A report from Bloomberg. "The world’s biggest bond market sold off after another hot inflation report reinforced bets the Federal Reserve will be in no rush to cut rates even as some areas of the economy show signs of sluggishness. 'Equity and bond bulls are staring at their calendars and drawing a ‘big red circle’ around the 20th of this month,' said Jose Torres at Interactive Brokers. 'Folks are concerned Powell may have to pull a dangerous U-turn during his ride on the monetary-policy highway. His dovish messaging since December has driven an intense loosening in financial conditions.'"

The Globe and Mail. "There’s a point in every great stock market run when an uncomfortable feeling creeps in. When the investing hive mind starts to worry that the good times have gotten too good. Once again, that moment is upon us. At times like this, the financial discourse inevitably circles back to the same question: Is this a bubble? While the answer is probably yes, it almost doesn’t matter anymore. We are living in the age of bubbles, and all an investor can do is learn to live within them. Now, it wouldn’t be the stock market without the odd bout of euphoric excess. But it’s not hard to argue that bubbles inflate much more quickly and frequently in today’s fast-moving markets. Blame pandemic stimulus, easier access to financial markets or the high risk tolerance of a generation of investors that came of age in a golden era for stocks."

"'There’s probably still too much money floating around,' said Craig Basinger, chief market strategist at Purpose Investments. 'People just jump on these things a lot faster now.'"

The Commercial Observer. "'Doom loop,' 'meltdown,' 'downward spiral,' 'debt bomb' and 'banking crisis' are phrases that regularly appear in articles attached to underwater multifamily portfolios or summaries of heavily leveraged office towers whose rents can no longer service their debt. That, in turn, fosters the belief that the loans provided by banks and private lenders are unlikely to ever be paid back in full, thus putting the greater economy at risk. Michael Gigliotti, senior managing director and New York co-head at JLL Capital Markets, admitted that while parts of CRE, particularly office, might have 'a couple of bad actors,' he’s not convinced there’s a doom loop at hand. If anything, Gigliotti said, there’s been dramatically increased investment activity now that values have plummeted, with sovereign wealth funds and global high-net-worth individuals eager to deploy capital."

"'Everyone has a fear of missing out, the FOMO is real, and investors are looking for opportunities and they’re acting on opportunities,' said Gigliotii. 'Because they worry that if they aren’t active at the bottom of the market, then they’re missing out on a generational opportunity.'"

Bisnow Boston in Massachusetts. "Alexandria Real Estate Equities has unloaded a handful of industrial buildings and the former Coppersmith restaurant in South Boston, the latest in a string of sales for the life sciences giant. The real estate investment trust sold the properties at 40 W. Third St. and 18 W. Third St. for a combined $13.3M, according to public records. The properties were bought by an entity linked to digital marketing firm Verndale. Prior to the sale, Alexandria, in partnership with Anchor Line Partners, planned to transform the site into a 210K SF lab complex at 99 A St. Anchor Line had acquired the properties for a combined $31.1M in 2018, the Boston Business Journal reported."

"This deal is part of Alexandria's strategic plan to sell underperforming assets, which it discussed on its October earnings call. In February, it sold an Andover office building for $3.9M, down from the $14.3M it bought the property for in 2022. In December, Alexandria sold two industrial properties on E Street in South Boston that had been previously planned for life science development for $87M, down from the $169M it paid three years prior."

The Wall Street Journal. "The Sunbelt city that came to symbolize the pandemic housing boom is now leading a national property cool-down. Home prices and apartment rents in Austin, Texas, have fallen more than anywhere else in the country, after a period of overbuilding and a slowdown in job and population growth. Now, it is contending with a glut of luxury apartment buildings. Landlords are offering weeks of free rent and other concessions to fill empty units. More single-family homes are selling at a loss. Empty office space is also piling up downtown, and hundreds of Google employees who were meant to occupy an entire 35-story office tower built almost two years ago still have no move-in date."

"Austin’s recent downswing is a sign that migration patterns that were turbocharged by the pandemic continue to fade. Housing markets in other Sunbelt cities, including Phoenix and Nashville, Tenn., that swelled with new residents in recent years, have also softened from overbuilding, slowing population growth and a lack of affordability. Austin was at the forefront of the U.S. housing boom, when rock-bottom borrowing costs near the start of the pandemic fueled robust sales and sent home prices to new highs. Austin prices soared more than 60% from 2020 to the spring of 2022."

"In Austin, according to the Freddie Mac House Price Index, prices have fallen more than 11% since peaking in 2022, the biggest drop of any metro area in the country. 'Austin’s housing market remains extremely overvalued,' said Matthew Walsh, an economist at Moody’s Analytics. Housing affordability hit a four-decade low, even with recent price declines, he added. By Moody’s count, Austin home prices still run 35% higher than what the city’s underlying economic trends would typically support. Austin’s per capita income rose 23% between 2020 and 2022, but home prices increased more than twice as much. That disparity has veered greatly from historical norms. 'It’s unsustainable,' Walsh said."

Charlotte Business Journal. "A Charlotte-based construction company has filed for liquidation as it faces $11.4 million in total liabilities. Earlier this week, Arbor Construction LLC filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy in North Carolina, bankruptcy court records show. The company reports its liabilities surpass its total assets of $11.1 million. It has between 200 and 999 creditors. Arbor Construction focuses on homebuilding and remodeling, according to its LinkedIn page."

The Guardian on California. "A planned trio of towers of luxury condos and a hotel, designed as mind-numbingly generic glass boxes by LA firm CallisonRTKL, instead is now a work of graffiti art. The three towers of Oceanwide Plaza were supposed to perch on top of a 'lifestyle podium' of shops and restaurants (AKA a mall), wrapped with a 700ft-long LED ribbon – an 'eye-catching technological standard-bearer,' in the words of the project’s Chinese developer. But they have ended up being transformed into something more eye-catching than the builder could ever have dreamed of. Forty floors of graffiti tags now loom above the street, forming a vertiginous vertical canvas of street art, and providing one of the most colourful base-jumping platforms around."

"'With all due respect, shit’s abandoned, doing nothing,' one of the artists, known as Hopes, told the art and design website Hyperallergic. 'Let’s put some colour on this bitch and do what we do if they ain’t gon finish the job.' Another artist, called Aker, concurred: 'This building has needed love for years,' they said. 'If the owners aren’t doing anything about it, the streets of LA are happy to make something out of it.'"

"The dystopian sight has drawn comparisons with other such abandoned high-rises around the world, including the Torre de David in Caracas, the Sathorn Unique Tower in Bangkok, and the pyramidal 'hotel of doom' in Pyongyang. But how did this come to pass in Los Angeles, home to some of the most expensive real estate on the planet?"

"The luxury residential development, which is part of CallisonRTKL’s wider sports and entertainment district masterplan, formed a key prong in Beijing-based Oceanwide’s strategic expansion into the US. A year earlier, the company had announced plans to build a 2.4m sq ft mega-project in San Francisco, and later a 1,400ft-tall tower in New York and a 44-acre resort in Honolulu. Both projects have since stalled. As is often the case with Chinese investment projects, these developments were to be funded by off-plan sales to Chinese nationals, who were enticed to invest by the promise of the EB-5 immigrant investor visa programme: an easy route to a green card for $800,000. Such projects were popular with China’s newly rich, as they were seen as safe havens to park their capital, securely out of reach of the communist government’s grasp."

"Yet downtown living of another kind is booming. Less than a mile away from Oceanwide’s abandoned blocks, the unhoused community of Skid Row has grown to an estimated 6,000 people. While they struggle to find basic shelter, Oceanwide planned to offer its 500 residents an 'unparalleled amenity package' of private screening rooms, gyms, co-working spaces, and even a dedicated 'dog washing facility,' along with a swimming pool cantilevered above a water-intensive lawn."

The Real Deal on Florida. "Silicon Valley venture capitalist Shervin Pishevar sold his waterfront Miami Beach estate for $21.2 million, a steep discount from the $50 million he was asking for it two years ago. Records show Pishevar’s Sofreh Fund sold the mansion at 4647 Pine Tree Drive to a Delaware entity named for the address. The true buyer is hidden. Pishevar bought the waterfront Miami Beach mansion for $17 million in 2018, property records show. Built in 2013 on 1 acre, the 12,800-square-foot house has nine bedrooms, 10 bathrooms, three half-bathrooms, a pool and a one-bedroom guest house. In 2021, he tapped developer Keith Menin to renovate the 12,800 sf mansion, and listed it for $35 million. He pulled it from the market and relisted in 2022 for $50 million, Realtor.com shows. Since December of that year, the asking price has fluctuated between $26 million and $35 million, ultimately closing at the discounted price of $21.2 million. The listing shows the renovations in the main house remain incomplete."

The Edge Malaysia. "The Federal Land Development Authority (FELDA), the government agency that owns FGV Holdings Bhd, which is one of the largest producers of oil palm in the world, has maintained its crown as one of the country’s biggest beneficiaries of government bailouts. But it still owes more than RM8 billion today, according to the latest Auditor-­General’s Report (AG’s report). FELDA is far from alone in its struggle with debt. Of the 24 federal agencies with loan balances totalling RM123.14 billion in 2022, FELDA’s loan balance of RM8.66 billion is the third highest, after the Public Sector Home Financing Board’s RM62.08 billion and the National Higher Education Fund Corp’s RM41.5 billion."

"A recovery plan aimed at turning around the state-owned national land development agency’s operations that included a RM6.23 billion bailout from the government in 2019 failed to deliver anticipated results. The agency has not reported an annual profit since 2013. State-owned agencies continue to rely on government bailouts to stay afloat and remain economically viable. Should they continue to be bailed out, or should they be allowed to fail? Following the latest findings from the AG’s report, it remains to be seen how agencies like FELDA and PR1MA will resolve their pile of debt without resorting to major bailouts."

News.com.au in Australia. "The director of a failed building firm received a loan for nearly $1 million in company money before the business collapsed while his customers have been left with nothing, according to a public liquidator’s report. Tozer Construction Group, which did residential building in NSW and the ACT, was court-ordered to go into liquidation at the end of the 2022 with debts of $3.227 million. Meanwhile, the Kemp family have lost out on a large portion of their life savings after paying a deposit to Tozer Construction for a renovation job but later learned it was not covered by insurance. As a result, they lost the lot."

"Eighteen months on from the builder’s collapse, mum-of-three Anita Kemp, 46, told news.com.au she has 'exhausted every avenue' to rescue her money and has now created a GoFundMe out of desperation. 'It’s unravelled to be a nightmare,' Ms Kemp, based in Wagga Wagga, told news.com.au. 'The deposit was $13,200, which may not sound like a lot, but it is a lot for our family.' The company had about 80 projects in Wagga Wagga and about 180 in Canberra, according to an employee who previously spoke to news.com.au."

"Sarah Towers was just 18 when she started work at the company straight out of school but said that as staff started quitting in droves, it was left to her to organise the builds for customers’ dream homes, even though she had no experience. 'It was pretty bad. Customers wanted their refunds. We got called pretty much every day and got screamed at (by tradies) asking when they were going to get paid,' Ms Towers said. The young worker claimed she would often end up organising the home builds herself despite never having worked in construction before. 'We just kept picking up jobs we couldn’t handle,' she claimed. 'I remember we signed on a $2 million job, they wanted their money back, we couldn’t pay them.'"

"This spike in projects coincided with the rollout of the HomeBuilder grant, which was introduced in June 2020 and handed out $2.52 billion to owner-occupiers who wanted to build or substantially renovate a home. Although this turbocharged the sector and was hailed as a way to prop up the economy during the slowdown from the Covid-19 pandemic, the subsequent cost of living crisis and rising prices of materials pushed many builders to the brink. Indeed, of the 8471 business collapses for 2023, almost 28 per cent were in the building and construction industry, according to ASIC."

From Reuters. "As Japan nears an end to eight years of negative interest rates, a regional lender in Kyoto is offering e-learning to train up staff who have no experience lending money or collecting deposits in a positive interest rate environment. One of the sessions, targeting roughly 3,300 Bank of Kyoto employees, explains why interest rates are important, how the lending rate is set and how rising interest rates affect the bank's business and its clients. In other sessions, the bank's older executives with experience of the days when Japan had positive interest rates share their know-how on convincing borrowers to swallow higher charges."

"'It's pretty basic because we want younger staff, in particular, to understand what it's like in a world where interest rates are positive,' Tadashi Shimamoto, deputy general manager at Bank of Kyoto's human resources and general affairs division, said in an interview. 'It's crucial to have our staff understand that things are quite different when interest rates rise, and to change their mindset so we're ready when the moment comes,' he added."

"Japan has seen its policy rates stuck at or below zero for decades due to prolonged low inflation and economic stagnation. In the meantime, ordinary depositors have received only a tiny amount of interest on savings and mortgage rates have been very low. But with inflation exceeding the Bank of Japan's (BOJ) 2% target for over a year, the central bank is seen pulling short-term interest rates out of negative territory as early as Tuesday. Any such move, which would be Japan's first interest rate hike since 2007, will likely force lenders and borrowers to overhaul their planning based on the assumption that cheap cash would remain abundant for years."

"'For our younger staff, interest rate have been stuck at zero throughout their career, so it's the first time they will see rates go up,' Shimamoto said. 'It's uncharted territory, a whole new world for them.'"