A report from the Real Deal on New York. "In February, billionaire Ken Griffin purchased Calvin Klein’s seven-acre Southampton home for $84 million — the year’s most expensive deal in the Hamptons. Now, the mansion next door has been put on the market for an eye-popping $175 million. Critics question whether the $175 million price tag is realistic. 'The price is so out of the stratosphere that it’s damaging to the owner and the marketplace,' said a broker in the Hamptons who asked to remain anonymous. 'It sends a false pretense of what is possible.'"

The New York Real Estate Journal. "Brooklyn, NY Klosed Properties acquired 285 Quincy St. for $2.5 million. The property is a 21-unit multifamily property located in the heart of the Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhood. The property totals 32,000 s/f with large units and a handful of vacant units. 'We are all uncertain what 2021 will bring, but Klosed Properties is optimistic,' said Adam Hajibai, vice president of acquisitions. 'It’s a buyers market and as pricing continues to decline, we expect to see an increase in transaction volume from investors like ourselves.'"

The Laker Lutz News in Florida. "The Pasco County Planning Commission has recommended approval of a change to the county’s comprehensive plan that would allow consideration of up to 400 apartments to be developed on 28.2 acres. Commissioner Peter Hanzel objected. 'We have an overabundance of apartments in that area. There is no need for another apartment complex out there,' Hanzel said."

From Bisnow in Massachusetts. "Boston’s business leaders are at a crossroads as the coronavirus pandemic has dramatically altered their workplaces. A retreat from office buildings has led to historic negative absorption and record-high subleasing availability. Office occupancy rates in downtown’s high-rises sat between 8% and 12% post-Labor Day, with just 4% to 5% of offices occupied by mid-December, according to CBRE. 'The reality of our space right now [is if] it was not able to adapt, it’s sitting dark right now,' Gensler Design Director Alfred Byun said."

From Bisnow Washington DC. "The strategy of converting office buildings to residential has taken off in the suburbs and in some of D.C.'s emerging submarkets, but it has been difficult for developers to make conversion projects work in the city's central business district. 'We've been asked to look at conversions in downtown more than we ever have,' said Hickok Cole principal Laurence Caudle, an architect."

"He said the shift has occurred over the last year. The District's office market last quarter reached a record-high 15.9% vacancy rate, according to CBRE, and it recorded 1.4M SF of negative absorption last year. 'There's concern that commercial office is softening and the net operating income might not be as high as it used to be, particularly in the downtown area,' he said."

"'The net operating income of office downtown has been higher than residential, so it requires a subsidy,' Downtown D.C. Business Improvement District Director of Economic Development Gerry Widdicombe said. 'It doesn't do anybody any good to have a vacant building, whether in Downtown or NoMa or Capitol Riverfront,' said. 'The city isn't maximizing tax revenues. It doesn't add to the vibrancy of the city, and it's just sad to see an empty building.'"

The Denver Post in Colorado. "Metro Denver’s housing market defied the odds last year, shattering one record after the other. But two economists warned an online gathering of local Realtors that the surge won’t continue and to temper their expectations for 2021. 'I have a little bit of bad news. The months of 2020, from August to December — that is as good as it gets. It won’t get better. It is over,' Elliot Eisenberg told the Denver Metro Association of Realtors’ Economic Summit ."

"Patty Silverstein, the chief economist with Littleton-based Development Research Partners, backed up Eisenberg. Distressed sales and foreclosures could rise significantly from low levels as forbearance plans granted by the CARES Act expire and borrowers look for an exit strategy. She said people may freak out when they see how much foreclosures rise, but the market desperately needs inventory and the surge won’t be detrimental."

"Silverstein suggested that a cooling in the region’s housing market will prove a good thing for a variety of reasons and told the agents to not 'go crying home.' 'The problem that Denver faces is the cost of housing, it is just expensive,' Eisenberg said."

From Eastsider LA in California. "How Low Will They Go? El Sereno condo: $10,000 slice on hilltop 3-bedroom home. Now asking $424,900. Highland Park 3-bedroom: $20,000 reduction on gated home. Now asking $922,800. Silver Lake condo: $35,000 chop on 3-bedroom, 3-bathroom home. Now asking $1,095,000."

The Los Angeles Times in California. "Liam Payne managed to make a profit in Monte Nido — barely. The singer-songwriter just sold his leafy Spanish-style compound for $10.161 million, or about $161,000 more than he paid for it in 2015. The pop star spent most of his time on the property trying to sell it, originally offering it up for lease before listing it for $14 million in 2018. With no takers, he eventually lowered the tag to $10.75 million over the summer."

From Bisnow Los Angeles in California. "Pez Cantina co-owner Lucy Thompson Ramirez remembers lunchtime before the coronavirus pandemic, when the cluster of office high-rises in LA's Financial District would empty out onto Grand Avenue and hungry workers would flood the sidewalks on their way to her restaurant and the others lining the street. But thanks to the pandemic, the museums have been closed for months, and the office workers are now largely working from home. Downtown Los Angeles was headed into 2020 with a lot to look forward to. About 4,500 residential units came online in 2019, breaking the previous year’s record by 35%."

"'Now, I mean, it really is like The Twilight Zone,' Thompson Ramirez said. 'Noon hits and it's four or five people walking around.'"

From Macau Business. "'[Last year] was definitely the worst year for the housing market since the global financial crisis [in 2008-2009],' says Jane Liu Zee Ka, managing director of Ricacorp (Macau) Properties Ltd. These days, homebuyers and homeowners are 'more conservative' and adopt a 'wait-and-see' approach due to the coronavirus outbreak that has been persisting for over a year now, she says. 'Before the pandemic, all the new flats would be snatched after the sales campaign was launched, but now developers have to come up with different incentives and packages to entice buyers,' she adds. 'For instance, some developers now sell a parking space within the same project for MOP 1.4 million, half the price it had before.'"

The Business Standard on China. "Grace Cai, a senior majoring in tourism management at a Guiyang university, had an internship last autumn working as a waitress in a hotel restaurant. She dreads finding a full-time job. 'There are too many students now,' she said, 'and because of the epidemic, it is actually not easy to find a job.'"

"A few blocks to the south of the Laoganma factory, Zhu Haihua drives trucks for a steel factory that makes towers for wind turbines. His monthly paycheck of $2,300 does not include food or housing. That is barely half of what the average American truck driver earns. But the money goes much farther in a Chinese mountain village. Frenetic construction over the past few years and permissive zoning regulations have produced a glut of recently built apartments. That allows Mr. Zhu to lease a three-bedroom apartment for just $175 a month."

"'Renting here is very cheap,' he said."

From Domain News in Australia. "Landlords of short-stay rentals in the heart of Sydney that once fetched hundreds of dollars a night have been forced to return them to the long-term rental market amid the pandemic, with the supply glut slashing prices for locals. Belle Property Pyrmont agent Alex Tinsley was working in Bondi and across the eastern suburbs when the pandemic first hit last year. He said there was a sudden influx of short-term rentals to the local rental market as international students and tourists returned home in droves, driving down rents and raising vacancy rates."

"'Our days on market doubled, prices came down and landlords were missing their mortgage payment,' Mr Tinsley said. As short-term lets were abandoned by tourists, so too were long-term rentals by locals looking for better deals with landlords desperate to lease them out at almost any cost."

The Globe and Mail in Canada. "For a brief period in 2018 and 2019, it felt like a new player was ready to shake up Canada’s investment advisory industry – a young force of nature named Gary Ng. Oozing confidence and never breaking his high-wattage smile for the cameras, Mr. Ng laid his acquisition strategy on the table for all to see, openly declaring that he was hungry for more scale. 'I’ve been told I’m the most powerful man on Bay Street now that nobody’s ever heard of,' he told Bloomberg LP in 2019."

"And then, all of a sudden, the man who was everywhere was nowhere. Finally, in November, the Investment Industry Regulatory Organization of Canada, the watchdog that oversees Canada’s investment dealers, shed light on his abrupt exit: Mr. Ng had allegedly perpetrated a fraud on the three lenders that helped finance some of his operations by using doctored account statements that showed that he had tens of millions in investments. In reality, IIROC alleged, the money belonged to others – or never existed at all."

"He was also amassing something else: luxury properties. In July, 2019, the same month Mr. Ng bought his stake in Bridging, he paid $2.2-million for a three-bedroom condominium in downtown Toronto, real estate records show. Two months later, he paid $2.8-million for a penthouse on Toronto’s King Street West. Weeks later, a numbered company under his control plopped down $9-million for a mansion, outfitted with a helipad, lookout tower and a home movie theatre, on Lake Simcoe near Barrie, Ont."

"In a 2019 appearance on BNN, Mr. Ng was asked where his appetite for dealmaking was going to take him next. He replied: 'The sky’s the limit.' But in early 2020, that sky came crashing down on him. On Feb. 2, 2020, days after PI’s management informed the regulator about the 'unusual documents,' Mr. Ng transferred ownership of his two Toronto condo units to someone named Andy Ng, for $0. The King Street West penthouse had been listed for sale for $3.8-million, but appears to have been taken off the market. (Realtor photos show it was furnished with two framed pictures of Scrooge McDuck playing with stacks of cash.)"

"Around the same time, Mr. Ng’s name disappeared from the corporate records of the Ontario numbered company that bought his Lake Simcoe mansion, and he was similarly replaced as sole officer and director by Andy Ng. When a Globe reporter visited the property more than a week ago to try to speak with Mr. Ng, there were fresh tire tracks in the snow leading past the driveway gate that bars entry to the grounds. No one answered when a reporter buzzed the intercom."

"As for the man himself, Mr. Ng has recently surfaced on the internet, both in a Twitter feed and on a personal website. The site, which makes no reference to the scandal, includes tips on investing, as well as links to news stories about him that were published before the fraud allegations. In his most recent blog post, he encourages young entrepreneurs to believe in themselves, write down their ideas and to test those ideas in the marketplace."

"His 'last piece of advice,' he says, is to 'make mistakes as quickly and as cheaply as possible.'"