Commercial & Residential Property Blog

Two Tennessee condominium buildings have become the first recipients of green multifamily certification under the National Green Building Standard, the National Association of Home Builders announced Monday.

With many apartments around the world already approaching the size of small train stations, a development in Puntarenas, Costa Rica, raises the bar several notches with a unit billed as the “world’s largest penthouse.” Genesis Puntarenas will be topped with an apartment weighing in at 68,459-square feet, complete with helipad, tennis court and swimming pool, says Caspi International, the project’s Chicago-based developer. The price tag on the 10-bedroom, 14-bath apartment: $50 million.

In a move that caps five years of frenzied expansion, FirstService Real Estate Advisors and Colliers International have combined their operations and global real estate services platforms.

Philadelphia-based Campus Apartments, whose chief officer was named MFE’s 2009 Executive of the Year, recently expanded its third-party management portfolio to include 14 new properties.

New York real estate tycoon, Elie Hirschfeld, President of Hirschfeld Properties, LLC releases the following commentary on how to keep a business afloat while the commercial and residential markets continue to struggle, including short-term and long-term investment strategies he has implemented through the past three recessions.

Are home appraisal regulations that took affect last year just making things worse?

Trulia reports a decline in the number of home sellers lowering their asking prices at least once to 21 percent as of Jan. 1 from 22 percent in December and 25.6 percent in November, marking the lowest level since April. The average discount held steady at 11 percent.

With an estimated 3 million square feet coming up for lease renewal in the next few months in Miami, the competition among real estate professionals is fierce.

Real estate practitioners surveyed for Point2 Technologies’ December Real Estate Confidence Index were a little less optimistic than they were in November, but still the index was in positive territory at 5.91 on a 1- to 10-point scale.

With a new April 30 deadline in place for clients to take advantage of a federal home-buyer incentive, real estate practitioners now have slightly less than four months to get their qualified prospects under contract before the cut-off date.