COVID-19 News Round-up for October 23rd

Budget, Policy & Stimulus News 
Glendale Introduces Landlord, Tenant Relief 
The Glendale City Council approved a program designed to help tenants and property owners apply for assistance if they’ve been affected by the coronavirus pandemic. The Property Owner Preservation program is designed to allow landlords to apply for federally funded assistance on behalf of their residential tenants if they are struggling to make rent because of the pandemic. (Source: KTAR) 
Economic News 
Apartments in Lower-Cost Areas Set to Thrive 
With remote working increasing and oversupply a concern in urban markets, trends seem to favor suburban apartments in the future. (Source: GlobeSt.com) 
Hotels to See Uneven Recovery 
At the start of the pandemic, hotel investment froze along with the rest of CRE, but while other markets have thawed, mandated travel bans and subsequent outbreaks of COVID-19 have prevented the hotel market from recovering. In a blog post published by Preqin, John McCourt and Ryan McAndrew of RSM US LLP predict that deal flow won’t return until 2022 to levels seen before the pandemic. But when it does return, it will likely come in fits and starts depending on the asset type, its location and the financial status of the owners. (Source: GlobeSt.com) 
Lennar’s Pivot in Pandemic 
The president of the Arizona market for Lennar Corp. is encouraged by how his team pivoted during COVID-19. In the past few months, Lennar’s internet sales team has nearly doubled, growing from four people to seven, with continued growth on the horizon. (Source: Phoenix Business Journal) 
Office Return Plans Pushed to Summer 
With the rate of new cases of the coronavirus growing in the U.S. once again and no vaccine immediately on the horizon, businesses are beginning to give up on bringing employees back to the office this winter. Major employers have announced in the past week that they wouldn’t be requiring employees to return to their offices until at least July, the Times reports. Google, Uber, Slack, Airbnb and DocuSign have all pushed anticipated return-to-work dates until summer in the past few weeks. (Source: Bisnow) 
Self-Storage Still Holding Up 
A confluence of factors conspired to drive down rents at self-storage properties earlier in the year, but now with new demand generated by the broader disruptions caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, the sector’s fortunes have stabilized. Though the majority of properties were still close to fully occupied, over-eager developers had squeezed too many new projects into growing cities like Phoenix and Orlando, Fla., which put some downward pressure on rents. (Source: National Real Estate Investor)