Real Estate

• [New] In 2021, expenditures associated with managing real estate in a post-COVID context will rise significantly with respect to competition for tenants, safety and service delivery.
• [New] The Alliance for Auto Innovation, an industry group that represents American car manufacturers, told the White House in a filing that the ongoing shortage could mean 1.3m fewer cars being made in the US than last year.
• [New] Federal Low-Income Housing Grant Doubles in Size in 2021 Thanks to a coronavirus pandemic-fueled mortgage boom, states will get nearly $700 million in federal grants from a special program for low-income housing, more than double the amount distributed last year.
• [New] The policy, dubbed the American Jobs Plan by the White House, goes beyond traditional infrastructure projects of repairing roads, railways, bridges and ports, with Biden declaring it a once-in-a-generation investment in America.
• [New] Metro Vancouver is now home to 2.7 million people, with another million expected by 2050, and some of the most expensive real estate in Canada.
• [New] In terms of sectors, economic growth drivers in 2021-2023 will be sectors ensuring the investment development pattern, export-oriented manufacturing sectors, IT, construction and transport sectors, as well as real estate and professional services.
• [New] As the real estate and construction sectors begin to get back to normal, it is likely that we will see more residential developments from SMEs which will hopefully begin to address the current UK housing shortage.
• [New] Biden proposed the violence prevention funding as part of his American Jobs Plan, a sweeping $2 trillion infrastructure package that the White House billed as the next phase of its COVID-19 recovery strategy.
• [New] As part of the 2018-2023 coalition agreement, Luxembourg introduced a 20% withholding tax on income derived from real estate located in Luxembourg by certain Luxembourg investment funds from 2021 onwards.
• [New] The American Jobs Plan makes significant investments in power and electricity infrastructure and affordable housing.
• [New] The White House is proposing $174 billion in incentives to spur the domestic development of electric cars, provide for consumer purchase incentives and move to build out a national network of a half-million EV chargers by 2030.
• [New] Among the proposed investments, the American Jobs Plan calls for funding for the development of advanced nuclear reactors and for a clean electricity standard that can potentially support operating plants.
• [New] Companies' interest in remote work is already having an impact on real estate's bottom line and will continue to affect leasing markets in traditional office stalwarts like New York City.
• [New] The White House will not propose hiking gasoline taxes or a new vehicle miles traveled fee to pay for a proposal to massively boost infrastructure spending.
• [New] Applications of AI have expanded to real estate, entertainment and gaming in recent years, and are expected to develop further in the coming years.
• [New] Syrian children will no longer get help to get birth certificates, students and schoolchildren will no longer get help to get exam or training documents and we can no longer help people with housing, land and property rights.
• A new survey of many of the world's leading real estate investors finds that 92% of respondents expect demand for healthy buildings to grow in the next three years.
• Asia houses the largest land areas at high risk of pollution, with China, Japan, Malaysia, and the Philippines at the highest risk.
• As the stamp duty holiday disproportionately boosted more expensive houses and housing markets, we expect the historically unusual situation of a housing market downturn more substantial in London and the South East than in most other parts of the UK - not a levelling up so much as a dressing down.
• Ending the support measures that have helped the UK housing market rise to record levels during the Covid-induced recession could exacerbate a predicted fall in house prices.
• Arkansas will receive an extra 25,000 doses this week from the White House and has administered 1.1 million of its 1.6 million doses so far.
• A parallel rise in residential real-estate prices across the world is raising fears of possible bubbles and prompting some governments to intervene to prevent their markets from overheating.

Last updated: 10 April 2021