Real Estate

🌎 Designing Cross-Cultural And Multi-Lingual UX. Guidelines on how to stress test our designs, how to define a localization strategy and how to deal with currencies, dates, word order, pluralization, colors and gender pronouns. ⦿ Translation: “We adapt our message to resonate in other markets”. ⦿ Localization: “We adapt user experience to local expectations”. ⦿ Internationalization: “We adapt our codebase to work in other markets”. ✅ English-language users make up about 26% of users. ✅ Top written languages: Chinese, Spanish, Arabic, Portuguese. ✅ Most users prefer content in their native language(s). ✅ French texts are on average 20% longer than English ones. ✅ Japanese texts are on average 30–60% shorter. 🚫 Flags aren’t languages: avoid them for language selection. 🚫 Language direction ≠ design direction (“F” vs. Zig-Zag pattern). 🚫 Not everybody has first/middle names: “Full name” is better. ✅ Always reserve at least 30% room for longer translations. ✅ Stress test your UI for translation with pseudolocalization. ✅ Plan for line wrap, truncation, very short and very long labels. ✅ Adjust numbers, dates, times, formats, units, addresses. ✅ Adjust currency, spelling, input masks, placeholders. ✅ Always conduct UX research with local users. When localizing an interface, we need to work beyond translation. We need to be respectful of cultural differences. E.g. in Arabic we would often need to increase the spacing between lines. For Chinese market, we need to increase the density of information. German sites require a vast amount of detail to communicate that a topic is well-thought-out. Stress test your design. Avoid assumptions. Work with local content designers. Spend time in the country to better understand the market. Have local help on the ground. And test repeatedly with local users as an ongoing part of the design process. You’ll be surprised by some findings, but you’ll also learn to adapt and scale to be effective — whatever market is going to come up next. Useful resources: UX Design Across Different Cultures, by Jenny Shen https://lnkd.in/eNiyVqiH UX Localization Handbook, by Phrase https://lnkd.in/eKN7usSA A Complete Guide To UX Localization, by Michal Kessel Shitrit 🎗️ https://lnkd.in/eaQJt-bU Designing Multi-Lingual UX, by yours truly https://lnkd.in/eR3GnwXQ Flags Are Not Languages, by James Offer https://lnkd.in/eaySNFGa IBM Globalization Checklists https://lnkd.in/ewNzysqv Books: ⦿ Cross-Cultural Design (https://lnkd.in/e8KswErf) by Senongo Akpem ⦿ The Culture Map (https://lnkd.in/edfyMqhN) by Erin Meyer ⦿ UX Writing & Microcopy (https://lnkd.in/e_ZFu374) by Kinneret Yifrah

Annualized rent growth continued its rapid descent in August as expected, and could hit negative territory here in September. And this time truly is different: For the first time in multiple decades, rents are cooling to near zero at the same time demand remains healthy. How? Three simple reasons -- supply, supply, supply. Effective asking rents increased just 0.28% year-over-year as of August, down from 11% one year earlier, with change measured on a same-store basis. Month-over-month, effective asking rents were down (even if ever so slightly) for the first time in 2023 at -0.06%. Monthly rent change is highly seasonal and typically slows in late summer each year. But continuing a pattern that began a year ago, rent changes are coming in below normal even on a seasonally adjusted basis. Typically, rents fall when vacancy increases. And vacancy did jump notably from record lows early 2022 to more normal levels by late 2022. BUT vacancy rates have been pretty stable since the calendar turned to 2023 -- inching back just 30 bps between January and August as demand has improved (though nothing like the blistering pace of 2021) following a sluggish 2022. Vacancy now measures a more normal-ish 5.5%. Compare that to the two prior periods over the last 25 years (excluding the 2020 pandemic year) when rents went flat to negative-- In the early 2000s and again in 2009, rents fell as vacancy hit 7-8%. So it doesn't take much digging to see why rents have cooled so fast. It's all about supply. There's solid demand, but even more supply. Apartment construction is at the highest levels in more than 40 years. More supply availability has rapidly shifted the balance of power in favor of renters finding better deals to move, and operators are responding by giving on price in order to protect occupancy and cashflow. Not coincidentally: The impact is greatest where supply is greatest. On a submarket level, the areas with the most supply are seeing the biggest impact to rents. And the areas with the least supply are still seeing solid rent growth. Market lists and rankings to come, but here's a sneak peak: Of the nation's top 50 largest markets, 24 are now seeing year-over-year rent cuts. And only seven markets saw rent growth of 3% or more -- all lesser-supply markets in the Midwest or Northeast regions. It's all about supply. And it won't last forever. New starts are slowing dramatically, which means much less supply by the second half of 2025 and into 2026, which should lead to a rent rebound. Also: With the lag effect, the rent slowdown won't show up materially in CPI until early 2024. But it'll happen. The CPI Rent number won't be negative by then, but it will look a lot more pedestrian than today. #rents #apartments #multifamily #CPI

Why Zoning is Civil Rights Work When most people hear the word zoning, they think about technicalities: setbacks, height limits, density allowances. It sounds dry, like something only planners or lawyers care about. But here’s the truth: zoning is not neutral. It’s about who gets to live where, and under what conditions. Which means zoning is civil rights work. A Tool of Exclusion Zoning has long been used to draw invisible lines that separated people by race and class. -Early 20th-century zoning explicitly barred Black families from white neighborhoods until the Supreme Court outlawed it in 1917. -When race-based zoning was struck down, cities pivoted to “exclusionary zoning”, large-lot single-family requirements, bans on apartments, and parking mandates. The effect was the same: keeping certain people out. -Combined with redlining and urban renewal, zoning became a powerful tool for segregation and disinvestment. The legacy is visible today. In many cities, the neighborhoods with the best schools, green space, and transit are zoned for single-family homes only, shutting out renters, working-class families, and first-generation buyers. Why Reform Matters Now When we talk about equity in housing, zoning is often left out of the conversation. But it shapes everything else: -Housing access. If only single-family homes are allowed, and those homes start at $500K, who can afford to move in? -Opportunity. Zoning dictates whether a child grows up near strong schools, jobs, and transit, or in an isolated area with fewer resources. -Affordability. Allowing duplexes, triplexes, and small multi-family homes can open the door to more affordable options without subsidies. In other words, zoning is not just land use policy. It’s opportunity policy. Zoning as Repair If zoning has been used as a tool of exclusion, it can also be a tool of repair. Reform doesn’t mean eliminating single-family homes. It means giving communities more choices: -Legalizing missing middle housing like duplexes, fourplexes, and accessory dwelling units. -Reducing parking requirements that inflate costs and limit walkability. -Supporting mixed-use neighborhoods that connect housing to small businesses, schools, and services. When we talk about housing as a civil rights issue, we can’t only talk about programs and subsidies. We have to talk about the rules that shape the very ground we build on. The Call Take Away Zoning may look like a technical detail, but it determines who belongs where. And that makes it one of the most important levers we have for building equitable cities. Civil rights isn’t only about who can vote or who can ride the bus. It’s also about who gets to live in safe, affordable, opportunity-rich neighborhoods. If we want to live up to our values, zoning reform has to be part of the civil rights agenda. What’s one zoning rule in your city that you think needs to change?

I've been going to real estate conferences for over a decade. Here's what actually works (and what doesn't): Most people waste thousands of dollars and hundreds of hours because they approach these events completely wrong. With events season coming up, here's what actually works: 1/ The 3-Week Rule: Most people wait until they're at the conference to start networking. That's too late. Your highest ROI outreach window is 3 weeks before the event. Too far out, and people haven’t started thinking about the event yet. But wait too long, and the best prospects are already booked up. Use the sponsor list, speaker roster, and attendee directory to identify your targets. Cold emails mentioning shared attendance convert way better than generic outreach. 2/ Get The Cell Numbers: This sounds obvious, but many people don’t do it. LinkedIn connections are fine. Email exchanges are better. But cell phone numbers? That's where real relationships happen. When someone says, "let's connect at the event," immediately ask: "What's your cell? I'll text you that day." 3/ Control The Location: Many startups are tempted to spend tens of thousands of dollars on an expensive booth on the show floor. But the branded happy hour at the bar across the street? That's where deals actually happen. After-hours events are way more valuable than anything during official programming. People are relaxed. Guards are down. Conversations go deeper. Here's what most vendors get wrong: they think the goal is to pitch at the event. Wrong. The goal is to collect contact info and schedule follow-up calls for the week after. Nobody is making purchasing decisions while they're rushing between sessions and trying to remember if they validated their parking. Here’s what you should do: • Before: Prospect the attendee list 3 weeks out • During: Get cell numbers and schedule post-event calls • After: Follow up within 48 hours while you're still fresh in their mind The conference itself is just the excuse to start the conversation. The real work happens in the weeks before and after. P.S. Our Selling Into Real Estate Owners course is a must for anyone heading to real estate events. It covers this and a lot more, from identifying your customer to building your sales funnel. Link is in the comments.

I lost £35k on the sale of my first home because of one simple mistake. Don't make the same error as me: 1. Strategic timing matters. Sell in summer when your home looks its best and yards are in bloom. The real estate market fluctuates dramatically, so once you have an offer, move quickly toward closing. Our costly mistake? Pushing for a 6-month closing timeline, leaving too much time for market conditions to change. When market sentiment shifted, our buyer's lender reappraised the property lower. 2. Small investments yield big returns. Spend a few hundred dollars on fresh paint, minor repairs, and professional cleaning. These small touches can add thousands to your final sale price by creating a move-in-ready impression. The ROI on pre-sale improvements is often 5-10x your investment. Focus on kitchens and bathrooms - they sell homes faster and for more money than any other area. 3. Create competitive bidding situations. Host open houses during limited timeframes (1-2 hour windows). When multiple buyers view simultaneously, they see the competition firsthand. This perception of demand creates urgency and drives up offers. A good agent will leverage this energy to negotiate between multiple interested parties. I used Highcastle - and they were great. 4. Thoroughly verify your buyer's financing. Don't just accept "pre-approved" at face value. Our mistake was not digging deeper into our buyer's mortgage situation. The longer the process drags on, the more time for financing circumstances to change. Request proof of funds or a mortgage pre-approval letter. For those using Islamic home financing, this verification is even more critical as the process can involve additional steps. 5. Compress your timeline as much as possible. The probability of a sale falling through increases dramatically with time. Between agreement and closing, countless variables can change: mortgage rates, buyer circumstances, and home appraisals. Each week that passes represents a risk to your sale price. Push for 30-60 day closing windows whenever possible. The painful lesson: What began as a £35k premium evaporated because we opted for a distant closing date. Have you experienced something similar with real estate timing? Share your story below.

Moody‘s expecting massive losses for US office properties 🙄 Bloomberg reports on the latest gloomy forecast for a battered sector: "Office-vacancy rates are expected to rise to 24% from 19.8% in 1Q2024 in 🇺🇸, reducing revenue for office landlords by between $8 billion and $10 billion when combined with the impact of lower rents and lease turnovers, the authors of the report said. That, in turn, could translate into 'property value destruction' in the range of $2️⃣5️⃣0️⃣ billion, according to Todd Metcalfe, Moody's associate director of commercial real estate (CRE) forecasting, and Thomas LaSalvia PhD, Moody’s head of CRE economics. The figures illustrate the gloomy prospects faced by property owners and lenders as employers continue to jettison square footage or shift from multi-year leases to shorter-term and more flexible co-working arrangements. A full 8️⃣5️⃣% of North American organizations polled by brokerage JLL have implemented hybrid work, and occupancy across offices in major US cities is stuck at about 5️⃣0️⃣% of pre-pandemic levels. Wavering demand and increased borrowing costs have slammed office valuations, especially among older buildings. 'The argument for maintaining or even increasing remote work practices remains compelling for many businesses,' the Moody’s authors said. 'If productivity remains stable and costs can be reduced by forgoing physical office spaces, the rationale for mandating in-office attendance diminishes.' Moody’s analysis focused on white-collar sectors that have highest work-from-home rates and also account for the lion’s 🦁 share of office property in the US, such as the finance, information, real estate and administrative sectors. It controlled for those who worked from home before the pandemic, and accounted for the ongoing decline in office space allotted per worker, which began after the 2008 financial crisis and has accelerated since then. 💡 Using multiple sets of government and academic data including the Survey of Working Arrangements and Attitudes, Moody’s determined that office workers today need about 1️⃣4️⃣% less office space than they did before the pandemic. The figure corresponds to research from the McKinsey Global Institute, which concluded that there will be 1️⃣3️⃣% less demand for office space in a typical city globally by 2030. McKinsey & Company also found that office-property values will decline by anywhere between $800 billion and $1.3 trillion over that time period. Eventually, the Moody’s authors said, vacancy rates will plateau as enough offices are torn down or converted to other uses like warehouses or residential property. 'Right-sizing will continue over the next decade as the market shakes out less efficient space for flexible floorplans that support our relatively new working habits,' the report said." (+++Opinions are my own. Not investment advice. Do your own research.+++) Tap the bell 🔔 to subscribe to my profile & you'll be notified when I post. 💸

There's something potentially remarkable brewing in the U.S. apartment market right now, and it's all about demand. Data for 2nd quarter 2024 shows that renter appetite is not only strong, but arguably downright impressive. In the year-ending 2nd quarter 2024, nearly 400,000 market-rate apartment units were absorbed on net. How does that compare historically? Nearly off the charts strong. There are 98 quarterly readings on this chart dating back to 2000, and the year-ending 2Q24 figure is the 8th largest absorption figure on record. This is actually the third-largest figure on record (behind 3Q18 and 4Q00) if you remove the pandemic era peak (mid-2021 to mid-2022). But even including the once-in-a-lifetime pandemic era demand boom, the past 12 months' worth of demand ranks in the top 10th percentile dating back to 2000. This recent demand surge defies the prevailing thought that job growth is the be-all and end-all driver of housing demand. It's so much more than that, and one of the reasons why I'd argue it's vitally important to look at a holistic set of driving factors. Demographics, wage growth, pent-up demand, immigration, and consumer health among a myriad of unmentioned factors. This is one of the reasons why RealPage's market forecasts rely on a dozen-plus additional exogenous variables beyond job growth. Perhaps the BIGGEST thing that appears to be flying in the face of conventional wisdom though? Household formation. I'll tease this for a forthcoming post later this month, but get this: the mean # of residents per new lease agreement through May 2024 is the LOWEST figure since 2016. In other words, households aren't doubling up. If anything, the data might suggest that they're dissolving which means new household formation is happening outside of job growth-driven demand. (More on this idea later in July!) Assuming that 3Q24 is otherwise "normal" (meaning about 100k units will be absorbed) then that will push the trailing 12 month figure above 400,000 which was only recorded on one other occasion outside of the pandemic era.

Another short clip from my recent episode of Frankly Speaking with Viral. In this clip, I shared why India’s office market continues to show resilience and promise - even amidst global uncertainty, AI disruption, and US recessionary sentiment. India’s macro positioning is strong. Despite ongoing tariff discussions and geopolitical shifts, the country has managed these challenges with remarkable maturity. While much of the global attention has been on manufacturing, India’s strength remains in services - and the fundamentals haven’t been shaken. Even in a future if tariffs touch services, India’s overall cost advantage remains significant. Talent, real estate, telecom, and operational costs combined are still only 20% of what companies would spend in Western economies. That edge isn’t going away anytime soon. Most of our supply chain for commercial real estate is now domestic — with very less input materials sourced internationally. This insulation gives us an added layer of resilience. The narrative around AI is evolving fast. Indian IT firms are already retraining millions of engineers in AI skills. We’ve seen this cycle before - Y2K, cloud etc - every disruption has led to retraining, reinvention, and ultimately, growth. AI is no different. Disruption = Demand. Each shift creates new needs - in office spaces, in digital infrastructure. The COVID disruption birthed hybrid work models and e-commerce growth, and with it, new forms of real estate demand. AI will bring its own. India offers scale, flexibility, and built-in business continuity across regions. In today’s volatile world, that’s a strategic advantage. In this landscape, commercial real estate in India - especially office space - isn’t just holding up. It’s becoming a critical platform for global growth.

DLF, Godrej, Ganga Realty …. “500 sq. ft., 1000 sq. ft., 1 acre… these numbers & names echo in my ears more than ever. Did you know 70% of India’s wealth is in real estate? No wonder the industry is evolving faster than ever! Why is Real Estate the Wealth Magnet? With 70% of India’s wealth parked in real estate, the sector remains a high-confidence investment. As it is seen as a quick-return asset with strong long-term gains. Research backs it up : ✔ $1 trillion by 2030—That’s the projected size of India’s real estate market. It’s No Longer Just About Selling—It’s About Advising, Educating & Creating Trust Still a cup of tea with a tailored conversation wins hearts and money for sales consultants. The #1 Skill: Mastering High-Impact Conversations The real differentiator in real estate? Communication. Top professionals don’t just talk—they talk with impact. Here’s how to do it, backed by research from some of the best books on communication: Handling Tough Client Conversations (From “Crucial Conversations” by Patterson, Grenny, McMillan, Switzler) How to do it: • Before discussing a high-stakes deal, create psychological safety—start by stating mutual goals (e.g., “My goal is to help you find the best property at the best value”). • If a client is resistant, use contrasting (e.g., “I’m not saying you should rush; I’m saying I can help you explore the best options within your timeframe”). Making Your Pitch More Powerful (From “Talk Less, Say More” by Connie Dieken) How to do it: • Structure your pitch in three layers: • Intent: Why is this property a great fit • Impact: What value does it offer? • Call to Action: What should the client do next? • Use punchy, concise statements instead of long-winded explanations (e.g., instead of “This is a good investment because…”, say “This property has appreciated 15% in two years—here’s why it’s a smart buy.”). 3️⃣ Negotiating Like a Pro (From “Never Split the Difference” by Chris Voss) How to do it: • Use mirroring to make clients feel heard (repeat the last few words they say: Client: “I’m not sure about this area.” You: “Not sure about this area? What concerns you the most?”). • Apply the labeling technique to defuse objections (e.g., “It sounds like you’re worried about resale value—let’s explore the data on long-term appreciation here”). Why This Matters? Real estate success today isn’t just about having the best properties—it’s about having the best conversations. From chai-time deals to game-changing conversations— Cheers to my clients ❤️ I get to train top real estate pros on the art of selling without ‘selling’ What’s the trickiest client conversation you’ve ever had? Let’s hear it! #training #sales

AI isn’t just designing buildings — it’s transforming real estate at scale. Would you agree? Imagine walking through your dream apartment before it exists. Seeing every corner staged perfectly, every detail optimized, every design choice made smarter — all before a single brick is laid. AI is now helping developers: ✨ Generate 10+ floor plan options in minutes ✨ Stage apartments virtually — saving up to $20,000 per unit on furniture and photography ✨ Create cinematic walkthroughs — boosting engagement by 3x ✨ Predict market demand and ROI — increasing project success rates by 25% Here’s how AI is impacting homes and properties: 🏠 Average apartment can be fully designed and visualized in 48 hours instead of weeks 📈 Virtual staging increases online listings click-through rates by 60% 💰 Developers report 10–15% faster sales cycles with AI-powered marketing 🏡 AI can optimize space — up to 12% more usable area per floor plan 🌎 Predictive analytics can choose locations with 30% higher rental yield potential The future of real estate isn’t just about buildings — it’s about experiences, speed, and intelligence. If you’re in property, architecture, or design, the question isn’t whether AI will change your work… it’s how fast you’ll adapt. #AI #PropTech #RealEstateInnovation #FutureOfDesign #Architecture #DigitalTransformation #SmartHomes