Real Estate Buyer Preferences

💥 New homes are now CHEAPER than resale homes 💥   This marks a significant inflection point in the housing market, reversing the historical trend where new construction commanded a premium—often as much as 20% more than existing properties. The shift, which began during the pandemic with a narrowing of the price spread, has fully materialized over the past three months.   While new home prices can be influenced by changes in product offerings or location, our Zonda data, builder survey, and NewHomeSource.com trends all confirm that real price cuts are also occurring in the new home space.   Beyond the raw data, several additional factors make new homes even more compelling for buyers: - Lower insurance premiums. New homes typically incur lower insurance costs compared to existing properties due to modern building codes and materials. - Reduced maintenance. New construction offers a maintenance-free or lower-maintenance lifestyle, saving homeowners time and money on immediate repairs and upgrades compared to the resale market. - Enhanced energy efficiency. New homes are often more energy-efficient than existing homes, leading to lower utility bills and a reduced overall cost of living. - Attractive builder incentives. Builders continue to offer incentives (e.g. buydowns or design credits), providing extra perks to buyers that can further offset costs. Zonda Sarah Bonnarens Alexander Edelman Tim Sullivan Bryan Glasshagel Evan F. #housing #realestate #newhomes

The 15-minute city revisited: A GIS approach to measuring, visualizing, and analyzing accessibility by proximity and by public transport supply   In this new paper, I develop a comprehensive methodology and present the steps for measuring, visualizing, and analyzing x-minute accessibility by proximity (walking accessibility) and accessibility by public transport supply (accessibility potential created by nearby public transport services) using geographic information systems (GIS).   Five sequential steps are presented: (1) project definition, (2) data preparation, (3) measuring accessibility, (4) visualizing accessibility and insufficient accessibility, and (5) analyzing accessibility using spatial statistical analysis and modeling.   The methodology attempts to address previously discussed pitfalls of the 15-minute city (Mouratidis, 2024) and more specifically: 1. Limitations to strong decentralization: The methodology assesses proximity-based accessibility only to lower-order facilities, services, and places and not to specialized destinations such as specialized workplaces, specialized shops, specialized healthcare facilities, or higher education facilities. 2. Over-focusing on quantity instead of sufficiency: The methodology demonstrates ways to measure and visualize insufficient accessibility and lack of accessibility. 3. Improperly aggregating facilities into broad categories: The methodology keeps essential facilities separate and avoids improperly aggregating facilities into broad categories like healthcare, education, and recreation. 4. Disregarding public transport: The methodology integrates the assessment of accessibility potential realized through nearby public transport services into an x-minute accessibility framework. 5. Ignoring interpersonal differences in walking and cycling: The methodology focuses on walking to local destinations (e.g. shops, public transport stops) instead of cycling and sets a lower-than-average walking speed so that a larger part of the population is considered in accessibility analysis.   Read more: https://lnkd.in/dADsVNhZ

Adaptation & resilience are now central to climate finance discourse. On one hand, this is long overdue. On the other, this rising emphasis reflects a deeper failure: we have—and continue to—woefully underfund mitigation, with the disastrous consequences long predicted. It would be one thing if we were waking up to the need for adaptation while also doubling down on mitigation—the only means to fundamentally reduce risk. But we’re not. Attention is tilting toward adaptation/resilience without a coherent plan to fully decarbonize our global economy. That is a losing strategy. Adaptation is essential—and underfunded—but it has hard & imminent limits: - Insurers warn that climate volatility could collapse private insurance markets; public reinsurance will also become unsustainable. - Extreme heat will cross lethal thresholds, even in shade with water. - Coastal infrastructure cannot be endlessly elevated or protected. - Crop yields will decline; climate-resilient varieties have limits. - Tipping points—coral reef collapse, permafrost thaw, rainforest loss—are irreversible and non-adaptable. - Climate-smart technologies will be overwhelmed by compounding extremes. Financing adaptation & resilience is absolutely essential. But doing so while allowing emissions to rise fundamentally misses the point. And that’s where we are: - Emissions are rising when they must drop steeply & swiftly. - Clean energy investment is less than half of what’s needed annually. - Fossil fuel demand must fall, yet FF subsidies exceed global public climate finance. - Sea surface temperatures hit records in May 2025, and the ocean’s carbon sink is weakening, removing one of our last natural buffers. These trends will make adaptation more expensive, less effective, and eventually impossible. We must also be clear-eyed about market-driven adaptation. Capital will (appropriately) flow to protect asset value and to investments that generate returns - both are legitimate and important. But critical adaptation needs—like restoring tropical forests & protecting the most vulnerable—require robust public finance and will not be delivered by the market alone. None of this is new: - The International Energy Agency (IEA)’s Net Zero by 2050 report laid out a decarbonization roadmap we are failing to follow. - The Independent High Level Expert Group on Climate Finance quantified specific financing needs that were ignored in COP finance negotiations. - The IPCC warned that beyond 1.5/2°C, adaptation becomes increasingly ineffective or impossible. - Experts have LONG shown that with rising emissions, damages grow exponentially while adaptation benefits plateau—and that adaptation is already failing in sectors like agriculture and coastal defense. Let’s advance a coherent conversation on financing BOTH full decarbonization and adaptation, based on a rigorous understanding of how systemic decarbonization is achieved, and on the public/private financing needs for adaptation and resilience.

Neighborhood Industrious locations fill 3x faster than their downtown offices. It's not about amenities. It's about location: Jamie Hodari just joined the Yale Club. But not for the reasons you think. He walked right past it for 15 years. Said it was "too elitist" and "too stodgy." Then yesterday he signed up without hesitation. What changed? His office moved next door. This proximity revelation hit me hard during my recent conversation with Jamie, founder of Industrious (which CBRE acquired for $800M): We've been thinking about workplace wrong this entire time. Jamie put it perfectly: "Everything I had experienced as this quality or cultural distinction was really a commute distinction." Think about it: The average travel time to a gym people actually use? Just 4 minutes. Twenty minutes away? You'll basically never go. This isn't about fancy amenities. It's about proximity. For decades, offices got a free pass on this fundamental human behavior: People want essential parts of their lives within walking distance. The evidence is overwhelming: • Jamie noted their neighborhood Industrious locations fill 3x faster than downtown offices • Mixed-use developments are commanding record rents • Tech companies are opening satellite offices closer to where employees live • Buildings connected to residential areas outperform isolated towers Post-COVID, we've finally reached the breaking point. Workers won't tolerate: • 45-minute commutes • Disconnected business districts • Dead zones after 6pm • Separation from their actual lives They will show up for: • 10-minute walks • Neighborhood integration • All-hours vibrancy • Seamless life integration As Jamie told me: "Workplaces got off scot-free for a very long time. I think they're just getting closer to the other places people use in their life, which is they want them damn close to their house." That's why he's now a Yale Club member despite the Winchester sofas in the locker room. Not because he suddenly loves the ambiance. Because he can actually use it. The future of office isn't about bringing people "back to the office." It's about bringing offices back to where people actually live. This isn't a trendy post-pandemic shift. It's a fundamental reconnection with how humans have always preferred to live and work. The winners in commercial real estate won't just be quality buildings. They'll be quality buildings in the right locations. What's your maximum commute tolerance these days? P.S. Check out the full interview with Jamie in the comments.

Reducing #emissions alone is no longer enough. Climate #adaptation must be elevated as a core pillar of global #resilience strategies as it is becoming a pressing economic reality: 🌍 Even under a net-zero scenario, global GDP is projected to shrink by 8% relative to a baseline without climate change, according to the latest NGFS Phase 5 projections. This marks a significant downgrade from Phase 4, amounting to an additional USD1.24 trillion in global economic losses by 2050. 🌊 In Europe, flood-related damages under the most ambitious transition scenario could reduce household disposable income by USD107,000, with highly uneven impacts across countries. Developing economies face even greater human and economic losses—91% of climate-related fatalities occur in these regions, despite only 29% of disasters happening there. 💰 Adaptation finance is vastly underfunded. While the annual funding need is projected at USD387bn by 2030, only USD63.5bn was mobilized as of 2022—leaving a USD323.5bn gap. Funding is also unevenly distributed, deepening regional disparities in resilience capacity. 🛡️ Insurance coverage is critically lacking, particularly in developing economies. China and India face insurance gaps of 94% and 93%, respectively—driven by low insurance penetration rates (China: 1.2%; India: 0.6%). Even in advanced economies, coverage depends heavily on disaster preparedness and risk-sharing frameworks. 🏛️ Public sector leadership is essential—not only as regulator and financier, but as a catalyst for private capital. Blended finance can de-risk adaptation projects, enabling private investment in resilience initiatives that would otherwise remain unfunded. 🇺🇸 In advanced economies, national insurance schemes play a vital role. U.S. examples like Florida’s Citizens Property Insurance Corporation and the California Earthquake Authority show how public programs can ensure affordability and sustainability in the face of increasing climate threats. The conclusion is clear: Adaptation is not a secondary concern—it is an economic necessity. We must address the widening resilience gap with the same urgency and scale as mitigation. #ClimateEconomics #GlobalResilience #ClimateRisk #BlendedFinance #InsuranceGap #SustainableDevelopment #PublicPolicy #ClimateAdaptation #NGFS #Ludonomics #AllianzTrade #Allianz

In Berlin we came across this sign after discovering that the lift at the station wasn’t working. What really stood out was how clearly the alternative was explained. With a quick call or by using the Berliner Verkehrsbetriebe (BVG) Muva app, an accessible vehicle would come and take you to the next barrier-free station at no extra cost.  It made me think about London, where Transport for London also has a policy in place. If a station is inaccessible because of a broken lift or you're not able to get to the station, they’re supposed to arrange a taxi to the nearest accessible station. On paper, this is amazing. But the reality is often much more frustrating. The problem is that you can’t just flag down any taxi. It has to be booked through their contracted supplier. Which means you’re stuck waiting until their chosen vehicle turns up. I had to use this a couple of years ago. What should have been a 10-minute taxi ride turned into a two-hour wait. By the time the taxi finally arrived, my entire day had been thrown off. I explained to the driver what had happened. They felt so bad about the situation that instead of dropping me at a station, they drove me all the way home. That small act of kindness softened the frustration a little. And since then, I've had similar experiences. The difference in Berlin couldn’t have been clearer. We downloaded the app, booked the ride and within 17 minutes an accessible bus pulled up. I was strapped in securely and because it was a bus, my whole group could ride along too. We got to the next station smoothly and without stress. Both cities have accessibility policies, but Berlin’s actually works in practice. London’s feels in many cases unhelpful, even though the intention behind it is good. ID: A blue sign is displayed inside a Berlin train station, offering information about what to do if the lift is out of order. The sign has both German and English text. It provides a phone number and QR code for BVG Muva, a service that arranges accessible transport to the next barrier-free station. On the left side, there is a symbol showing a lift with a red cross through it, and on the right, a small van icon with the DB (Deutsche Bahn) logo above it. The text explains that passengers can book BVG Muva without extra cost when a lift is broken or unavailable. 

What does accessible travel actually look like? 👀♿️ As someone who travels the world, I’ve learned that “accessibility” is often an afterthought, if I’m lucky to find it at all. Take Vegas, for example. Many interchanges don’t allow you to cross roads in a traditional sense - you’re directed to bridge walkways with escalators and lifts. Sounds manageable, right? Except those lifts are frequently out of order. This leaves me, a manual wheelchair user, relying on the kindness of friends, family, or even strangers to physically carry me to where I need to go. Imagine for a moment how undignified and unsafe that feels. Now imagine what happens to those who use power wheelchairs or don’t have someone to help. This isn’t just a Vegas problem. It’s London’s Underground with its endless stairs and “step-free” stations that are rarely functional. It’s New York’s subway, where only 25% of stations are accessible. It’s cities across the world that promise inclusivity but deliver scraps. Travel is sold as a luxury, a joy. But for disabled people, it’s often a gamble between risk and frustration. The glamorous photos you see don’t show the real story: the exhaustion, the fear of being stranded, and the constant battle for access to something as basic as transport 😓. Accessible travel isn’t just about installing lifts or ramps - it’s about maintaining them, planning with disabled people in mind, thinking beyond mobility related access and holding transport systems accountable. If you’re non-disabled, I encourage you to ask: Would I accept this as my daily reality? If not, why should we? Let’s chat in the comments! ⬇️

A New Wave of Dubai & Saudi Buyers Is Quietly Moving Into Marbella — And It’s Reshaping the Market. Something big is happening in the Marbella luxury property scene… and very few people are talking about it. Over the last 12–18 months, there has been a significant rise in buyers from Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Riyadh and Jeddah choosing Marbella as their second-home destination in Europe. And this trend is accelerating fast. Here’s why: 🌍 1. Dubai & Saudi Families Want a European Base High-net-worth buyers are looking for: Security Lifestyle Privacy Stability Mild climate Access to Europe Marbella delivers all of this — in one place. ✈️ 2. Easy Travel & New Flight Routes Travel time from Dubai/Jeddah to Málaga: 5.5–6.5 hours — ideal for: Weekend escapes Summer holidays Multi-trip family usage Remote working Saudi & UAE airlines are adding more routes every year. 🏡 3. Marbella’s Ultra-Luxury Market Matches GCC Expectations Buyers from the Gulf want the same things they enjoy at home: Private gated communities Large villas Sea views Concierge lifestyle Discretion High-end dining & retail Marbella’s Golden Mile, Sierra Blanca, Puente Romano and La Zagaleta check every single box. 📈 4. Long-Term Wealth Strategy GCC buyers are increasingly diversifying wealth into: Prime European real estate Golden Visa residency options Hard assets outside the region High-yield holiday rental markets Marbella offers a strong blend of capital growth + lifestyle + rental returns. ☀️ 5. Marbella Offers What Dubai Cannot: Summer Escape Many GCC families look for cooler summer climates. Marbella’s Mediterranean weather is a perfect seasonal complement to Gulf heat. 🤝 6. The Cross-Market Connection Is Real Dubai → Marbella Saudi → Marbella This flow of interest is now one of the strongest emerging trends in European luxury property. And it will continue to grow through 2025–2030 as both regions expand: Wealth migration Global mobility International investment appetite Cross-border living This is just the beginning. #Marbella #DubaiInvestors #SaudiInvestors #GCCWealth #LuxuryRealEstate #CostaDelSol #GoldenMile #PuenteRomano #LaZagaleta #SpainProperty #WealthMigration #GlobalInvestors #RealEstateTrends #ListGlobal #NeilsonCapital #ThePropertyGroup

Energy efficiency isn’t just about reducing costs; it’s about building resilience and competitive advantage in a volatile energy world. The latest IEA report shows a paradox: global investment in efficiency is rising, yet progress is only 1.8% annually, less than half the COP28 target of 4%. This gap is a massive opportunity for businesses ready to act. Efficiency is no longer an operational detail; it is a boardroom priority. Organizations that treat it as strategic infrastructure, not overhead, are gaining margins competitors cannot match. Companies implementing energy management systems achieve 11–30% savings in their first year. Industrial motor upgrades boost performance by 40%. Heat pumps cut process energy demand by 75%.  Payback periods run 3 to 5 years for buildings and under 10 for industry. Emerging markets like India and Africa are embedding efficiency into growth strategies, while mature markets offer advanced tech and financing ecosystems. Success means adapting to local dynamics. Digital intelligence is transforming energy audits into real-time decision tools. Efficiency is now risk management, resilience, and a signal of maturity to investors. The companies that act today will define competitive advantage for the next decade.  Let’s accelerate together.