If you’re tired of “Year in Review” and “Best of 2015” articles, here’s a look forward to a few things coming in 2016.
1. Lease Accounting Changes: The FASB and IASB are expected to publish the revised standards for lease accounting in early 2016. (Finally!) Although the goal was convergence, there will still be two different guidelines for companies reporting under US GAAP and those reporting under IFRS. Compliance will be critical, but the effort companies have and will put in to get compliant will enable companies to take advantage of the new rules to improve both the Balance Sheet and Income Statement. That’s right, these changes are a GOOD thing for companies that pay attention!
2. More (and More) Investment in CRE: In the recent omnibus spending bill, Congress removed some restrictions on forging investment in US real estate, meaning that there will additional billions of dollars following the billions already predicted to come in across both shining seas. This new demand, coupled with ever growing domestic demand, should keep cap rates low and values high for buildings leased to credit worthy tenants.
3. Presidential Election: Nah, I’ll leave this to other people.
4. Technological Advancements for CRE: The revolution is upon us. Telecommuting, energy efficiency, ride sharing, and online retailing have all affected the nature of commercial real estate. What’s coming next? Look for Machine Learning to help lease administration, improved analytics for site selection, and Big Data integrations across disciplines to create better decision making.
And look to Jackson Cross for help with all these things (except the election) in 2016.
Happy New Year.