Skip navigation
11-mustreads-office.jpg

11 Must Reads for Real Estate Investors (April 24, 2023)

At a real estate conference last week, Sam Zell called remote work “bullshit” and said the office situation will change, reports Insider. Non-traded REIT fundraising bounced back in March, according to the latest data from Robert A. Stanger & Co. These are among the must reads from around the real estate investment world to start the week.

  1. Remote work is 'bullshit,' says real-estate billionaire Sam Zell, to cheers from fellow execs who profit from offices “His rationale was a common one, at least among big executives who say they can get more productivity out of their employees in an office setting. He explained how he can't ‘motivate by modem,’ and that remote work is just no substitute for the personal interaction that's useful for everyone from board members to young people starting their careers.” (Insider)
  2. Bed Bath & Beyond Files for Bankruptcy “On Sunday, the 52-year-old retailer said it was filing for bankruptcy protection in United States Bankruptcy Court for the District of New Jersey. It said it would start the process of closing the company’s 360 Bed Bath & Beyond stores and 120 Buy Buy Baby locations on Wednesday and seek to sell parts of its business.” (The New York Times)
  3. Bringing Modern Portfolio Theory To Investment Real Estate “Conventional wisdom holds that real estate is typically a less volatile investment than stocks. That’s because real estate investment has different types of returns and risk profiles than traditional asset classes. And while alternative investments aren’t a good fit for clients seeking short-term rewards since they don’t offer easy liquidity, an investor with a five- to 10-year investment horizon will find commercial real estate (CRE) has the potential to provide solid returns.” (Family Wealth Report)
  4. Non-Traded REIT Fundraising Bounces Back in March “Non-Traded REITs fundraising bounced back in March with $1.2 billion of investor capital raised, a 156% percent increase over February levels and 11 out of 19 sponsors showing increases in capital formation for the period, according to the latest monthly report by Robert A. Stanger and Co. Inc.” (The DI Wire)
  5. Blackstone CEO Stephen Schwarzman Is ‘Hopeful’ About Joining S&P 500 “Blackstone has remained protected from the more unstable areas in commercial real estate, according to Jonathan Gray, Blackstone president and chief operating officer. ‘So had we positioned heavier obviously in U.S. office buildings, had we done a lot in retail, I think we would be more vulnerable,’ said Gray during the earnings call.” (Observer)
  6. Federal Workers Don’t Need to Go Back to the Office “Elected officials from both parties wanted more telework and less need for expensive office space. Now they’ve got both! Yet pretty much all one hears these days about the great federal remote-work experiment are complaints.” (Bloomberg)
  7. Asian Investors Are Now The Dominant Force In Real Estate Capital Raising “Asian pension funds and sovereign wealth funds are underallocated to real estate compared to their North American counterparts and are now playing catch-up as they seek to meet asset allocation targets and diversify their portfolios. The survey found Asian investors are still an average 200 basis points below their target allocation to real estate.” (Bisnow)
  8. Ex-Presidential Candidate Tom Steyer’s Green Real Estate Revolution “The primary target locations for this real estate investment strategy include the Pacific Northwest, Colorado, California, Arizona, and Texas. These areas offer promising opportunities for good real estate investments, coupled with the chance to significantly reduce carbon footprints.” (One Green Planet)
  9. The road is getting bumpier for CRE and resi “Forget any optimism for Oakland’s office market, where landlords have started to lower rents after holding steady throughout the pandemic. That could lead to defaults as current loans mature and refinancing deals with current interest rates jack up debt payments.” (The Real Deal)
  10. Adams Offers $10M To Rehab Vacant Rent-Stabilized Units, Is Slammed By Landlord Groups “Dubbed Unlocking Doors, the $10M pilot program will provide as much as $25K for needed repairs at 400 rent-stabilized homes that are vacant and unavailable for rent, the city announced this week. The funding would only be available to landlords who agree for the rehabilitated apartments to go to tenants using City Fighting Homelessness and Eviction Prevention Supplement vouchers.” (Bisnow)
  11. DeSantis-Disney Feud Clouds Florida’s Pro-Business Reputation “It’s a fine line for the Florida governor to walk. On the one hand he’s attempting to curtail the power of private corporations in the name of fighting what he describes as woke ideology, while on the other, he’s the leader of the pro-business state of Florida and presumptively seeking the nomination of the political party that traditionally supports free enterprise and deregulation.” (Commercial Observer)
Hide comments

Comments

  • Allowed HTML tags: <em> <strong> <blockquote> <br> <p>

Plain text

  • No HTML tags allowed.
  • Web page addresses and e-mail addresses turn into links automatically.
  • Lines and paragraphs break automatically.
Publish