With a growing number of employees working from home and 96% of people shopping online, protecting your commercial investment property is more important today than it has ever been. 

Buying a home is getting more and more expensive, thanks to sharp increases in both prices and mortgage rates. That is juicing demand for apartment rentals and, in turn, pushing rents higher. 

Starwood Capital Group has acquired Millennia Lakes I, II and III, a three-building, 414,000-square-foot office portfolio in Orlando, Fla., from Barings Real Estate. 

Though the U.S. economy remains strong with no signs of an immediate downturn on the horizon, key macroeconomic fundamentals, such as population growth, domestic migration and strong employment growth, have favored select secondary metros above primary markets at this 

Real estate executives were expecting this rate hike, so they were not alarmed by it. But what does it say about the future? 

TruAmerica Multifamily has acquired Solis at Winter Park, a Class B multifamily community in Orlando, Fla., for $79 million. The purchase of this property brings TruAmerica’s investment in Florida to nine assets totaling $500 million. The firm’s apartment portfolio totals more than 3,700 units 

The Orlando metro currently leads the nation on rent growth and is expected to further grow its average rent by 4.5 percent for 2018, per Yardi Matrix data. As the main economic engine of Central Florida, the county seat of Orange County also leads the state in job creation, further creating a strong environment for rental growth and the need of multifamily stock. 

Two separate REITs are exploring strategic alternatives for two entirely separate reasons — both of which are indicative of larger trends in the industry. They are CNL Healthcare Properties II and Columbia Property Trust.