At coUrbanize, we believe that when real estate teams and local leaders engage their communities, better neighborhoods are built. In early March of this year – shortly before the COVID19 pandemic upended our daily lives – our team launched a national survey of 1,000+ people to better understand how they feel about real estate development in their neighborhoods.
The survey findings validate a phenomenon we often experience: NIMBYs only represent a vocal minority and most people overwhelmingly support some degree of development – as long as it reflects their needs and those of the neighborhood. This means that real estate teams have a tremendous opportunity to activate community support by articulating how projects benefit the broader community.
Engaging with the community is a win-win for community members and real estate teams alike. Community members have a right to influence what happens in their community because they offer something that experts and consultants can’t – experiences and knowledge based on what it’s like to live, work and raise families in that area.
Our report, The Upside of Real Estate Development, summarizes these findings. We hope this data will help guide how development teams think about community engagement and its importance – and that it will inspire more development teams to encourage and embrace community feedback.
– The coUrbanize Marketing Team
