedroom Spanish-style home two blocks south of the Altadena/Pasadena border, and just a few blocks from the neighborhoods lost in the Eaton fire this past January. It was a special home for us: our first child was born there, and we loved starting our family in such a racially and socio-economically diverse residential community.
ULI and research partner RCLCO have released the ULI Terwilliger Center for Housing’s 2025 Home Attainability Index, a data-rich tool measuring affordability, connectivity, racial disparity, and growth across the United States at the MSA, county, and census tract levels.