On January 19 ULI Atlanta held a virtual program on Trends in Real Estate – which is an annual report that is jointly released by the Urban Land Institute and PwC. The report culminates insights from over 1,600 real estate and land use practitioners across the country who are interviewed on real estate investment and development trends. For decades, this report has helped practitioners unpack projections and prognostications for a host of real estate issues across the United States.  

While the major theme for 2021 is ‘acceleration’ of trends like working from home, social and racial equity, and movement from urban to suburban, Atlanta’s local panel had their own take on how these trends play out here and what means for our region. Below are the top 5 most salient takeaways from the Atlanta event: 

1. Atlanta continues to benefit from larger-scale geographic shifts and net positive in-migration, ranking #11 for real estate prospects and #8 for homebuilding prospects, respectively. The Emerging Trends report cites, “Atlanta has the third-highest percentage of college-educated workers in the U.S. and the highest concentration of colleges and universities in the Southeast.” Big tech companies like Microsoft are taking note. 
2. The report focuses on ‘acceleration of trends’ as its central thesis – and we’ve seen this play out most prominently within the retail landscape. The report notes, “coronavirus cannot shoulder all the blame” as it relates to retails decline, as “the United States has been significantly over-retailed with far more space per capita than any other country.” Restaurants are a shining example of how they have reinvited serving their customers – from curbside pick-up, cocktail kits to-go, and creating innovative outdoor dining options from parking spaces. 
3. Housing affordability continues to dominate discussions around economic recovery, as COVID has unveiled sobering statistics on the affordability crisis and long road ahead in this K-shaped recovery. Atlanta is no exception. Luckily, coordinated efforts like HouseATL and the City’s One Atlanta plan has kept this conversation front and center. In early January 2021, Atlanta City Council passed a long-awaited Housing Opportunity Bond. 
4. Concerns about racial equity were identified as a key social and political trend for real estate and land use with zoning policy magnifying how this affects people and communities. Housing disparities in Atlanta continue to illustrate why the City remains the worst in the country for economic mobility and inequality according to a Bloomberg Analysis. The Emerging Trends report notes that “respondents strongly believe that the real estate industry, including senior management and board representation, should look much more like the overall population” and this point was emphasized heavily by T. Dallas Smith – who runs one of the largest minority-owned commercial real estate brokerages in the country. One encouraging statistic from the Emerging Trends report was that 70% of the industry believes they can help move the needle on systemic racism and 49% of respondents say their company has a plan for how to do so.  

Slide from Andrew Warren’s presentation on Emerging Trends in Real Estate, January 19, 2021.

5.  Finally, COVID has changed the way we work – and some might argue for the better. How often have we heard the adage, “that meeting could have been a call?” The post-pandemic work from home experiment has accelerated at a lightning speed, but often what that means is limited capacity to collaborate. One panel member articulated “As individuals, we may be more productive at home, but as organizations, we’re more productive together.” Time will tell what this will mean for office spaces of the future. 

A huge thanks to our keynote presenter Andrew Warren at PwC and local panel members Olaf Kunkat at Newport Holding; Darice Rose at CBRE; Sheba Ross at HKS; and T. Dallas Smith at his namesake company for sharing their time, thoughts, and energy with ULI Atlanta membership. ULI members will have access to the videos and presentation via KnowledgeFinder in the coming weeks.