At the Juncture of Real Estate and Technology

  As vaccines continue to roll out across the country, a few friends (some overseas) want to get ahead of the recovery and invest in the US real estate. They are reluctant to own real properties due to “hassles” associated with property management. So they ask if it makes sense to invest in REIT stocks on the public market. It’s a tough question, because it is not a simple Yes or No question and there aren't any right or wrong answers, plus it depends a lot on the investor's 1) risk appetite, 2) expectation on the returns, and 3) investment horizons. I just want to share some of my thought process on real estate investment through the public or private market. Typically any real estate investment has two return components: income and capital appreciation. Total Return = Income + Capital Appreciation In the public market, the income component is the dividend and the capital appreciation component is the stock price increase. In private deals, the income is the net operating inco...

The real estate industry is grappled with the question, what will be the new norm post Covid?  When will workers return to their offices in the dense urban centers?  How would street retail survive and evolve? Are big cities like NYC or SF dead?  The urbanization trend of human beings has been ongoing for the last 500 years.  By 2050, its estimated that roughly 2/3 of the global population will live in the cities.  It's hard to imagine that this exponential trend will cease and disappear.  The vaccine is being rolled out and people will soon remember the fun, the culture and the ideas that permeates in the cities.  With the normalcy in sight, I hope  the trend will resume from its temporary pause, just as it did many times in history. But there will be a "new" norm, and it will be driven by technology.  Technology has been a driving force that transforms the world in a way that's unseen in human's history.  We saw how Amaz...