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:
• Turning Point? U.S. Commercial-Property Sales Plunge in February by Peter Grant of WSJ.
Key excerpt:
“The market has slowed primarily because of forces at work in the global capital markets rather than problems stemming from real estate itself. These forces, which also caused global stock markets to plummet in the first two months of this year, have made debt—the lifeblood of real estate—more expensive and more difficult to obtain.”
• Talent Trumps Cheap Rent as Office Tenants Deploy ‘Smarter’ Workplaces to Recruit, Retain Top Employees by Randyl Drummer of CoStar
Key excerpt:
“In a recent survey of 229 corporate real estate executives by CBRE Group, Inc., more than half of respondents cited talent availability over real estate costs as their top consideration in site section and other property decisions. In fact, real estate costs — typically the second-highest capital expenditure for companies behind payrolls — ranked a distant fourth on the list of strategic concerns in the survey, picked by just 31% of respondents.”
• Is the Hotel Sector Due for a Setback? By Diana Bell of National Real Estate Investor
Key excerpt:
“Looking forward at 2017, however, Moody’s researchers do worry about oversupply. ‘As supply continues to gain momentum and growth in demand slows down, we expect that supply and demand will reach equilibrium in the next 12-18 months before tipping the scale to where supply growth exceeds demand increases,’ the firm’s researchers write.”
• U.S. Industrial Demand: Strongest Ever? By Brian Rojal of GlobeSt
Key excerpt:
“Much of these gains, however, are due to the robust demand from only six metro areas. Los Angeles-Inland Valley, Dallas-Ft. Worth, Chicago, Atlanta, Philadelphia-Lehigh Valley and Detroit accounted for 34.1% of all US industrial demand in 2015. It’s not surprising that the first five are key players in the US distribution market, the most robust sector in the country.”
• Five Trends Influencing Site Location by Bill McMeekin of BusinessClimate
Key excerpt:
“Not that long ago, the initial analysis of a community under consideration for a project was less in depth and centered around the availability and suitability of land for development. Now, says Petersen, the real estate survey is just the baseline of the search process and other factors, many of them centering around the T word – talent.”