Each Wednesday, The Wrap presents a compilation of recent noteworthy commercial real estate stories from a variety of publications. Below are links to five stories that caught our eyes in recent days.
• Why New Apartment Projects Still Make Sense by Bendix Anderson of National Real Estate Investor.
Key excerpt:
" Apartment developers have been very busy in 2015. They are likely to open even more new apartments in 2016. The number of apartments available will finally grow decisively faster than the number of people looking for apartments, pushing vacancy rates higher and rent growth down, experts say. But vacancy rates are now so low they are likely to remain historically low in 2017, even after creeping upward. What’s more, rents will likely keep growing, even if not as quickly as they did this year."
• Shopping Center Investors, Retailers Focus On Attracting More Consumer Spending in 2016 by Randyl Drummer of CoStar.
Key excerpt:
"Shopping center landlords in turn are hopeful demand for physical retail space remains strong, with demand expected to outpace an escalating but still modest level of new store construction and deliveries in 2016, according to JLL’s James Cook, Americas director of retail research, in the firm's development outlook for the coming year."
• A Growing Trend for Multifamily Investors by Jennifer LeClaire of GlobeSt.
Key excerpt:
“'Investors are beginning to recognize that higher income tenants are choosing to rent versus own and that this trend is not limited to major metropolitan areas,' Reid tells GlobeSt.com. 'They are also realizing the importance of not only investing in quality product but also the proximity to restaurants and shopping in suburban downtown markets.'”
• Commercial Property Firms Set for More Deals in New Year by Peter Grant of the Wall Street Journal.
Key excerpt:
"Deal appetite is intense partly because the industry is morphing. Commercial real-estate firms are trying to rely less on highly cyclical brokerage commissions and more on recurring fees paid by landlords, corporations and other clients for a wide range of consulting and management services."
• How the Fed's Decision will Impact Commercial Real Estate by Uptin Saiidi of CNBC.
Key excerpt:
"CBRE predicts that certain markets may be more susceptible than others to interest rate increases, such as Washington, D.C., New York and Boston. While cities like Dallas and Atlanta could be impacted less due to lower cap rate compression and some rent growth."