From the rise of crowdfunded property investments, to how Snapchat is changing the office real estate game, we’ve rounded up some of the latest news to help you stay at the center of what’s happening in CRE.
In February, CrowdStreet, a crowdfunding website for CRE, hit a one-month record of $47 million in capital raised, adding to the over $500 million in investments it’s raised since launching in 2014. Today, more than 112,000 investors and 275 CRE operators and developers are on the CrowdStreet platform.
CRE firms are benefiting from the growing popularity of CrowdStreet and other crowdfunding platforms because it diversifies their network of investors. This new model that welcomes smaller investors to the industry can give brokers more opportunities to begin longtime relationships with new, up-and-coming property owners.
In the modern workforce, many people are able to work from anywhere as long as they get the job done. This trend began with startups and is now embraced by corporations like IBM and AT&T. One major example is Snap (Snapchat’s parent company), which has taken this trend a step further, choosing to forgo a central headquarters entirely. This is remarkable because it’s the only one of the 10 California-based technology companies with the biggest IPOs of the last 15 years to go public without a headquarters.
Snap has acknowledged the possible risks of not having a central headquarters, including employee oversight and a lack of in-person interaction affecting team morale. But if more companies follow Snap’s suit—moving away from central headquarters and large office spaces—brokers focusing in office spaces may need to shift their strategies as well. Soon, a broker may need to convince a potential tenant of the benefits of having a central office space at all before explaining the benefits of a specific space.
Landed, an organization that partners with investors to help educators purchase homes, has received a healthy round of Series A funding–$7.5 million. So far, they’ve helped over 200 educators buy homes in San Francisco, Denver, and Seattle, and with this funding, plan to expand to more cities and partner with higher education institutions.
Through Landed, more low-income to middle-class educators can have the chance to live in cities that are otherwise unaffordable for them. With greater buying power, educators in these cities can have a major impact on local businesses like mid-level retail, grocery stores, and restaurants. Businesses that appeal to this demographic may see a boom in the cities Landed serves, and will likely begin buying and leasing more space.
