USA Law and Practice Contributed by: Richard L. Rosen, Leonard S. Salis and Dennison Marzocco, Rosen Karol Salis PLLC
down 140 basis points year-over-year, with 17 of the top 25 US markets recording vacancy decreases over the course of 2025. The market remains bifurcated: demand is concentrating in high-quality, amenity-rich space, while older and less well-located buildings continue to struggle. Hybrid work remains a struc - tural feature of the market, though net absorption turned positive in the second half of 2025, marking the strongest back-to-back quarterly performance since the pandemic. Retail Space Retail fundamentals remain strong so far in 2026, with robust leasing activity, rising rents and scarce new supply keeping quality space at a premium, despite ongoing margin pressures for many tenants. The sector continues to outperform its office coun - terpart, though performance remains heavily loca - tion-dependent. Online purchasing continues to be a competitive factor, particularly for commodity retail, while experiential and necessity-based retail remains resilient. Blockchain Developments Blockchain offers transparency for real estate transac - tions, but adoption thus far has mainly been for retail trading. Major firms such as BlackRock offer Bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs) for easy trading access – though notably Vanguard does not, having declined to offer such products. Bitcoin reached an all-time high of over USD126,000 in October 2025, before pulling back significantly. By early 2026, Bitcoin had declined roughly 50% from that peak, with prices trad - ing in the mid-to-upper USD60,000s amidst continued volatility (although historically Bitcoin has experienced numerous deep pullbacks of this nature). 1.3 Proposals for Reform National Association of Realtors Settlement The National Association of Realtors (NAR) settled a landmark antitrust lawsuit in March 2024, which accused real estate brokers of artificially inflating sales commissions. As part of the settlement, sellers are no longer automatically responsible for paying commis - sions to both their own agent and the buyer’s agent, and a seller’s agent can no longer specify on a Multiple Listing Service (MLS) how much the buyer’s agent will
be paid. Instead, commissions to a buyer’s agent are negotiated separately, and buyers must sign a writ - ten agreement with their agent before touring a home. These changes took effect on 17 August 2024 and are now fully embedded in industry practice. Somewhat counterintuitively, commission rates have not fallen as hoped – they have actually risen slightly, averaging 2.43% in 2025, as sellers in a slow market continue to offer buyer agent fees to attract purchasers. The settlement has also emboldened state legislatures to enact their own broker fee laws, with Massachu - setts already having done so, and other jurisdictions expected to follow. Institutional Investors in Residential Real Estate Institutional investors in the United States own hun - dreds of thousands of single and two-family homes – a figure that some estimates suggest could grow to 40% of the single-family rental market by 2030. In response, Governor Hochul signed Assembly Bill A3009C into law on 9 May 2025, which imposes a 90-day waiting period on the purchase of one- and two-family residences for certain institutional inves - tors, restricts the use of certain tax deductions for such investors, and requires the Secretary of State to provide public notice when creating cease-and- desist zones. The 90-day waiting period and cease- and-desist zone provisions took effect on 1 July 2025, while the prohibition on tax deductions took effect immediately upon signing. The law applies to entities that own ten or more single or two-family residences, act as fiduciaries for pooled investor funds, and have at least USD30 million in net value or assets under management. New York is not alone – a revised federal “Stop Preda - tory Investing Act” was reintroduced in the US Sen - ate in March 2025, which would deny interest and depreciation deductions to taxpayers owning 50 or more single-family properties, and other states are considering similar legislation.
2. Sale and Purchase 2.1 Categories of Property Rights Property rights come in various forms.
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