Real Estate

How’s this for irony: Just days before President Trump announced a ban on institutional investors buying single-family homes, the American Real Estate and Urban Economics Association announced the winner of its annual award for best doctoral dissertation. The co-winner? A paper titled: “The Impact of Institutional Investors on Homeownership and Neighborhood Access” by NYU’s Josh Coven, who is now a professor of real estate at Baruch College in New York City. Here were the three key findings from Professor Coven’s paper: 1) "I find that institutional investors increase the quantity of rentals and lower rents on net because their ability to operate large portfolios at scale outweighs the incentive to use market power to decrease the rental supply." Translation: Institutions add rental supply and therefore put downward pressure on rents. And because rents are just one component of what really matters to investors (net income), scale turns out to be a win/win – lower costs for operators and lower rents for renters … not something to be feared as headlines often suggest. 2) "Institutional investors decrease the quantity of homes available for homeownership and raised prices, however the homeownership impact is 1/5th of what it would be if there were no supply response and the price impact is far below the observed association between institutional investor purchases and actual price increases." Translation: Yes, every sale – even at the margins – impacts home prices. But the impact is much less than people think. Additionally, Professor Coven found that even if institutional investors were not buyers, more than half those homes would have gone NOT to individual homebuyers, but to smaller investors. 3) "I find that renters from regions with lower median incomes, worse school test scores, and lower historic economic mobility move into institutional investor rentals." Translation: Aligning with other research on this topic, single-family rentals diversify neighborhoods with families who otherwise wouldn’t be able to afford to live there – providing upward mobility via access to better schools. Facts > Rhetoric. Lastly: I'm thrilled to share that Professor Coven graciously agreed to come onto The Rent Roll with Jay Parsons podcast this week. Hear directly from him in a new episode just released entitled: "Top 10 Myths About Institutional Investors in Housing."

BlackRock and aramco Sign Landmark $11 Billion Midstream Deal. Global Infrastructure Partners (GIP), a firm recently acquired by BlackRock, led a consortium of international investors, which included prominent institutional investors from Asia and the Middle East, to invest in Aramco's Jafurah midstream assets. This strategic transaction, one of the region’s largest lease and leaseback deals, stands out for its impressive scale and innovative structure. The deal is structured through a new entity, JMGC, which will acquire the development and usage rights for the assets through a 20-year lease agreement, and lease them back to Aramco. In return, JMGC will receive a fee from Aramco for the right to process, treat, and receive gas from the Jafurah field. Upon completion, Aramco is set to receive $11 billion in proceeds. This transaction values JMGC at a striking $22 billion, with Aramco retaining a 51% stake and the remaining 49% held by the GIP-led consortium. This landmark transaction is a clear sign of Saudi Arabia's growing appeal to global private capital. It highlights the Kingdom's ability to attract top-tier institutional investors seeking exposure to assets that offer strong, risk-adjusted returns. The involvement of a global giant like BlackRock, via GIP, indicates a deepening of financial ties between the world’s largest asset managers and key players in the Middle East's energy sector, and illustrates the maturity and increasing appeal of the GCC’s private markets. #saudi #privateequity #investing #realestate #investmentbanking

Investing ₹20 lakhs in an under-construction flat in Hyderabad could have made you ₹1 crore in 4 years. No, this isn’t a clickbait ad. It’s an actual deal that early buyers in a project I visited just exited from. ⸻ Last week, I flew to Hyderabad to meet Ajitesh Korupolu, founder of ASBL — a developer who’s building over 10,000 homes and scaled to ₹6,000 Cr in sales. I wanted to learn what real estate investors really do to make 2X, 3X, even 5X returns — and how everyday folks can do it too. Here are the 5 Things Nobody Tells You About Real Estate Investing in India: 1. Timing beats location. Buying during “excavation stage” (literally when the builder starts digging) gives the highest upside. In the project I saw: ₹1.2 Cr (early stage) → ₹2.2 Cr (ready to move in) That’s ₹1 Cr appreciation in 4 years. 2. Leverage is your friend — if you understand it. With just ₹20L down, buyers took home ₹1 Cr net after selling. Why? Because construction-linked loans mean you pay EMI only as the building goes up. 3. Ready-to-move-in = ready-to-trap-yourself. If you’re buying to invest, stop chasing finished flats. Capital is locked, returns are capped, rental yields are 2–3%. 4. Risk isn’t in the property. It’s in the builder. 30% of under-construction projects still face delays. Do this before investing: → Study builder’s past projects → Compare scale continuity → Understand their financing cycle 5. Hyderabad is exploding — for real. Amazon, Google, Apple are setting up their second-largest global HQs here. Tech jobs → housing demand → appreciation cycle → investor opportunity. ⸻ Real estate isn’t slow money. If you play it like the pros, it’s high-leverage, high-upside, timed risk. And I’m going to keep learning, testing, and sharing every play. Watch the full episode to learn it all. I'm adding the link in the comments. #rentvsbuy #realestate #investinginahome #hyderabad

I got a killer cold call from a real estate agent. Here’s a transcript of the call. Matt: “Josh, this is Matt. I’m an agent in Boca. Do you still own the home on Marbella Drive?” Me: “I do.” Matt: “I don’t suppose you’re looking to sell it?” Me: “I’m not. I like it here.” Game off for a second. Here’s the thing. When you knock on doors, most of the time people aren’t in buy mode. “I’m not interested in moving” isn’t an objection. It’s reality. Now check out the next thing Matt said. Game on. Matt: “Sounds like that’s your forever home.” My desire to correct kicked in. Me: “Well, I don’t know about forever home.” Opening created. Here was Matt’s ask: “Once a quarter, I send out an email about what homes in Boca Rio are selling for. If you’d like, I can add you to the list.” I said yes. Now Matt will be top of mind if I ever want to sell. When prospects tell you they’re happy with their current vendor, here’s some phraseology that might create an opening: “Sounds like they’re perfect.” “Seems like they check every box.” “Do you mind me asking, are there conditions in which you would consider reviewing your options?” If you want to be a better closer, be a better opener.

April 6th: A bright spring day in Germany, one that perfectly illustrates the need for battery storage systems. Like so many other sunny days, PV generation in Germany covered a large portion of the electricity demand for several hours in the middle of the day, thanks to the cloudless sky and millions of solar modules. But there is a darker side to the sunshine. Large amounts of daytime solar can overload the grid and cause severe electricity price fluctuations: on April 6th, intraday electricity prices dropped to -200€/MWh at their lowest point. In cases where more electricity is generated from solar energy than the grid can handle, grid operators regularly require solar installations to curtail their production. This means that energy that could otherwise be made available to consumers cannot be used. And when the sun goes down, most of the demand must quickly be met with flexible sources. This adds an extra layer of complexity: deciding which conventional power plants can be shut down during the day and switched on again in the evening is a careful balancing act. This is precisely the situation where battery energy storage systems (BESS) can bridge the gap, with several advantages: - By storing part of the solar energy at peak generation times and dispatching it later, BESS can help shift the curve to more closely align with evening demand. - Better management of volatile generation from renewables also helps keep prices stable. - Provided they are close to the overproducing solar systems, BESS contribute to grid stability by helping balance supply and demand. Of course, there is no one-size-fits-all technology. A secure and flexible energy system needs a diverse mix. But batteries are playing an increasing role, especially as they become more and more affordable. We at RWE are harnessing the benefits: we have 1.2 GW of installed BESS capacity worldwide, of which nine systems totalling 364 MW of capacity operate in Germany alone. We’re scaling fast, with new large-scale projects recently commissioned in Germany and the Netherlands. And we have just decided to build a BESS facility in Hamm with an installed capacity of 600 megawatts. So, let’s continue to make the most of those sunny days — by creating the right framework conditions to build up affordable and flexible support.

🇪🇺 vs. 🇺🇸 "𝗘𝘂𝗿𝗼𝗽𝗲 𝘀𝘂𝗰𝗸𝘀" How many times do we have to hear it? I get it, we have much work to do. But... I'm tired of the one-dimensional comparisons between the U.S. and Europe. Why? Because they’re always from the same type of people—young, tech, mostly single, childless men. Even though that almost describes me, let me provide another view ;) Take Ole Lehmann's post, comparing Silicon Valley salaries with Europe. There are only 26M developers worldwide—just 0.325% of the total population. Making these comparisons irrelevant for 𝟵𝟵.𝟲𝟳𝟱% of readers. Let’s do a quick comparison of San Francisco and Berlin. But in the context of a family of four. 𝗧𝗮𝘅𝗲𝘀 California: Federal and state taxes combined can hit 50.3%. Germany: 47.5%. Not a huge difference, but in Germany, you get bang for your buck: • Universal healthcare • Subsidized childcare • Free public education • Generous parental leave • Mandated vacation days • A higher pension 𝗟𝗶𝘃𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗖𝗼𝘀𝘁𝘀 San Francisco costs 78.1% more than Berlin (Numbeo). 𝗞𝗲𝘆 𝗘𝘅𝗽𝗲𝗻𝘀𝗲𝘀 • Healthcare: $22,221 (CA) vs. €7,300–€8,000 (DE). • Childbirth: $18,865 with health insurance vs. €2,000–€3,000 (DE).  • Childcare: $10,000–$15,000 (CA) vs. €1,000–€3,000 (DE). • Higher education: $35,000+ (CA) vs. €500–€2,000 (DE). • Parental leave: Typically unpaid (CA) vs. 14 months, ~65% income (DE). • Vacation: 10–15 days (CA) vs. 20–30 days (DE). • Property Tax: 0.74% of property value in California vs. 0.1–0.2% in Germany, with a 6% upfront Grunderwerbsteuer. • Mortgage Interest Rates: 6–7% in California vs. 3–4% in Germany. 𝗛𝗲𝗮𝗹𝘁𝗵 𝗖𝗼𝗻𝘀𝗶𝗱𝗲𝗿𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻𝘀 Almost 60% of American adults have a chronic disease, and 40% have multiple. Yet U.S. medical expenses are significantly higher. Sure, California offers higher salaries. But for families, Germany delivers a much more affordable lifestyle. For the young, healthy, and tech-savvy, the U.S. works until you want to settle down and raise a family. For the other 80%, Europe is in my opinion still better. Health over wealth any day. Agree? 

Lennar just made a $6 billion power play that could reshape the real estate industry. 👇🏾Here’s what it means for housing, land, and investors. 📢 Lennar, one of the nation’s largest homebuilders, just announced a bold move: They are spinning off $6 billion worth of assets into a newly formed REIT. This isn’t just a corporate restructuring—it’s a strategic shift that could redefine how major players operate in the real estate space. 🔑 Why It Matters: 1️⃣ Asset-Light Strategy: Lennar is embracing an asset-light approach, focusing on building and selling homes while letting the REIT acquire, entitle and sell land. 👉🏽 This reduces exposure to operational complexities while unlocking capital to fuel growth. 2️⃣ $6 Billion in Assets: Lennar will contribute between $5B and $6B in land assets, along with a homesite option purchase platform and up to $1B in cash, to Millrose. 3️⃣ Millrose will act as a land bank, acquiring, managing, and selling land back to Lennar and potentially other developers, on a “just-in-time” basis. 👉🏽 Unlike traditional land banks, Millrose will rely on recycled capital to fund its acquisitions, mitigating the need for constant fundraising and offering greater resilience during market downturns. What this means for the industry: 1️⃣ Land is King: Controlling land means controlling future supply. Lennar’s focus on entitlements—zoning, permits, and approvals—positions it to lead in a competitive market. 2️⃣ Strategic REIT Shift: Lennar’s asset-light model prioritizes land development over long-term asset management, flipping the traditional REIT playbook. 3️⃣ Maximized Flexibility: By shedding heavy assets, Lennar gains capital efficiency and sharper control over high-value development opportunities. ❗️The takeaway: Lennar’s move highlights a rising trend: land control and entitlement expertise are becoming the cornerstone of real estate innovation. 📩 Interested in how trends like these are impacting CRE? Sign up for CRE Daily newsletter- it’s one of the best. ———————————————— ➡️ I’m Logan Freeman, the #KansasCity #CRE Guy. 👉🏽 I can help you sell, buy, or invest in CRE in KC. 🫱🏾🫲🏼 Let’s talk, meet, and figure out how I or my team can help. #commercialrealestate #realestate #kansascity #brokerage

This is what progress looks like, and is another reason I'm optimistic about the energy transition. Scotland's first ever wind farm was re-powered last year, 30 years after it began operating. It now delivers five times more power – using half the number of turbines. Key details: ✅ Hagshaw Hill wind farm entered service in 1995 ✅ Originally 26 turbines (16 MW total) ✅ Re-powered with 14 new turbines (79 MW total) Not only that, but every blade from the original turbines was recycled into new construction material – replacing concrete, timber, and plastics. The local community fund will also receive a huge boost, rising to £400,000 per year – 26x its previous level. Wind turbine blade recycling has long been one of the trickier challenges for the industry, both technically and economically, but progress is accelerating quickly. RWE recently completed installation of the first recyclable blades at the Sofia offshore wind farm – the first time this has been done at scale in the UK. Clean energy technologies just keep improving, and we are now starting to address some of the trickier challenges like circularity. Circularity isn’t just about recycling waste – it’s about designing assets with their second life in mind.

🚨 Designing For Stress and Emergency. Practical guidelines on how to design time-critical products to prevent errors and drive accuracy ↓ 🚫 People can’t multi-task, especially in very stressful situations. 🤔 Stress disrupts attention, memory, cognition, decision-making. 🤔 Also, it's difficult to prioritize and draw logical conclusions. ✅ In stress, we rely on fast, intuitive judgments — not reasoning. ✅ It leads to instinctive responses based on established habits. ✅ Goal: design flows that support focus and high accuracy. ✅ Start with better default settings, values, presets, actions. ✅ High-priority first: order of actions and buttons matters. ✅ Break complex tasks in a series of simple steps (10s each). ✅ Add built-in safeguards to prevent irreversible errors (Undo). ✅ Shift users to single-tasking: ask for one thing at a time. ✅ More simpler pages might work better than 1 complex page. ✅ Suggest a step-by-step plan of action to follow along. ✅ Design and test flows for emergency response ahead of time. 🚨 Add emergency mode for instant alerts, task assignments. In times of stress and high pressure, some people make decisions hastily, while others get entirely paralyzed. Either way is a likely path to mistakes — often irreversible ones, and often without time for extensive deliberations. Ideally, these decisions would be made way ahead of time — and reused when needed. The critical job that designers must do well is to help people focus. And that means removing distractions first — non-critical notifications and navigation. Asking simple questions and prompting simple actions — one thing at a time. Alert colleagues to get involved with a single button. Initiate an emergency mode with a pre-made chain of actions. Most importantly, set up an annual day to stress test your product and refine emergency responses. To check if fallbacks work as expected. If people know the protocols to follow. And if current UX of the product helps people manage failures and exceptional situations well enough. Emergencies will happen eventually — it’s just a matter of time. With good design, we can help mitigate risk and control damage, and make it hard to make irreversible mistakes. At its heart, that’s what good UX is exceptionally good at. Useful resources: Designing The SOS Emergency System, by Ritik Jayy https://lnkd.in/eT3KkVtK Designing For Crisis, by Eric Meyer https://lnkd.in/e3CwNuV9 Designing For Stressed Out Users (Series), by H Locke https://lnkd.in/ew_65Km4 Designing For Stress (Podcast), by Katie Swindler https://lnkd.in/e3jkPr8K Designing For Edge Cases and Exceptions https://lnkd.in/eeyrpp7m Design For Real Life, by Sara Wachter-Boettcher, Eric Meyer https://dfrlbook.com #ux #design

The Coming Explosion of “Golden Girls Housing” Remember The Golden Girls—four older women famously sharing a Miami home? That sitcom setup isn’t just TV fiction anymore—it’s increasingly a savvy real-life model. Since 2006, the number of Americans over 65 sharing housing with unrelated roommates has grown 88%, from about 470,000 to 1 million. Driven by rising retirement costs (11 million older households—up from 8.8 million in 2011—spend at least 30% of their income on housing), shared housing is a smart way for older people, especially women, to regain autonomy while staying economically afloat. Given nearly 70% of single Americans over 50 are women, it’s not a surprise that older women are choosing to live together. In fact, half of women 65 and older are single.  But it’s more than savings. Loneliness is real—one in three adults over 45 reports feeling isolated—and shared living can reduce that in a big way. Senior cohousing communities cut isolation rates from 25% to less than 10% by rebooting everyday social life—shared meals, mutual care, and built-in support systems. From chopped housing bills to warm companionship (and a growing need for non-acute caretaking as we age), Golden Girls–style living answers both pocketbook and soul needs. It’s not nostalgia—it’s becoming a modern model for aging vibrantly, together.  And, this recent New York Times’ article, 11 Women, 9 Dogs, Not Much Drama (and No Guys) (https://nyti.ms/4oS3FQ5), captures the zeitgeist of this new housing movement. The article, which profiles a Texan tiny-house village (called The Bird’s Nest) of women ages 60-80, starts with these two sentences: “These retired women in Texas have been through infertility, illness, layoffs, addiction and disappointing marriages. Now they are trying to create a utopia just for themselves.” Later in the article, the journalist explains why she researched this story: “I traveled to The Bird’s Nest in mid-July because I had been searching for real-life examples of a fantasy I have had since my 20s. After child-rearing and a career, my friends and I would buy a big house somewhere affordable and cohabitate the way we had done in college: cooking and laughing and hanging out, chipping in for accessibility ramps and health-help as needed. This fantasy, or versions of it — aging among female friends — is rampant among the women I know. It circulates on Facebook groups.” As some of you know, my MEA cofounder Jeff Hamaoui developed Baja Sage (with me as the other investor), 26 homes around a regenerative farm just a mile from the MEA Mexican beachfront campus. We’re intending to do the same in Santa Fe with possibly a series of regenerative communities (not retirement communities) in the area. Stay tuned for more info on our Golden Girls homes which are more likely to be 4- and 5-bedroom homes than tiny houses. No doubt, there’s a growing need for this kind of housing.