The December issue is live!

It’s not an easy time to be a global billionaire.

That is, when it comes to trying to move capital out of the country.

“I look at the events over the last 12 months and I say, ‘Now I’ve seen everything,’” David Tobin, founder of real estate and debt brokerage Mission Capital, told The Real Deal.  “So many things have converged over the last 12 months in terms of disclosure, disappearances, a crazy political environment, that it all has to be correlated.”

For our cover story this month, The Real Deal took a close look at a slew of political crackdowns in Saudi Arabia, China and other countries and the potential impact they will have on real estate investment in the city.

In the December issue, we ranked retail firms in the city by the amount of square footage they leased between October 1, 2016 and September 30, 2017. RKF tops the list with 1.03 million square feet inked south of 126th Street.

There’s also a profile on WeWork’s mysterious first investor, Joel Schreiber. Back in 2010, he pledged $15 million for a third of the then-scrappy startup. Seven years later, the company is estimated to be worth $20 billion. According to some, however, Schreiber burned some other business partners along the way.

The issue also takes readers inside the increasingly ugly battle between data giants CoStar and Xcelligent and shows how it’s part of a much larger focus on data in the real estate industry.

To read the December issue of TRD, click here or on the “Magazine” tab on the top left of the homepage. Enjoy! — Kathryn Brenzel