How Real Estate Became Hooked On Interest Rate Cuts It almost seems that the modern real estate industry doesn't know how to transact unless interest rates are falling or historically low. As inflation stayed persistently high and the investment market remained on ice, real estate investment volumes were subdued in the first quarter, the low figures of 2023 bleeding into the start of 2024. “Everybody's waiting for [Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome] Powell to relent,” Starwood Property Trust CEO Barry Sternlicht said earlier this month. But it hasn't always been this way. And in an industry with assets totalling $34T, some are questioning why its players feel they can’t function unless central bankers are making favourable policy. 
“I’ve been in this industry for 42 years, and for the majority of that time, you’ve had an inverse yield curve where interest rates have been above yields [cap rates],” said Helen Gordon, CEO of UK apartment REIT Grainger. The seeds of the… Read the full story here. | 
