Welcome to The Print, Blueprint's weekly curation of the most important things going on in real estate and construction technology. We hope our newsletter will keep you informed as we shine a light on the newest innovations and opportunities that exist in the built world.
- Investor purchases of single-family homes tumbled 29% last year, as higher interest rates and?record home prices?compelled even deep-pocketed investment firms to pull back.??(WSJ)
- Two prominent real estate agents?have started a new trade association in a direct swipe at the National Association of Realtors. The?new group headed by Jason Haber?and Mauricio Umansky is called?the?American Real Estate Association.?(NYT)?
- RXR is launching a $1B?fund to invest in New York City’s distressed office buildings, potentially heralding a new phase in the commercial real estate crisis. (FT)?The city's office buildings are worth more now than they were before the pandemic, according to new figures from New York's?Department of Finance. (Crain's NY Business)?A program to jumpstart the conversion of?46 NYC office buildings?into residential space is up and running.?(Axios)
- Cushman & Wakefield has launched a new suite of Microsoft AI products for its brokers to use to become more efficient and competitive.?(Bisnow)
- Phil Russo thinks that the churn in proptech could last for awhile:?"Firms going out of business, investors pulling back, big names gobbling littler ones."?(Commercial Observer)
- Retail experts say?young shoppers have helped malls bounce back after the pandemic, in part because the digital space has turned Gen Z into a generation that expects instant gratification.?(LA Times)
- Multifamily and hospitality are getting closer. Daniel Cohen asks?whether?the sectors on a path to come together, or whether?structural challenges will stand in the way. (Thesis Driven)?Is a pickleball court the next must-have amenity for multifamily buildings? (Racquetx)
- When the market turned in mid-2022, many real estate disruptors reoriented?their businesses to a new, challenging reality. Mike DelPrete notes that a?year and a half later most disruptors are still around, but remain in hibernation.?(MikeDP)
RAISES, BUILDS AND TEARDOWNS
- Bilt Rewards, whose platform aims to allow?consumers to earn rewards on rent and daily neighborhood?spend, has raised $200M?at a $3.1B valuation.?(Techcrunch)
- Blackstone?has agreed to take Canadian real estate firm Tricon Residential?private for $3.5B. (Reuters)
- Briq, which has built a platform for?construction companies to automate financial workflows, has raised $8M?in an extension round at a $150M?valuation. (Techcrunch)
- Brookfield Properties is handing off its day-to-day property management to CBRE in the spring. (Commercial Observer)
- Airbnb's new?Housing Council will advise the home-sharing company on policies and initiatives it can support to combat housing affordability and inventory issues. (Inman)
- Sealed, a New York City-based climate tech company specializing in home weatherization and electrification, recently closed $26.4M in new funding. (CRETI)
- Starwood Capital Group?has announced the launch of Starwood Digital Ventures, a platform dedicated to the Firm's growing global data center investment strategy.?(Press Release)
- PredictAP, a?machine-learning enabled invoice ingestion and coding solution for real estate accounts payable, closed its $8M Series A financing round.?(FINSMES)
NEWLY POSTED JOBS IN REAL ESTATE & TECH
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