China’s real estate market continues to face difficulty, Biden’s infrastructure development plans for the U.S. involve rehabilitation versus sweeping national buildouts, the value proposition of real estate in the metaverse is questioned, and more.
- The Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, signed into law in November 2021, will focus more on rehabilitating U.S. infrastructure than introducing large-scale development projects. (Jonathan English, Bloomberg)
- One of China’s healthiest real estate developers, Shimao Group, has reportedly defaulted, indicating further difficulty ahead for the country’s indebted real estate market. (Evelyn Cheng, CNBC)
- Construction material costs rose dramatically throughout 2021, causing projects to be retendered and businesses to close, but for the first time since September 2020, statistics released by the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) show that prices have flattened. (Joshua Stein, Construction News)
- Alasco, the cloud-based financial management platform for real estate projects that allows customers to connect data including budgets, costs, revenues, and ESG criteria with automated technology, raised $40 million in Series B funding. (PYMNTS)
- The proptech industry remains speculative of the future of buying and selling real estate in the metaverse, questioning how value would be realistically created and grow in such a virtual environment. (Philip Russo, Commercial Observer)
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