U.S. cities added more than 2,900 buildings with more than 200 apartment units between the years 2021 and 2023. That is 17% more than were built from 2018 to 2020. It also outpaced the increase in the number of smaller properties of at least 50 units.

For the millions of workers who find going into the office stinks, some executives say they have a remedy: Make the office smell better. Employers are using scent to boost moods and get workers to come in.

The vast majority of late payments on CLO loans haven’t led to foreclosure. Still, the large number of late payments shows the strain on borrowers and the growing risk of losses for lenders.

In one of the largest distressed deals, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. agreed to sell $17 billion worth of loans seized from the failed Signature Bank to a venture including Blackstone Real Estate Income Trust in a deal that valued the portfolio at about $12 billion.

Overall, global real-estate funds operated by private-equity firms were sitting on $544 billion in cash as of the second quarter of last year—a record level and up from $457 billion at the end of 2022. The largest increase was in so-called opportunistic funds, which often search for distressed opportunities.

Luxury retailers, flush with cash, are spending big on real estate in the world’s most expensive and exclusive shopping corridors. In New York City, Prada recently agreed to buy the building that houses its Fifth Avenue store as well as the building next door for more than $800 million. Gucci’s is also paying nearly $1 billion for a 115,000-square-foot retail space a few blocks south.

In the first half of 2023, international banks represented 25% of loan originations to U.S. central business district offices, compared with 17% for regional and local banks. By contrast, regional and local banks did 54% of lending in that period for medical offices and 45% for suburban offices—versus 2% and 6% at international banks, respectively.

Asking rents for prime space in 16 U.S. markets declined in the third quarter after increasing on average from about $61 a square foot in mid-2021 to close to about $70 in the second quarter of last year. They were just under $69 in the fourth quarter.

Vacancies at U.S. shopping centers fell to 5.3% in the fourth quarter, the lowest level since tracking the metric in 2007. Average asking rents rose to $23.70 a square foot and are now nearly 17% above 2019 levels.

Businesses large and small acquired some 570,000 homes in 2023, down from 802,000 in 2022. Fourth-quarter investor purchases of 123,000 represented the lowest quarterly total in the last eight quarters with 2023 on track for the largest annual drop in investor buying activity in at least 20 years.