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:
Meager Market for Dead Malls Reducing Sale Prices to Ridiculously Low Levels, by Mark Heschmeyer, CoStar
Key Excerpt:
“Since 2014, there has been about 1,125 malls that have sold for a combined $34.15 billion at an average price of about $153/square foot, according to CoStar information.”
Student Housing Assets Are Worth More Closer to Campus, by Bendix Anderson, NREIOnline.com
Key Excerpt:
“Cap rates for housing further away from campus range widely, depending on the particulars of each property and its location. A student housing community located a mile away from campus, but surrounded by a bustling downtown neighborhood filled with bars, grocery stores and restaurants is much more valuable to investors than a property far from amenities.”
REITs Preparing for Spotlight Teach Money Managers How They Work, by Sarah Mulholland, Bloomberg
Key Excerpt:
“While REITs have been around since the 1960s, the industry ballooned following the real estate bust in the 1990s as cash-strapped companies turned to public markets when private funding dried up. The trusts are are being carved out into their own category by S&P Global’s S&P Dow Jones Indices and MSCI Inc. after a surge in valuations. Equity REIT market capitalization more than doubled to $886 billion from 2007 to 2015, according to the National Association of Real Estate Investment Trusts.”
Could New Supply of Apartments Slow Rising Rents?, by Susan Persin, Urban Land Institute
Key Exceprt:
“Millennials and baby boomers have driven recent apartment demand, and availability of capital plays an important role in their tenure choice. Young people are delaying marriage, children, and homeownership and renting apartments for longer. On the flip side, many millennials want to be homeowners, but they also want to live in (more expensive) urban locations. Qualifying for a mortgage is difficult because these young adults are not well established financially. Many also contend with student debt. But if access to mortgage capital increases, they could migrate from the renter’s market toward for-sale housing.”
CRE Industry Still Looks Good—For Now, by Barbra Murray, Commercial Property Executive
Key Exceprt:
“As for the topic of asset valuation, industry executives have quite the positive outlook. Seventy-one percent of respondents expect asset valuations to either hold steady or grow somewhat higher over the next year, compared to just 59 percent last quarter.”