HOT & RELEVANT TOPICS

What Do Biden’s Climate Goals Mean for the Industry

The president has made it clear he intends to be aggressive in addressing climate change. As a result, rental housing “is likely to be the target of a variety of new policies, standards and regulations,” writes Eileen Lee, vice president for energy and environmental policy at the National Multifamily Housing Council. The challenge confronting lawmakers will be to tackle climate change in a way that maintains housing affordability, she adds. That’s because the cost to property owners of meeting any Biden Administration climate laws and regulations will come not only “at a time when the nation’s economic recovery remains slow and housing remains in a fragile state, but also as development costs have continued to climb, slowing both investment and production activity, as demand swells.”

Read Eileen Lee’s article in Builder and Developer

Adaptive Reuse Projects Are Not Materializing

Since the spring of 2020, investors have been poised to buy vacant commercial real estate properties and transform them into new apartment communities. But despite the vast war chests they’ve accumulated for this purpose, there has been a noticeable lack of empty office buildings and hotels to purchase. That’s in part because owners of distressed properties in the office and hospitality sectors continue to negotiate with their lenders in the hope that the growing vaccination effort will allow the economy – and the occupancy levels in their buildings – to return to normal.

Read the story by Bendix Anderson in Wealth Management Real Estate

Selecting the Right Keywords for Apartment Marketing

Last year, the percentage of apartment prospects who used the internet to search for their next home reached an all-time high (97%). Considering that fact, it’s more critical than ever for operators to optimize their digital marketing efforts by selecting the right keywords to ensure their content reaches online searchers. The first step toward optimization is for operators to place themselves in their prospects’ shoes. Ask yourself, “‘What are my prospects searching for and how are they searching for it?”

Read Laura Calugar’s article in Multi-Housing News

IN THE NEWS

Getting Your Employees Vaccinated

As the COVID-19 vaccination effort continues to gather momentum, operators can finally foresee a day when onsite operations are able to return to something approaching normal. In the weeks ahead, many operators will face the decision about how to encourage associates to get a vaccine. According to the National Apartment Association, “employers have three options when it comes to handling a vaccine program in the workplace. Employers can mandate the vaccine in the workplace, with exceptions. Employers can motivate employees to receive the vaccine with incentives. Employers can also educate employees about the vaccine, which is the simplest and least complex way of handling the vaccine in the workplace.”

Read the story by the National Apartment Association

CDC’s Eviction Moratorium Declared Unconstitutional

A federal judge in Texas has ruled that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s eviction moratorium is unconstitutional. According to GlobeSt.com., U.S. District Judge John Barker said Congress does not have the authority to grant the CDC the power to stop evictions, and he also concluded that the federal moratorium could violate property owners’ rights under state law. Barker did not issue a preliminary injunction. The ruling is expected to be appealed to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit.

Read Erika Morphy’s article on GlobeSt.com

Operators Focus on Service-Oriented Amenities

In the current environment, with the need for social distance still in place, apartment communities are focusing less on amenities like gyms and event spaces and more on individual services. Personal training sessions via Zoom, Peloton bike rentals and mimosa-kit deliveries are just some of the ways that today’s operators are looking to drive resident satisfaction during the COVID era.

Read the story by Joe Bousquin in Multifamily Executive