Since global central banks began hiking interest rates in 2022, Japan’s lower cost of capital has made it a magnet for global investors seeking deals in one of the very few major markets still offering positive yield spreads.

In the session “Financing Tools to Make Affordable Deals Pencil” at the 2024 ULI Housing Opportunity Conference, panelists shared a variety of tools and strategies designed to support the production of more affordable housing.

For many years, India’s real estate markets languished in the shadow of booming Mainland China, with investors flocking there to buy real estate and tap into emerging demand. More recently, as China has struggled to mediate structural oversupply in real assets, investment flows are moving increasingly in a southerly direction. A panel at the ULI’s 2024 Asia Pacific Summit in Tokyo addressed the dynamics of current investment landscapes in each market.

The winners of the second ULI Hines Student Competition for the Asia Pacific region faced a dual challenge: create a compelling urban development proposal and follow in the footsteps of classmates who won the inaugural contest.

In a period short on opportunities and long on challenges, design matters even more. Good design principles are always worth employing, whatever the development climate, but three key design aspects pertain in particular: alliance, resilience, and quality.

Ten projects deliver compact residential spaces that offer more affordable city living options, foster community, and minimize environmental impacts.

Supertall creates a “palpable energy” that speaks to New York’s resilience and the future of cities

A new wave of mid-career commercial real estate entrepreneurs is capitalizing on what some call “once-in-a-generation” opportunities to invest in distressed or otherwise discounted properties in today’s market—especially in the office sector. Nationwide, there’s been an uptick in new investment firms started by development and investment professionals with 10–25 years of industry experience—some of whom left major firms to do so. These firms aim to buy cheap offices and reposition them through leasing, capital improvements, or conversions to apartments.

Milan’s Olympic Village is being built now in preparation for the Milan Cortina 2026 Winter Olympics and Paralympics. Developers and designers have high hopes for the complex’s third act as a hyper-sustainable, 1,700-bed student housing project and anchor for a new city park.

As the real estate industry accelerates its net zero journey, reducing embodied carbon has become a critical focus. Embodied carbon represents the carbon emissions tied to material extraction, production, transportation, disposal, and building construction. These emissions account for 11 percent of global annual carbon emissions and up to 50 percent of a building’s total emissions over its lifetime.

A new initiative aimed at promoting low-carbon steel in China’s real estate sector has been launched, co-convened by ULI Greenprint, the World Steel Association, and the China Iron and Steel Association. This collaboration unites major real estate developers and steel manufacturers to drive the transition to low-carbon steel production, with the goal of significantly reducing emissions in Mainland China and Hong Kong. China’s steel industry plays a pivotal role in global efforts to combat climate change.

Hurricanes damage and disrupt communities, properties, and economies in various ways, whether direct, indirect, or both. Translating these impacts into credit risk and other financial implications can be complex. However, a range of tools and analyses enables lenders, investors, and developers to pre-emptively anticipate hurricane damage when a storm approaches, as well as to adjust long-term strategy to mitigate risks and seize opportunities over time.

The 2024 Asia Pacific Home Attainability Index by ULI offers a comprehensive overview of housing attainability across the Asia Pacific region. In this third edition, the report includes data from three additional cities—Bangkok, Kuala Lumpur, and Perth—expanding its coverage to 48 cities in 11 countries, namely, Australia, China (including Hong Kong SAR), India, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, Singapore, South Korea, the Philippines, Thailand, and Vietnam.

Land use is local, and so are many housing policy opportunities. In the 2024 ULI Housing Opportunity Conference session, “A Look Back on the Latest State and Local Housing Policy Innovations,” moderator Michael Wilt, senior manager of external relations for the Texas State Affordable Housing Corporation, asked the panelists: “The dynamics and conversations around housing are changing a lot. What is going to net the greatest benefits?”

Cities facing affordable housing challenges are becoming more open to making zoning changes that affect density.