The May issue is live!

Amid unprecedented competition in the residential real estate world, the battling between firms has reached epic proportions as firms attempt to beat each other out for top talent. This month, The Real Deal looked at some of the most intense rivalries, and the public (and not-so-public) conflicts they’ve given rise to, in our cover story for the May issue, now available online.

In the last three years, the real estate world has seen a veritable boom in the number of tech startups. And while many of those firms have made headlines for their splashy entrées onto the scene, some are clearly pulling ahead as others are trailing. This month, we rank these startups based on one factor- how much money they’ve managed to raise from investors.

As the face of Brooklyn rapidly changes, the face of one of its most prolific developers remains shrouded in shadows. This month, in a profile, TRD looked at Simon Dushinsky of the Rabsky Group, who has nearly 1,850 units in the pipeline.

We’ve also got our annual ranking of Manhattan’s top residential firms, which shows that once again, Douglas Elliman ranked at the top of TRD’s list for both number of agents and dollar volume of listings. As a group, Manhattan’s 12 biggest firms — only the borough’s largest brokerage by number of agents make the ranking — had a total of $12.8 billion in exclusive Manhattan sales listings, up marginally from $12.7 billion in 2014. But that was far higher than the $8.5 billion logged in 2013.

There’s heaps more in this issue, including a look at the New York’s hotel pipeline, an analysis of private equity’s impact on the New York market and a comparison of investor returns for REITs and private funds.

Finally, in our Closing interview, the New York Times’ architecture critic Paul Goldberger talks about battling with Shell, buying at the Dakota in the ‘70s and shares his thoughts on starchitecture.

To read the issue, click here or on the “Magazine” tab on the top of the website. Enjoy! – TRD