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.
- Emerging Trends — Commercial Real Estate and the Future of Work by David A. Singer of Huffington Post.
Key excerpt:
“For the workplace/office sector, the report shows that office landlords and their brokers are hoping and praying for the perpetuation of the status quo – traditional credit tenants signing long term leases. Yet in the real world, how and where work is actually being accomplished is undergoing a rapid revolution. This transformation has been driven by mobility in all of its forms as well as the rise of the sharing economy. A distinct ossified place of work is no longer a paramount demand in the business world.”
- Holiday Sales Growth Was Best Since ’05, ShopperTrak Says by Craig Giammona of Bloomberg.
Key excerpt:
“Holiday spending over November and December jumped 4.6 percent versus the same period of last year, beating ShopperTrak’s prediction of 3.8 percent, the research firm said today in a report. That was the best performance since 2005, before the last recession, when sales gained 5.2 percent.”
- The Foreign Capital Influx Continues by Les Shaver of Multifamily Executive.
Key excerpt:
“As of early this month, $4.14 billion of foreign capital had come into the apartment sector last year, according to New York-based commercial real estate research firm Real Capital Analytics. That’s less than the $5.16 billion transacted in 2013. But both numbers represent a sharp increase from the $4.2 billion in 2012 and the $4.09 billion in 2011.”
- Continued Retailer Closures Could Hurt U.S. CMBS; Further Bifurcate Malls by Mark Heschmeyer of CoStar.
Key excerpt:
“Despite the [J.C. Penney] store closures, Fitch Ratings expects the impact on CMBS will be muted by the previous impact of the recession and diversification. Nine of the 40 J.C. Penney closures announced are in Fitch-rated deals. Four of them are already real estate owned (REO). Most of the other loans including closing J.C. Penney stores are less than 3 percent of their underlying transactions. Two of the 14 Macy's closures are in Fitch-rated deals.”
- The Rise in International Student Housing by Dan Oltersdorf for Student Housing Business.
Key excerpt:
“However, international students do face additional challenges. As student housing providers, we must strive to help them meet these challenges by adapting ways in which we communicate with them and some of our residence life programming. Some of the challenges often faced by international students come in the form of basics of communication, submitting service requests, paying rent, understanding American culture and building a social circle in a new country.”