“We stand now at the turning point between two eras. Behind us is a past to which we can never return …” — Arthur C. Clarke

Lockdowns and fear, induced by the world’s first pandemic in 100 years, are beginning to fade in conjunction with unprecedented leaps in human ingenuity and endeavor. Rapid advances in science and technology enabled the fastest approval and rollout of new vaccines in history. Consensus estimates peg global vaccination to reach 70 percent of the population by the end of 2022. Our outlook on global growth is, therefore, considerably brighter than it was 12 months ago, and we are confident vaccination levels will be high enough to prevent a return to the shutdowns that crippled the global economy in 2020.

As we head toward a new status quo, real estate investors will need to grapple with some profound unknowns the pandemic has created. Decades of human behavior has been turned on its head, and it is increasingly clear that many pre