Illustrations by Ben Simons. Since the early 2000s, blockchain technology has evolved into a widespread wave of innovative efforts that reached all corners of the financial industry and real estate is no exception. The traditional transfer of real property involves several key elements including title, deed, mortgage, and leases that must be organized, filed, and [...]

McCraney Property Company developed Infinity Park as a Class A+ state of the art business park that combines warehouse, office, and retail uses. Located on Southpark Center Loop in Orlando, Florida, the site is incredibly accessible with access to the Florida Turnpike, Beachline Highway (SR-528), and John Young Parkway. Its buildings have all of the [...]

Understanding the relationship between buildings, pollution, and climate change requires simplifying the components. The first step is to define sustainability from the investors’ perspective. To do this, we consulted environmental engineers, professors from the University of Florida’s School of Design, Construction, and Planning, and the Director of Campus Sustainability. One key takeaway is that there [...]

The outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic two years ago sent the country into a recession, leaving millions of Americans unemployed. At the same time, perhaps surprisingly, it marked the beginning of a significant boom in the housing market. The median sales price of houses sold in the US went up from $330,000 in 1Q2020 to [...]

After 50-plus years teaching real estate at the University of Florida Warrington College of Business, Wayne Archer shares his career-long revelations. Growing up on the plains of Kansas, Wayne Archer once thought that he would like to spend his life working the land as a farmer. As a youngster, he spent several summers at the [...]

Introduction Inflation has again reared its ugly head in the United States. The December 2021 CPI inflation rate, 6.8%, was the highest recorded in 39 years, and producer prices were 9.8% higher than a year earlier. Relative to the past several decades, inflation is rising and survey evidence shows that actual inflation exceeds the expected [...]

Historically, institutional investors have favored companies that own and operate traditional property types — office, retail, industrial, apartments, and lodging/resort. These “core” real estate assets are attractive investments for providing greater diversification, reliable income, and predictable yield. Today, market sentiment remains bullish, despite the major economic disruption in 2020. In 2021, the industry experienced record-high [...]

Mixed-Use History Mixed-use real estate has been a central theme in urban development since the reign of the Roman Empire, where apartment units were built over city marketplaces. Mixed-use is not a new planning or development option. Before industrialization, mixed-use property was common throughout the United States. Since walking was the primary means of transportation [...]

The Retreat at Lakeland is a 464-unit apartment community located in Lakeland, Florida. Covenant Capital Group is an expert at finding communities in need of attention and turning them into quality institutional assets. The experience at Retreat at Lakeland highlights both Covenant Capital Group’s expertise and the current market opportunities. The property was acquired in [...]

When the unexpected pandemic shocked the country in March 2020, strict quarantine mandates and shelter-in-place orders forced businesses to transition out of office space and restructure operations to a remote working platform. The office market and its users felt an immediate impact. The second quarter of 2020 marked the sharpest downturn in office market activity [...]

In the United States, the Treasury yield curve is the driver of all domestic interest rates — as all other domestic bond categories rise and fall with Treasuries. Equally as important as the current interest rates, investors everywhere pay close attention to predictions about where rates will go in the future. Virtually every investment calculation [...]

Academic Real Estate Research from the UF Warrington School of Business came out of a cannon to start 2021. Real Estate Economics, arguably the most prestigious academic real estate journal, presented four distinct articles in its first two issues that were co-authored by David Ling. Publishing four articles across two issues of a top academic [...]

It should come as no surprise that 2020 was a unique year in the construction industry. With strict lockdown mandates, remote working, and fear of virus infection, the country experienced a shock that rippled through the economy. News of the pandemic and realization of its potential impacts arrived at the end of the first quarter. [...]

The commercial real estate industry’s industrial sector has separated itself from the performance of all other sectors over recent years. As shown in Figure 1, warehouse total returns have outperformed total NCREIF Property Index (NPI) returns each year since 2011. Furthermore, since 2016, the industrial sector’s total returns dramatically exceeded that of all other sectors, [...]

Don’t Panic – But Plan No accusations, no admonishment, no requests to reverse progress, no blame, no trend extrapolation. Instead, let’s look at measured historical results and form a plan to protect our assets. In recent years, there have been many discussions and predictions about the future state of Florida’s coastal property. Some boldly predict [...]