Real Estate Buyer Preferences

As I’ve been digging into the #CybersecurityFramework 2.0, and helping clients navigate the changes, I’ve found several areas where the new additions feel pretty significant. If you’re already using the #CSF and trying to figure out where to focus first, take note of these new Categories: ◾ The POLICY (GV.PO) Category was created to encompass ALL cybersecurity policies and guidance. Now, on one hand it might seem like a "well, of course" moment to consolidate all cybersecurity policies into one place - on the other hand, policies were previously sprinkled throughout the CSF, and were tied to specific actions like Asset Management or Incident Response. Now, it's all in one area, which makes a ton of sense and simplifies things, but also means we've got to remember that this one Category covers everything! ◾ Another significant addition is the PLATFORM SECURITY (PR.PS) Category which largely pulls together key topics from the previous Information Protection Processes & Procedures (PR.IP) and Protective Technology (PR.PT) focusing on security protections around broader platform types (hardware, software, virtual, etc.). If you’re looking for things like configuration management, maintenance, and SDLC – you’ll now find them here.  ◾ The TECHNOLOGY INFRASTRUCTURE RESILIENCE (PR.IR) Category pulls largely from the previous Information Protection Processes & Procedures (PR.IP) and Protective Technology (PR.PT) as well, but also pulls in key aspects from Data Security (PR.DS). This new Category highlights the need for managing an organization’s security architecture and includes security protections around networks as well as your environment to ensure resource capacity, resilience, etc. So, what does all this mean for your organization? Whether you're just starting out, or you're looking to refine your existing cybersecurity strategies, CSF 2.0 offers a more streamlined framework to use to bolster your cyber resilience. Remember, staying ahead in cybersecurity is a continuous journey of adaptation and improvement. Embrace these changes as an opportunity to review and enhance your cybersecurity posture, leveraging the expanded resources and guidance provided by #NIST! Have you seen the updated mapping NIST released from v1.1 to v2.0? Check it out here to get started and “directly download all the Informative References for CSF 2.0” 👇 https://lnkd.in/e3F6hn9Y

Why Zoning is Civil Rights Work When most people hear the word zoning, they think about technicalities: setbacks, height limits, density allowances. It sounds dry, like something only planners or lawyers care about. But here’s the truth: zoning is not neutral. It’s about who gets to live where, and under what conditions. Which means zoning is civil rights work. A Tool of Exclusion Zoning has long been used to draw invisible lines that separated people by race and class. -Early 20th-century zoning explicitly barred Black families from white neighborhoods until the Supreme Court outlawed it in 1917. -When race-based zoning was struck down, cities pivoted to “exclusionary zoning”, large-lot single-family requirements, bans on apartments, and parking mandates. The effect was the same: keeping certain people out. -Combined with redlining and urban renewal, zoning became a powerful tool for segregation and disinvestment. The legacy is visible today. In many cities, the neighborhoods with the best schools, green space, and transit are zoned for single-family homes only, shutting out renters, working-class families, and first-generation buyers. Why Reform Matters Now When we talk about equity in housing, zoning is often left out of the conversation. But it shapes everything else: -Housing access. If only single-family homes are allowed, and those homes start at $500K, who can afford to move in? -Opportunity. Zoning dictates whether a child grows up near strong schools, jobs, and transit, or in an isolated area with fewer resources. -Affordability. Allowing duplexes, triplexes, and small multi-family homes can open the door to more affordable options without subsidies. In other words, zoning is not just land use policy. It’s opportunity policy. Zoning as Repair If zoning has been used as a tool of exclusion, it can also be a tool of repair. Reform doesn’t mean eliminating single-family homes. It means giving communities more choices: -Legalizing missing middle housing like duplexes, fourplexes, and accessory dwelling units. -Reducing parking requirements that inflate costs and limit walkability. -Supporting mixed-use neighborhoods that connect housing to small businesses, schools, and services. When we talk about housing as a civil rights issue, we can’t only talk about programs and subsidies. We have to talk about the rules that shape the very ground we build on. The Call Take Away Zoning may look like a technical detail, but it determines who belongs where. And that makes it one of the most important levers we have for building equitable cities. Civil rights isn’t only about who can vote or who can ride the bus. It’s also about who gets to live in safe, affordable, opportunity-rich neighborhoods. If we want to live up to our values, zoning reform has to be part of the civil rights agenda. What’s one zoning rule in your city that you think needs to change?

The 15-minute city revisited: A GIS approach to measuring, visualizing, and analyzing accessibility by proximity and by public transport supply   In this new paper, I develop a comprehensive methodology and present the steps for measuring, visualizing, and analyzing x-minute accessibility by proximity (walking accessibility) and accessibility by public transport supply (accessibility potential created by nearby public transport services) using geographic information systems (GIS).   Five sequential steps are presented: (1) project definition, (2) data preparation, (3) measuring accessibility, (4) visualizing accessibility and insufficient accessibility, and (5) analyzing accessibility using spatial statistical analysis and modeling.   The methodology attempts to address previously discussed pitfalls of the 15-minute city (Mouratidis, 2024) and more specifically: 1. Limitations to strong decentralization: The methodology assesses proximity-based accessibility only to lower-order facilities, services, and places and not to specialized destinations such as specialized workplaces, specialized shops, specialized healthcare facilities, or higher education facilities. 2. Over-focusing on quantity instead of sufficiency: The methodology demonstrates ways to measure and visualize insufficient accessibility and lack of accessibility. 3. Improperly aggregating facilities into broad categories: The methodology keeps essential facilities separate and avoids improperly aggregating facilities into broad categories like healthcare, education, and recreation. 4. Disregarding public transport: The methodology integrates the assessment of accessibility potential realized through nearby public transport services into an x-minute accessibility framework. 5. Ignoring interpersonal differences in walking and cycling: The methodology focuses on walking to local destinations (e.g. shops, public transport stops) instead of cycling and sets a lower-than-average walking speed so that a larger part of the population is considered in accessibility analysis.   Read more: https://lnkd.in/dADsVNhZ

Here’s a harsh reality of the current state of sales: It’s hard to show up in the way your prospects need when all you can think about is the number you have to hit to pay rent or keep your job. Unrelenting pressure to close more deals and mAkE mOrE dIaLs make us pushy and confusing. Whether we realize it or not, we’re explicitly focused on what WE want, not what buyers need. We need to sell products and hit quota. Buyers need to solve painful problems holding them back from realizing specific outcomes. That disconnect is a wonderful recipe for deteriorating trust and causing a lot of confusion. Focus on aligning your goals to your buyer’s. It’ll make your job a whole lot easier. How? Assess: - Are their problems painful enough to prioritize? - What have they done in the past to solve them? - What’s the quantifiable impact of fixing them? Align: - What’s their confidence level solving them solo? - What solutions address their specific use-case? - What’s the ideal how & when of implementation? Act: - What options do they have? (internal/external) - What’s an adequate ‘budget’ rooted in ROI? - Which solution is best to move forward with? Hint: It might not be yours. :) People are bad buyers. They need prescriptive and objective help to avoid skipping steps and getting hit with buyer’s remorse. Align your process with your buyer’s ideal journey. Less us. More them. 👋

In Berlin we came across this sign after discovering that the lift at the station wasn’t working. What really stood out was how clearly the alternative was explained. With a quick call or by using the Berliner Verkehrsbetriebe (BVG) Muva app, an accessible vehicle would come and take you to the next barrier-free station at no extra cost.  It made me think about London, where Transport for London also has a policy in place. If a station is inaccessible because of a broken lift or you're not able to get to the station, they’re supposed to arrange a taxi to the nearest accessible station. On paper, this is amazing. But the reality is often much more frustrating. The problem is that you can’t just flag down any taxi. It has to be booked through their contracted supplier. Which means you’re stuck waiting until their chosen vehicle turns up. I had to use this a couple of years ago. What should have been a 10-minute taxi ride turned into a two-hour wait. By the time the taxi finally arrived, my entire day had been thrown off. I explained to the driver what had happened. They felt so bad about the situation that instead of dropping me at a station, they drove me all the way home. That small act of kindness softened the frustration a little. And since then, I've had similar experiences. The difference in Berlin couldn’t have been clearer. We downloaded the app, booked the ride and within 17 minutes an accessible bus pulled up. I was strapped in securely and because it was a bus, my whole group could ride along too. We got to the next station smoothly and without stress. Both cities have accessibility policies, but Berlin’s actually works in practice. London’s feels in many cases unhelpful, even though the intention behind it is good. ID: A blue sign is displayed inside a Berlin train station, offering information about what to do if the lift is out of order. The sign has both German and English text. It provides a phone number and QR code for BVG Muva, a service that arranges accessible transport to the next barrier-free station. On the left side, there is a symbol showing a lift with a red cross through it, and on the right, a small van icon with the DB (Deutsche Bahn) logo above it. The text explains that passengers can book BVG Muva without extra cost when a lift is broken or unavailable. 

What does accessible travel actually look like? 👀♿️ As someone who travels the world, I’ve learned that “accessibility” is often an afterthought, if I’m lucky to find it at all. Take Vegas, for example. Many interchanges don’t allow you to cross roads in a traditional sense - you’re directed to bridge walkways with escalators and lifts. Sounds manageable, right? Except those lifts are frequently out of order. This leaves me, a manual wheelchair user, relying on the kindness of friends, family, or even strangers to physically carry me to where I need to go. Imagine for a moment how undignified and unsafe that feels. Now imagine what happens to those who use power wheelchairs or don’t have someone to help. This isn’t just a Vegas problem. It’s London’s Underground with its endless stairs and “step-free” stations that are rarely functional. It’s New York’s subway, where only 25% of stations are accessible. It’s cities across the world that promise inclusivity but deliver scraps. Travel is sold as a luxury, a joy. But for disabled people, it’s often a gamble between risk and frustration. The glamorous photos you see don’t show the real story: the exhaustion, the fear of being stranded, and the constant battle for access to something as basic as transport 😓. Accessible travel isn’t just about installing lifts or ramps - it’s about maintaining them, planning with disabled people in mind, thinking beyond mobility related access and holding transport systems accountable. If you’re non-disabled, I encourage you to ask: Would I accept this as my daily reality? If not, why should we? Let’s chat in the comments! ⬇️

Our new paper on zoning reform and local travel is out! We use generative AI to simulate zoning reforms and examine how changes in land use mix are associated with travel distances. The analysis combines parcel-level land use data with GPS mobility records from more than 400 U.S. cities. We train a generative adversarial network to learn the relationship between land use configurations and the share of trips that occur within a 15-minute walk, and then use the model to simulate zoning reforms that increase land use mix citywide and in targeted neighborhoods. On average, a 20% increase in land use mix is associated with a 7% relative increase in short-distance trips. In about one-quarter of cities, the same increase produces gains up to three times larger. Targeting low-density or single-use neighborhoods yields improvements comparable to citywide reforms. Here is the link to the paper: https://lnkd.in/eAgKg98D Joint work with Charles QC LI Yale School of the Environment Hixon Center for Urban Sustainability

🏙️ The most important air quality decision in your city was made decades ago, when someone decided to build homes next to a highway. Land use choices lock in pollution exposure for generations. Where we place schools, homes, and parks relative to highways and industry determines who breathes what, and those decisions are nearly impossible to reverse. This infographic shows 4 ways urban planning can reduce exposure: → Buffer zones — keeping homes, schools, and hospitals away from highways and industry → Health impact reviews — requiring air quality analysis before approving new developments → Mixed-use design — compact, walkable neighborhoods that reduce the need to drive → Green routes — connected green corridors providing clean-air pathways through cities The goal is not to retrofit bad decisions. The goal is to make health a standard part of every planning decision from the start. Does your city require health impact reviews for developments near pollution sources? --- 📊 Based on evidence from WHO, US EPA, and scientific research 🎨 Infographic by Habitat Analytics #UrbanPlanning #AirQuality #HealthyCities #PublicHealth #CleanAir World Resources Institute C40 Cities UN-Habitat (United Nations Human Settlements Programme) ICLEI Bloomberg Cities United Cities and Local Governments (UCLG) Clean Air Institute World Health Organization UNICEF UN Environment Programme American Planning Association Planetizen Planetary Health Alliance European Environment Agency

The Westpac 𝗛𝗼𝘂𝘀𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗣𝘂𝗹𝘀𝗲 has some clear messages about consumer preferences on housing. In addition to general market data, nationally and across the States, Westpac ask potential homebuyers what they are 𝘢𝘤𝘵𝘶𝘢𝘭𝘭𝘺 looking for in their next dwelling purchase. 𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗸𝗲𝘆 𝘁𝗮𝗸𝗲𝗮𝘄𝗮𝘆𝘀: 📉<20% of potential buyers (of all types - FHB, upgraders or investors) are looking at purchasing apartments (stable/diminishing) 📈a growing proportion (around 20-25%) are looking for townhouses 🏡60%+ are looking for a detached house 🧺roughly 1/3rd want to move to a regional area Tellingly, 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗮𝘃𝗲𝗿𝗮𝗴𝗲 𝗺𝗶𝗻𝗶𝗺𝘂𝗺 𝗻𝘂𝗺𝗯𝗲𝗿 𝗼𝗳 𝗯𝗲𝗱𝗿𝗼𝗼𝗺𝘀 𝗵𝗮𝘀 𝗴𝗿𝗼𝘄𝗻 between 2021 and 2025, hovering just under 3 for first home buyers and above 3 for upgraders and investors. The upshot: for all the talk about #apartments in activity centres being proposed as the solution for getting millennials into their first homes, only ~15% want an apartment, and buying a new one with the space they would need will be cost-prohibitive for most. Ditto the notion of 70% (or more) of new housing to be in established areas. It also shows that people aren't intending to move to regional areas to live in apartments around train stations. 🤔What other evidence is necessary to convince decision makers to change tact on #housingsupply and #affordability? The current approach is misplaced, and certainly not fit for the needs of the next generation of homebuyers - especially in our biggest cities. UDIA National UDIA Victoria UDIA NSW UDIA Queensland Property Council of Australia Housing Industry Association (HIA) Department of Transport and Planning NSW Department of Planning, Housing and Infrastructure Department of State Development, Infrastructure and Planning