A report from the Wall Street Journal on New York. "Manhattan’s pulverized condominium market is opening the door for investors willing to buy individual apartments wholesale. Developers under financial strain are the most likely to entertain bulk deals, but in a choppy market where many apartments have gone unsold for long periods, many more are starting to consider the idea."

"'They might not admit it and it’s all very sort of confidential and behind the scenes, but almost every [developer] is trying to do the same thing right now. And that’s to do bulk transactions,' said AnneMarie Alexander, a real-estate broker at Douglas Elliman Real Estate."

From Creative Loafing on Florida. "A secluded island only accessible by boat or seaplane, is on the market in Central Florida. Bird Island is a 51-acre remote island in the middle of Lake Griffin, which is is part of the Harrison Chain of Lakes, just outside of The Villages. The 1,120-square-foot main house—the only house on the island—comes with two-bedrooms and one bathroom, as well as a wrap-around porch and vaulted ceilings. The island has been on and off the market for the past couple years and last month saw a 59% price cut from the asking price, which is now down to $2.7 million from $6.7 million."

From Palo Alto Online in California. "Jon Goldman is a co-president of Premier Properties management company, which manages around 100 properties in Palo Alto and others in Redwood City and Menlo Park. It's the worst crisis for commercial real estate in Palo Alto since the dot-com bust and the 2008 recession, he said. Availability rate, or the amount of space that can be advertised, in downtown Palo Alto alone is at an all-time high — around 15%, according to Goldman. But, he said, he's almost certain the true rate is even higher."

"Linda Nichols is a Menlo Park massage therapist who saw only 20% of her clients return when San Mateo County allowed personal care services to reopen last June, before she was promptly shut down again due to a spike in COVID-19 cases. The landlord waived a month's rent, but the relief meant little as the costs stacked up over the year. By the end of this March, her savings depleted, she'll be leaving the Bay Area to stay with her family in Texas."

"'My savings are gone,' she said."

From CTV News in Canada. "Vancouver and Toronto still top the list as the most expensive cities to rent, but the COVID-19 pandemic has eliminated nearly four years of price growth. PadMapper’s data found that the median price for a one-bedroom apartment in Toronto is currently $1,770 and in Vancouver is $1,940. 'The last time Toronto one-bedroom rent was as low as it is in this report was in February 2017, when it was $1,700,' Padmapper said in this month’s rental report. 'And the last time Vancouver rent was this low was in April 2017, when it was at $1,940.'"

"The median price for a two-bedroom apartment in Toronto is currently $2,340 and in Vancouver is $2,630, which is down 21.5 per cent and 12 per cent over last year. 'It seems the continuous rent price declines from renter migration out of Canada’s two most expensive rental markets have not stopped, even as COVID-19 vaccines have begun to roll out,' the Padmapper report said."

From Bisnow London. "Mark Dixon has seen a lot of upheaval in the 30 years since he started his flexible office business: the dot-com boom and bust, the 9/11 terrorist attacks, the 2008 Lehman crash and the rise of competitors like WeWork. But COVID-19 tops the lot, and it is the event on that list he thinks will change the world of work forever."

"'I described it to someone recently as a 100-year storm that has affected the office industry as a whole,' the chief executive of IWG told Bisnow. 'When you compare it to other recessions, it’s everything rolled into one.'"

"'I think this year will be the year for distress, rather than last year,' Dixon said, pointing to the fact that many countries have had legislation in place barring landlords from evicting tenants for not paying rent. In the UK and U.S., those moratoriums are due to expire at the end of March. 'That will be judgment day,' he said. 'The tide has gone out for a lot of people.'"

From Domain News in Australia. "Melbourne schoolteacher Lauren Bird thought she’d done all her homework when it came to buying her first property. She’d looked all around her chosen area in Melbourne’s north-west, found an apartment building she liked and commissioned a building inspection report before she bought. But two and a half years on, she’s facing financial ruin. Her block’s owners are now taking its builders to court over allegations of severe defects in its construction, and she’s having to pay for both repairs and her share of spiralling legal fees."

"'How could this have happened?' she said, bewildered. 'This was my first time in the market and I thought it was going to be great. But instead, I seem to have bought into a nightmare that shows no sign of ending. This should have been one of the greatest achievements of my life, buying my own place. But I had no idea that the whole process was a game with changing rules, and I could end up having to sell the apartment to pay the bills and special levies.'"

"'I realise now I was naive and badly informed,' she said. 'But I don’t think I’m alone in that. Apartments are often bought by younger people, or older people, and there’s so little information available in an easily digestible form. The government needs to protect us, empower us and give us more information so we can make informed choices.'"

"Apartment watchdog, the Australian Apartment Advocacy (AAA), says Ms Bird’s story is the tip of a very large iceberg, and it is now trying to help her. It’s also in talks with the Victorian Building Authority about providing its free education kit to all unit-buyers and owners through the Victorian Government."

"'If I’d have known about this, I would have known what questions to ask, and who to turn to, and I might not be in this mess today,' said Ms Bird, whose building owners are suing its builders over allegations of leaking windows, car park floor cracking, a leaking roof, rising damp and wrongly installed flashing. 'Financially, I’m terrified. I don’t know what the outcome is going to be, and every time I get a bill, I’m scared that I won’t be able to keep going. I’d hate to think how many more people will be caught before there’s more information put out there.'"