Good morning! Real estate is entering fall with a mix of resilience and reckoning across markets.

In housing, median prices finally ticked lower, yet affordability remains elusive as new-home inventory climbs to its highest level since 2008. Buyers are experimenting with “sleepover test-drives” before closing. Meanwhile, a landmark Realtor fee settlement has yet to meaningfully cut costs, leaving consumers frustrated.

On the commercial side, Manhattan is roaring back — office leasing is on track for its strongest year since 2019, up 20% in August alone, while major deals like Stamford Towers in Connecticut and Compass’s $1.6B takeover of Anywhere Real Estate highlight a market still very much in motion. Developers are finding creative workarounds, building just shy of 100 units to skirt wage rules, as the industry adjusts to shifting costs and politics.

Globally, dealmaking is stirring too: $380B poured into real estate in the first half of 2025, and firms like Toll Brothers and Security Properties are reshaping portfolios with bold multifamily exits and acquisitions. Yet New York’s Airbnb crackdown shows how regulation can disappoint — doing little to ease supply pressures even as investors keep hunting for yield.

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Even the titans aren’t immune to New York’s office market reckoning. Amancio Ortega, the billionaire founder of Zara and one of the world’s wealthiest real estate investors, just sold his Midtown Manhattan office tower at 366 Madison Avenue for about $50 million. The problem? He paid $120 million in 2006. That’s a gut-punch 60% loss—in one of the most coveted office corridors on the planet.

The sale is a vivid marker of how far values have fallen. Once considered safe, core Manhattan offices are now trading like distressed assets. Remote work, higher interest rates, and tenant downsizing have combined to gut the economics of legacy buildings, even in prime locations.

For Ortega, who has built a global property empire spanning luxury offices and retail, the Madison Avenue hit is just one asset. But for the broader market, it’s a warning shot: the office reset is no longer theoretical, it’s playing out in hard dollars.

Meanwhile, brokers and opportunistic funds are circling, betting that today’s pain could become tomorrow’s bargain. But with leasing demand still sluggish, catching the bottom may be trickier than it looks.

Takeaway: If a billionaire fashion mogul can lose his shirt on Manhattan office space, imagine the pressure on smaller landlords. The office market isn’t just wobbling—it’s repricing, fast.

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Dealmaking & Latest Developments

Need help with real estate? Our official partner, Nest Seekers International, can help you buy, sell, rent, or invest, anywhere in the world. Get in touch here.