Curated daily by our industry experts. Stay informed on how tech is shaping the real estate industry with these important headlines.
Wall Street Journal
Francis Davidson’s biggest challenge last year at his short-term apartment-rental website, Sonder Inc., was fending off a dozen new rivals fueled by a flood of investor capital. It wasn’t the worst problem a 27-year-old could have, as he ran a startup valued at $1 billion.
The Real Deal
Even with real estate agents now relying on virtual showings, the 3D video company Matterport has cut one-third of its staff. The Sunnyvale, Calif.-based company has slashed 90 jobs, according to the Silicon Valley Business Journal, attributing the layoffs to fallout from the coronavirus pandemic.
Bisnow
No commercial real estate sector has emptied out more amid the coronavirus pandemic than office, and its future is also the most uncertain. After months of working from home, millions will someday return to their offices with radically different expectations and worries than they had before the crisis. How landlords and employers will respond to those concerns isn’t known, but trends in office design that took hold over the past decade may need to be reversed.
PhocusWire
There is increasing confusion over the future of short-term private accommodation rental brand Stay Alfred. The U.S.-based high-end property platform suspended operations at the beginning of April, as the coronavirus outbreak took a firm grip on cities across the country and travelers were urged to stay at home.
Forbes
Anna’s bright blue eyes light up as she explains her reasons for moving to the city in retirement. A little more than a year ago she sold her four-bedroom suburban home and moved into a two-bedroom apartment downtown. When asked why she downsized to less than half of the space she enjoyed for decades, the excited 70-year-old retiree exclaimed, “Everything is right there. Anything I want—food, fun, it’s all right outside my door!”
Venture Beat
Amazon has started to use thermal cameras at its warehouses to speed up screening for feverish workers who could be infected with the coronavirus, employees told Reuters. The cameras in effect measure how much heat people emit relative to their surroundings. This requires less time and contact than forehead thermometers, earlier adopted by Amazon, the workers said.
Venture Beat
In a preprint academic paper published in early April, MIT researchers describe a model that quantifies the impact of quarantine measures on the spread of COVID-19, the novel coronavirus. Unlike most of the models that have so far been proposed, this one doesn’t rely on data from studies about previous outbreaks, like SARS or MERS.
Bloomberg
Two independent WeWork directors failed to fast-track their lawsuit over SoftBank Group Corp.’s decision to scrap a $3 billion stock purchase that was part of a rescue package the struggling office space provider secured last October.
Bloomberg
Before the pandemic, Yiying Lu was known for her work designing the Twitter Fail Whale and the dumpling and boba tea emojis. In the past few weeks, Lu said she was called to a higher purpose. From her apartment in San Francisco, she toiled away in a Slack channel with two
Gensler
As experience designers, we think of friction as any moment that prevents an uninterrupted flow through the built environment, and we try to come up with solutions that can create “frictionless experiences.”
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