REAL ESTATE TECHNOLOGY, REAL ESTATE ADVICE
Keller Williams | September 16, 2022
Keller Williams (KW), the world’s largest real estate franchise by agent count, has launched the KW Real Estate Planner community for agents to train and mastermind on providing clients with wealth management services.
“As the housing market continues to shift, we’re leaning heavily into the value of business communities to enable our real estate entrepreneurs the opportunity to thrive, As part of a community, our agents are gaining a greater sense of connection, empowerment and impact while staying focused on business growth.”
-Sajag Patel, chief operating officer, KW
KW Real Estate Planner (REP) is a community based around certification, training and networking opportunities for agents to grow and mastermind skills on wealth management for their clients.
An emerging community, KW REP is led by Dan Ihara, who serves as its’ director. Ihara is also the founder of the Honolulu, Hawaii-based The Ihara Team.
KW Real Estate Planner is a new community designed to help our Keller Williams agents help their clients build wealth and transfer wealth, Agents can elevate their game from being a very good, seasoned real estate agent to a real estate planner that the wealthy will look at for advice,said Ihara.
Training Momentum
Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI), a community for business growth using diversity and inclusion best practices, has also launched monthly masterminds.
The new DEI masterminds are conducted with leaders from KW’s Social Equity Task Force and KW agent-led affinity groups, such as the Hispanic Leaders of Real Estate, KW Black Real Estate Network, KW CHISPA, KW Pan-Asian Group, KW Rainbow Network, KW Signs, and the Lady Leaders of Real Estate.
KW New Homes, a community for business growth opportunities in new construction and land development, has launched new modular training. The training is focused on the best practices of supporting buyers with new construction buys, earning additional builder business and solidifying land developer partnerships.
KW agents who join a KW community have access to specialized training, technology, coaching, mastermind events and referral opportunities.
About Keller Williams
Austin, Texas-based Keller Williams (KW), the world’s largest real estate franchise by agent count, has more than 1,100 offices and 200,000 associates. The franchise is also No. 1 in units and sales volume in the United States. Since 1983, the company has cultivated an agent-centric, technology-driven and education-based culture that rewards agents as stakeholders.
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MARKET OUTLOOK, REAL ESTATE TECHNOLOGY
BXP | October 18, 2022
BXP (NYSE: BXP), the largest publicly traded developer, owner, and manager of premier workplaces in the United States, today announced that it has earned a top ESG rating in the 2022 GRESB® assessment. BXP earned an eleventh consecutive “Green Star” recognition and the highest GRESB 5-star Rating, as well as an “A” disclosure score. BXP also achieved the highest scores in several categories, including Data Monitoring & Review, Targets, Policies, Reporting, and Leadership.
“Real estate companies, as stewards of the built environment, play an essential role in addressing the climate crisis, I am proud of this recognition and of BXP’s leadership in strategic climate action. BXP’s focus on sustainability is an important component of our premier workplace strategy and is valued by our clients, partners, employees, and communities.”
-Owen Thomas, CEO of BXP
BXP actively works to promote its growth and operations in a sustainable and responsible manner and is a recognized leader in green building. BXP has certified 29.4 million square feet of its current in-service portfolio at the highest LEED certification levels of Gold and Platinum. BXP has publicly announced sustainability goals and has implemented energy conservation projects and other measures in actively managed properties that have reduced greenhouse gas emissions intensity by 80% and site energy use intensity by 41% since 2008. BXP has aligned its emissions reduction targets with climate science and became the first North American office REIT to establish an emissions reduction target ambition in line with a 1.5°C trajectory, the most ambitious designation available at the time of submission under the Science Based Targets initiative. BXP remains on track to achieve carbon-neutral operations by 2025.
BXP’s commitment to ESG performance management and transparency is key to our ESG program, Our focus on measurable impacts guides our decision making and investments, creating a more resilient, purposeful company,said Ben Myers, Vice President of Sustainability, BXP.
The GRESB Real Estate Assessment is the investor-driven global ESG benchmark and reporting framework for real estate. The Assessment is shaped by what investors and the industry consider to be material issues in the sustainability performance of real estate investments. The methodology is consistent across different regions, investment vehicles, and property types, and aligns with international reporting frameworks. The data is self-reported by Assessment participants and subjected to a multi-layer validation process after which it is scored and benchmarked. The result is high-quality data that investors and participants can use in their investment, engagement, and decision-making processes.
About BXP ESG
BXP’s commitment to ESG leadership has been recognized by numerous industry groups and rankings, including BXP’s inclusion as #4 on the 2021 Forbes Green Growth 50 list and #3 on Barron’s 10 Most Sustainable U.S. REITs list. BXP was named to Newsweek’s America’s Most Responsible Companies 2022 list, ranking first in its industry with an increased ranking of 31st overall out of the 499 companies included on list. In 2022, BXP was again named an ENERGY STAR Partner of the Year – Sustained Excellence Award Winner and a Best in Building Health winner by the Center for Active Design. BXP was recently recognized as an inaugural Platinum level Green Lease Leader by the Institute for Market Transformation and the U.S. Department of Energy.
About BXP
BXP (NYSE: BXP) is the largest publicly traded developer, owner, and manager of premier workplaces in the United States, concentrated in six markets - Boston, Los Angeles, New York, San Francisco, Seattle, and Washington, DC. BXP is a fully integrated real estate company, organized as a real estate investment trust (REIT), with more than 50 years of experience developing, owning, managing, and acquiring exceptional properties in dynamic gateway markets. As of June 30, 2022, including properties owned by unconsolidated joint ventures, BXP’s portfolio totaled 53.7 million square feet and 193 properties, including 12 properties under construction/redevelopment.
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REAL ESTATE TECHNOLOGY
Blueground and Tabas | November 18, 2022
Blueground, a PropTech scaleup offering a turnkey, flexible housing solution for renters globally, announces today it entered into agreement to acquire Brazilian PropTech startup, Tabas. Marking the first acquisition in Blueground’s nearly 10-year history, the company will soon acquire Tabas after leading Tabas’ $14 million Series A funding round earlier this year. Tabas is the largest operator of designer-quality furnished apartments for 30 days or more in São Paulo, Rio de Janeiro, and Brazilia. The acquisition, which is expected to close in early Q1 2023, enables Blueground to enter the Latin American market, and fuel the increased demand for furnished, flexible rentals in the region. Together Blueground and Tabas will launch Mexico City in early 2023.
During the period between now and close, the two companies will continue to operate independently and will gradually integrate over the next year. The combined organization will have a presence in 29 cities across 16 countries, employing over 1,000 people. Based on current financial projections, the joint entity is projected to generate ~650M in 2023.
Blueground is the largest turnkey property rental company in the 30+ day sector. It has a network of 9,500 move-in-ready, expertly-designed homes enabling people to flexibly live wherever they choose. The company was co-founded by CEO Alex Chatzieleftheriou in 2013, who, after many years as a business consultant, had experienced first-hand the pain points of living out of hotels for work for months at a time. He aspired to create a seamless way for people to freely move between neighborhoods, cities, and countries around the world.
Blueground currently works with over 4,700 landlords globally, guaranteeing them rental income while providing expert property management and maintenance services at scale. The acquisition of Tabas will allow Blueground to grow its network faster, supporting its goals of 40,000 apartments across 50 cities by 2025, and add more location options for its client base.
“We’ve had our sights set on Latin America for quite some time, as we see huge market potential for furnished and flexible rentals, Since our first investment in Tabas last year, we’ve developed immense respect for the Tabas team and what they’ve built in Brazil. With our best-in-class technology and our expertise in scaling the business, we'll continue to expand and offer the option for a flexible lifestyle in more markets globally.”
-Alex Chatzieleftheriou, CEO and Co-founder, Blueground
Founded in May 2020, Tabas was born out of the founders’ frustration with the lack of flexible, fully furnished rentals for mid- to long-term stays. Tabas now has over 1,000 apartments in three cities in Brazil - São Paulo, Rio de Janeiro, and Brazilia, raising over $20 million in funding prior to the acquisition. As the first project post-acquisition, Tabas will offer its knowledge and understanding of the market to support the launch of Blueground in Mexico City in early 2023, marking Blueground’s 30th city, and 11th in the last 12 months.
Tabas and Blueground’s visions are fully aligned and together we can create even more value for our guests, our landlords and the Tabas team, This acquisition is yet another success story for Brazilian proptech companies. We're proud of the work we’ve done to get us this far; now it’s time to take it to the next level and continue bringing the turn-key, flexible rental living concept across Latin America,said Leonardo Morgatto, Co-founder and CEO, Tabas.
The pandemic gave rise to new work environments, enabling people to explore the world and forgo traditional long-term leases for flexible rentals. To keep up with the growing demand, Blueground has doubled its supply of apartments in the last year.
The acquisition is subject to standard closing conditions, including regulatory approvals.
About Blueground
Blueground is a global PropTech company that operates a curated network of thousands of quality, turnkey homes in sought-after neighborhoods around the globe, making them available for stays of a month or longer. Blueground’s tech-enabled platform provides a fully digitized experience; from viewing and booking available apartments within minutes to managing the entire stay through the Blueground Guest App. Blueground is headquartered in New York City, with a portfolio of thousands of apartments in 26 cities worldwide including in New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Boston, Chicago, Washington D.C., Denver, Seattle, Austin, Miami, Dubai, Istanbul, Paris, London, Vienna, Zurich, Berlin, Madrid, Barcelona, Lisbon, Basel, Luxembourg, Copenhagen, Hong Kong, Singapore, and Athens. Blueground plans to expand to 50 cities by 2025.
About Tabas
Tabas is a Brazilian real estate technology startup providing beautifully-designed fully-furnished apartments for flexible stay. Founded in early 2020, it already has more than 1,000 apartments in its portfolio, in the cities of São Paulo, Rio de Janeiro and Brasília, all located in upscale neighborhoods, equipped and decorated with sophistication. With unprecedented flexibility for the Brazilian market regarding rental contracts, the company works with terms starting from 30 days of rent, guaranteeing the property maintenance to the owners and uncomplicated and well assisted reservations to the tenants.
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