Category: Blog

PropTech x Workforce Housing?

Earlier this week, I was pleasantly surprised to come across an article on Propmodo by Brad Hargreaves, CEO of Common Co-Living who happened to be one of our panelists at the Harvard Real Estate Weekend two years ago (2019). He argues that the arms race for amenities and technology in high-end multifamily residential development has led to a saturation in the market segment in its use of technology. While not all of these technologies may be applicable or feasible with the more cost-conscious workforce housing, the boom and saturation of PropTech in luxury residential will mean that companies have to look to expand outside of this segment. As Brad noted, luxury only accounts for 20% of the entire multifamily market.

PropTech has saw tremendous growth and gained increasing mainstream recognition over the past few years, and the most notable headline from this past month perhaps goes to the latest news from Latch, a smart lock maker who will go public through a merger with TS Innovation Acquisitions Corp. (NYSE: TSIA), a special purpose acquisition company (SPAC) backed by Tishman Speyer.

While some of these technologies (smart home, for example) may seem like bells and whistles that are nice-to-haves to apartments, other technologies, such as _________ will actually further the affordability factor that benefit workforce housing.

In some mays, it may parallel the ongoing trend where Class A office buildings will tend to trickle down into the market. Filtering

Cover Image: Via Verde, an iconic mixed-income residential project in Bronx, New York developed by Jonathan Rose Companies and designed by Dattner + Grimshaw Architects.

New Year, New Start

Over the years, I have dabbled in blogging as well as regular writing in a few occasions: as the Editor-in-Chief of my high school’s online newspaper, as a student journalist for the Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympics, as a summer journalism student in 2011, and as a blogger for the Alberti Program, an award-winning educational program aimed at sharing the love of design with inner city children and youths.

That being said, these were all one-off efforts without long-term sustained production in writing. I consider myself a curious person (besides being called “Curious George” for many years at school), but with the many commitments and obligations that we all face day to day, sometimes it’s hard to distill one’s thoughts, let alone finding a channel to do so. I hope to use this opportunity to collect some of my thoughts and findings as I navigate myself into a whole new world at the intersection of design, business, policy, technology, and more.

Here’s my new year resolution: I will write or post, short or long, one post a day for 2021 – about my life, about what I’m reading or discovering, about what I’m working on, and more.

There will be a caveat, though: as we all know, life can get in the way (of many things). As I have recently learned in Atomic Habits, sometimes it’s okay to let yourself get off track (but never for 2+ days though). This way, there will be less guilt when that happens, encouraging a more positive mindset and ensuring sustainability in the long run. I guess this my way of prefacing that I might be off for a day or two (but, hopefully, never more than two.)

New Year, New Start. Here’s to a year filled with reflection and discovery!

Hello World.

This is probably the stereotypical first line for any programmer, but it might as well work in this case. This is my first stab at thinking about urban issues, real estate, and the built environment in general.

I have always been interested in learning about stories and sharing them to create impact, and it’s finally the time where I couple that interest with my passion about cities. I am increasingly curious about what it actually takes to shape cities and make them thrive — especially the financial and economic inner-workings — beyond my own background in architecture and design. Sure, design is certainly part of the equation (a very important one for sure), but their are also other social, economic, legal, and political forces at play that eventually make our cities the ways they are. I am hoping to dissect these forces through this platform and hopefully develop a deeper understanding of these forces and develop formula and principles from these observations.

So here we go. A designer that strives to think. Here goes design_think.