Real estate · Industry brief

Bilt has acquired Livly's property-operations platform in an undisclosed deal and established a resident-experience partnership with Collective Residential, consolidating multifamily technology capabilities. The acquisition integrates Livly's access control, package management, and smart-home systems into Bilt's leasing, payments, and engagement tools, creating a unified platform spanning prospect-to-renewal resident lifecycle. According to HousingWire, the transaction reflects broader market consolidation trends as owners move away from fragmented point solutions toward integrated ecosystems, with Bilt positioning itself to expand from core housing operations into neighborhood commerce, loyalty programs, and revenue-generating merchant partnerships through its "hospitality for housing" model.

California's Housing Development and Finance Committee (HDFC) published draft regulations on August 31, 2026, establishing a unified application and review process for state affordable housing programs administering approximately $530 million in 2027 funding. The regulations would standardize scoring criteria, construction-readiness standards, affordability requirements, ground lease terms, lien priority, subordination, refinancing, and monitoring for multifamily housing, farmworker housing, infill infrastructure, transit-oriented development, and mixed-income programs. Comments are due September 18, 2026, followed by a second draft and public hearing before final adoption; the rules could materially affect cities, counties, housing authorities, developers, investors, and lenders planning 2027 projects or seeking additional state funding.