Life Science RE Sector Faces Challenges, Yet Recovery Is in Sight

 With a severe supply-demand imbalance intensifying in most major lab markets across the U.S. in the past year, the overall national lab availability rate has increased to 30 percent and rents have fallen by nearly 9 percent, back to the start of the downturn in early 2022, according to JLL’s new life science real estate perspective and cluster analysis report.

While the short-term market for life science real estate continues to be challenging, JLL’s experts note there is optimism for the sector long term. Demand for U.S. life science real estate has increased for the past three quarters, with 3 percent growth in the second quarter of 2024.

In other positive news, the report states demand for space in Boston was about even with 2019 levels; the San Francisco Bay Area is about 30 percent above pre-COVID levels; and San Diego is seeing more than 60 percent higher demand than in the first quarter of 2019.

Other reasons for optimism cited in the report include life science employment growing by 2 percent and new company growth climbing more than 10 percent higher than 2024.

JLL also noted 2023 was a banner year for FDA approvals and 2024, while slightly lower, is still within range of recent years. Biotechnology patent innovation was 22 percent higher in 2023 than it was in the prior decade, which should result in more company creation.

Pharma sales are projected to be more than 80 percent higher in 2030 than in 2023, driven by doubling of revenues from biologics. Growth capital is also expected to rebound. JLL notes the largest 20 or so life science venture firms, which have raised $2.4 billion a year in the past decade, have been raising that amount every four months since January. That means they are likely sitting on dry powder waiting to deploy.

Market equilibrium to vary

However, the return to market equilibrium will vary widely by geography as the industry works through the supply-demand imbalance created post-pandemic as billions of capital flowed into the life science sector, often from new entrants seeking investment opportunities. Some markets and submarkets may recover within two years while others may take from four to five years to recover.

“The real estate recovery could come sooner than 2030 for many markets,” Mark Bruso, JLL director, Boston and National Life Sciences Research, told Commercial Property Executive. “If there is one thing we know about the biotech industry, it’s when it shifts its gears into growth mode, it can grow quite fast.”

Bruso said the submarkets to recover first will be those long-established hubs and markets which avoided the supply excesses of 2020 to 2022.

“But certainly, there could be pockets across the U.S.—I am thinking of severely oversupplied submarkets today with not a lot of leasing to speak of—that might not see a market of equilibrium until (2030),” Bruso said.

In the report, JLL outlines major markets and submarkets across the U.S. and breaks down the expected timeframe to return to equilibrium as short, medium and long term.

“We think of a short return to equilibrium being sometime in the next two years. A long-term return being something north of four to five years from today. And medium being in between those two,” Bruso said.

The Bay Area with 39.6 million square feet of existing inventory is listed as having a long timeframe while the South San Francisco submarket with 12.9 million square feet of existing inventory is considered in a medium recovery timeframe. The Los Angeles market, which has 12 million square feet of existing inventory, is expected to have a short return to equilibrium.

In the San Diego, the overall market has 24.3 million square feet of existing space and is in the medium timeframe for return to equilibrium. One of the top submarkets, Torrey Pines, with 6.4 million square feet of existing inventory, is also expected to have a medium return. But another hot submarket, UTC with 3.5 million square feet of existing inventory, is listed as a short return. The Sorrento Mesa submarket with 7.3 million square feet of existing space, is expected to have a long return to equilibrium.

In Boston, the overall market with 49.5 million square feet of existing inventory is listed as a long return to equilibrium but the East Cambridge submarket with 12.3 million square feet of existing inventory is considered to have a short return. The Seaport submarket, with 4.6 million square feet of existing space, is expected to be in the medium timeframe, while the Core Suburbs, with 7.7 million square feet of existing inventory, are in the long timeframe.

“When we give a submarket a long-term estimate, it is because that market has a high amount of leasable space given its size and historical leasing volume,” Bruso said. “So even when things normalize, it will take those submarkets additional time to find a neutral market.”

Bruso also pointed to long-established submarkets like Kendall (in the Boston market) and Torrey Pines where it is exceedingly hard to develop new projects because of a critical lack of developable parcels.

“Some submarkets had both excess land sites and old offices converted while the market was hot between 2020 and 2022 and provided a one-two punch of excess lab space once the market turned,” he said.

Pipeline slowing

JLL projects the “supply supercycle” will end within the next six to 12 months, depending on the market. It is expected to be followed by a period with limited new supply and repurposing of older lab assets to boost recovery.

The total U.S. lab inventory at mid-2024 was 171.6 million square feet compared to 151.1 million square feet in mid-2023, up 20.5 million square feet. Occupied lab space at mid-year was 130.8 million square feet compared to 131 million square feet at mid-year 2023. The pipeline is beginning to slow with 19.1 million square feet of space halfway through this year compared to 38.4 million square feet of space at mid-year 2023, down 19.2 million square feet.

Asked about the pipeline beyond 2025, Bruso said he does not expect to see much if any groundbreakings in the next 18 to 24 months. He added it would be hard to envision speculative projects breaking ground unless they have a great location, sponsor and infrastructure.

“There will be one-offs of build-to-suits for flagship biopharmas that come out of the ground, but those will be limited to the most long-established submarkets. Otherwise, developers, investors and lenders will want to see definitive evidence of supply coming in check before there is an appetite again for speculative development,” Bruso said. “Beyond that it is difficult to say, but we will not be seeing anything even remotely approaching the scale of development of the past few years for the rest of this decade.”

AI impacts on life science

The report notes venture capital funding, critical to predicting future demand for lab space, has shifted over the past year. The first half of 2024 saw a 34 percent increase in total venture investment in the U.S. life science sector, but VC firms have been focusing more on mature, later-stage clinical assets, which creates challenges for the smaller, early-stage biotechs. Those firms are seeing deal flow cut in half compared to 2019.

Venture funding has also morphed into what JLL calls “mega-rounds” of more than $100 million. Those represent 60 percent of venture funding inflows compared to 40 percent in 2023. JLL also noted 12 percent of all sector VC dollars are heading to artificial intelligence/machine learning companies. That level of funding is already higher than all of 2023.

Bruso said as the costs to develop new therapies have skyrocketed, biopharma companies have been levering AI and machine learning technology for years. Use of this technology in the drug discovery phase can help companies identify the most promising molecules and cut down on the time and cost to get a drug to market.

With the growing influence of AI, JLL added a new ranking to its annual report. Top markets for talent were also added this year.

The San Francisco Bay Area was ranked as the top market for AI and accounts for half of all AI/ML biopharma venture funding since January 2023. Boston, which received one-fifth of AI/ML biopharma venture funding was ranked second. Los Angeles (3), San Diego (4) and Chicago (5) rounded out the top five markets. When it came to assessing market strengths for AI investments, the concentration of talent and funding were big indicators of trailblazers in the emerging space.

Top life science clusters

When determining the top overall life science clusters, JLL Research analyzed key fundamentals and drivers that differentiate markets, including growth, density and momentum across talent, funding and real estate fundamentals.

Not surprisingly, Boston (1), San Francisco Bay Area (2) and San Diego (3) continue to be the top three markets for life science commercial real estate in the U.S. They are mature clusters have been at the apex of life science activity for years with an established talent and funding base and the real estate infrastructure to support activity.

The rest of the top 10 life science clusters as ranked by JLL are: Greater D.C. and Baltimore (4), Raleigh-Durham, N.C., (5), Los Angeles (6), New Jersey (7), Philadelphia (8), New York City (9) and Seattle (10).

For the second year, JLL Research also ranked the top five markets for medtech and biomanufacturing. In the medtech list, Los Angeles placed first followed by Minneapolis (2), San Francisco Bay Area (3), Boston (4) and Salt Lake City (5).

This year, Boston took the top biomanufacturing spot from Raleigh-Durham, which placed third. Other markets were New Jersey (2), Greater D.C. and Baltimore (4) and the San Francisco Bay Area (5).

https://www.commercialsearch.com/news/life-science-sector-faces-challenges-yet-recovery-is-in-sight/

Sound familiar? 'Shanghai Eases Homebuying Rules As China Extends Support'

 China’s financial hub of Shanghai eased rules for homebuyers, the first top city to follow through on the central government’s latest aid for the embattled property sector.

The city will make it easier for those without local household registration to purchase homes in suburban areas by shortening the number of years they need to pay social security or individual tax to one year from three years previously, according to a statement late Sunday. Those who’ve paid social security or tax for three years will be allowed to purchase the same number of properties as local residents — a move that will let them buy at least two homes, compared with just one earlier.

Shanghai also reduced downpayment ratios to a minimum of 15% for first-time buyers from 20% previously. Those buying second homes in the city center will need to make a minimum downpayment of 25%, while rates for homes outside those areas will be cut to 20%, down from 30% previously. The rules will take effect from Oct. 1, according to the statement.

The central bank on Sunday also announced that it will allow refinancing of mortgages. The move, confirming earlier reports by Bloomberg News, underscores China’s urgency to stem a housing-led slowdown in Asia’s largest economy as it faces the prospect of increasing protectionism and a shaky global outlook.

China in late September unveiled its biggest package yet to shore up its beleaguered property market, lowering borrowing costs on as much as $5.3 trillion in mortgages and easing down-payment requirements for second-home purchases to a historical low.

Top leaders also pledged action to make the real estate market “stop declining,” their strongest vow yet to stabilize the sector after new-home prices fell in August at the fastest pace since 2014. The central government directive, including encouraging cities to modify home-buying restrictions, paved the way for China’s biggest cities to roll out easing.

Homeowners will be able to renegotiate terms with their current lenders effective Nov. 1, the People’s Bank of China said Sunday. Those who chose fixed mortgage rates can also renegotiate new loans based on the latest loan prime rate, a reference rate for mortgage loans, according to the statement.

The measures will slash outstanding rates for individual borrowers by an average of 50 basis points, and reduce their annual interest expenses by about 150 billion yuan ($21 billion), PBOC Governor Pan Gongsheng said earlier in September. Banks usually reprice existing loans at the beginning of the year based on the five-year loan prime rate, which has been lowered by 35 basis points.

China will allow mortgage refinancing for both first and second homes, according to a separate statement by the nation’s interest rate self-disciplinary body overseen by the central bank. The inclusion of second-home buyers for mortgage refinancing marks an expansion from a similar drive a year earlier, which applied to first-home purchasers only.

Last year’s mortgage refinancing push reduced outstanding rates by an average of 73 basis points and lowered borrowers’ annual interest expenses by about 170 billion yuan, the PBOC said in a July report.

Major banks should announce detailed rules no later than Oct. 12 and complete the mortgage refinancing before Oct. 31. State-owned lenders including Industrial & Commercial Bank of China Ltd., Bank of China Ltd., Bank of Communications Co. and Agricultural Bank of China Ltd. all announced their rules immediately after the PBOC’s statement.

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/shanghai-eases-homebuying-rules-china-152451058.html

Outrage In Vienna As Luxury Apartments For Refugees Spark Protests

 By Thomas Brooke of Remix News

Tensions are rising in Vienna’s 10th district, Favoriten, as local residents express anger over a project to house refugees in 110 newly built, luxury apartments.

The apartments, equipped with air conditioning, balconies, and modern kitchens, have stirred controversy as local citizens and political figures question the decision to allocate such accommodations to refugees while many Viennese struggle with substandard housing

The joint initiative between the city government and the Protestant charitable organization Diakonie is designed to house recognized refugees and their families and prepare them for the labor market. However, the decision to offer such modern accommodations to asylum seekers has triggered outrage, particularly after revelations of the case of a Syrian family receiving €4,600 in social assistance in Vienna. Many feel that the city’s resources are being unfairly allocated to non-citizens.

Around 30 local residents staged a spontaneous protest on Wednesday morning in front of the apartment building, holding signs with slogans like, “Rental madness for Viennese, luxury building for asylum seekers!”

Alongside the protest, a signature campaign has gathered around 200 supporters.

One protester said, “Why should people who haven’t contributed to this country get luxury apartments while many of us are stuck in old, moldy housing?”

The district of Favoriten, already a hotspot for migrant communities, has seen heightened concerns about the integration of new residents. Some locals fear that the project could further strain the area’s resources and social cohesion.

The poll-topping Freedom Party’s (FPÖ) local branch in the Austrian capital strongly criticized the decision, with leader Dominik Nepp accusing the socialist mayor Michael Ludwig of prioritizing refugees over local Austrians.

While countless Viennese have to live in moldy municipal apartments and don’t even get new windows, asylum seekers who have never worked a day here are given brand new luxury apartments with air conditioning,” Nepp said.

“There’s no money for renovations of dilapidated municipal buildings, but there are luxury apartments with attics and private gardens for refugees,” he added.

The minority FPÖ cohort on the city council has moved for a motion of no confidence against Ludwig, which is not expected to pass given the political arithmetic.

The incident has sparked a wider debate about housing inequality in Vienna. Many residents point out that minimum pensioners and low-income families often live in substandard municipal apartments, waiting years for improvements like new windows or mold remediation.

However, this isn’t a situation unique to Austria. Governments in multiple European nations are being accused by citizens of prioritizing newcomers over the locals.

https://www.zerohedge.com/political/outrage-vienna-luxury-apartments-refugees

-spark-protests

Even more Manhattan offices are slated for a residential conversion

 Continuing the post-pandemic trend, yet more Manhattan office buildings have been marked for conversion into residential units. 

The newest address to join the pool is 77 Water St., a 26-story Financial District tower that Big Apple-based real estate firm Vanbarton reportedly plans to turn into some 600 rental apartments, people familiar with the matter told Crain’s.

Vanbarton is reportedly under contract to pay approximately $95 million for the 1970s-built tower in a deal that is anticipated to close before the year is out. 

The office tower is slated to be transformed into some 600 apartments.Google Maps

Over the years, commercial tenants at the building have included AT&T, Goldman Sachs and the law firm Lewis Brisbois Bisgaard & Smith.

According to real estate management company VTS, the Water Street property currently has approximately 546,000 square feet of usable office space, as well as amenities including an open plaza area dotted with locust trees, a Wild West-style candy store within the building and, on the roof, a steel replica of a World War I fighter plane. 

Transforming empty or under-used office spaces has become an increasingly popular tactic as employees continue to significantly do their jobs remotely and the affordable housing crisis creates high demand for residential. 

The ground level of the 1970-built building.Google Maps

Well over 60 New York City office buildings are currently in the process of attempting to quickly convert into homes, with some more viable for such remodeling than others.

“If your building is wide open and empty, there is a clear path,” Gerard Nocera of Resolution Real Estate commented on the matter, The Post previously reported. “But if you have tenants with long-term leases, to rework your core with existing tenants is an impossibility.”

One particularly notable such conversion case is that of the celebrated Flatiron Building, an iconic office tower for which residential plans were filed last month.

https://nypost.com/2024/09/26/real-estate/even-more-manhattan-offices-slated-for-residential-conversion/

Maine mayor tells seniors to take reverse mortgages to pay soaring property taxes brought on by illegals

 By Monica Showalter

Mass illegal migration has been tough on the finances of small cities and towns throughout the U.S.

So, many of these towns are raising property taxes -- through the roof.

South Portland, Maine, which has seen a mass influx of illegals flown in by the Harris-Biden administration, has raised its property taxes for residents 25% in the last five years as a result. Some have seen hikes as high as 60%. Spending for illegals and their NGO "services" keeps piling up, always going higher than the previously promised budget for them.

They don't like to say much any more to voters about all the services they offer to illegals -- their city page on it has been wiped out.

But the locals, particularly the elderly on fixed incomes, have obviously complained.

The mayor of South Portland, Misha Pride, who is probably a Democrat, has just the answer for them: Reverse mortgages.

 

That might be in character, given that what appears to be another person named Misha Pride (his father?) is an attorney who lives in South Portland who specializes in elder law and estate planning. If the mayor and the older man in the picture not related, it's a heck of a coincidence.

So what Price the mayor is saying is that instead of cutting costs in order to keep taxes at a reasonable level or making investment conditions more attractive to bring in new property tax payers, they'll keep the taxes at the same level, but require residents to give up their residence equity, accumulated after a lifetime of savings and self-denial one way or another -- either through confiscation for unpaid taxes, or through reverse mortgages that will allow them to live out their golden years in their own homes. And that's after paying property taxes for a lifetime on these properties -- now it's time to give up the properties -- to pay for the illegals' properties, and the NGOs' six-figure salaries. One wonders if they'll hand the tax delinquent properties over to the illegals anyway.

All of your houses are belong to us. Su casa is el gobierno's casa.

There's no such thing as lowering taxes or simply not paying for illegals' free housing in this guy's universe. All of the higher costs go to the people who live there.

It's outrageous, effectively theft of property by government to pay for foreign invaders who've contributed nothing to the places they seek to live in, yet are effectively taking them as spoils now, running desperate and overtaxed old people out of their own homes.

It's incredible how tin-eared this mayor is, but it's likely he's in so deep with the NGOs and Democrat party agenda he can't see any different.

Now he's coming for the old people, forcing them to sell their property at fire sale prices to big investors in order to be able to live out their last years in them, and to heck with the inheritances they may have hoped to leave to their kids, given that they, too, can no longer afford to purchase homes.

Something's wrong with this picture.

That guy has got to go. If voters don't throw him out for that, he'll get what he wants from them one way or another, shaking out every last drop of wealth he can from them for the sake of his own power and that of those he intends to replace them with.

Hot Air's David Strom has more thoughts here.

https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2024/09/maine_mayor_tells_elderly_residents_to_take_out_reverse_mortgages_to_pay_their_soaring_property_taxes_bankrolling_illegals.html

Timeshare Owner? The Mexican Drug Cartels Want You

 The FBI is warning timeshare owners to be wary of a prevalent telemarketing scam involving a violent Mexican drug cartel that tries to trick people into believing someone wants to buy their property. This is the story of a couple who recently lost more than $50,000 to an ongoing timeshare scam that spans at least two dozen phony escrow, title and realty firms.

One of the phony real estate companies trying to scam elderly people out of money over fake offers to buy their timeshares.

One evening in late 2022, someone phoned Mr. & Mrs. Dimitruk, a retired couple from Ontario, Canada and asked whether they’d ever considered selling their timeshare in Florida. The person on the phone referenced their timeshare address and said they had an interested buyer in Mexico. Would they possibly be interested in selling it?

The Dimitruks had purchased the timeshare years ago, but it wasn’t fully paid off — they still owed roughly $5,000 before they could legally sell it. That wouldn’t be an issue for this buyer, the man on the phone assured them.

With a few days, their contact at a escrow company in New York called ecurrencyescrow[.]llc faxed them forms to fill out and send back to start the process of selling their timeshare to the potential buyer, who had offered an amount that was above what the property was likely worth.

After certain forms were signed and faxed, the Dimitruks were asked to send a small wire transfer of more than $3,000 to handle “administrative” and “processing” fees, supposedly so that the sale would not be held up by any bureaucratic red tape down in Mexico.

These document exchanges went on for almost a year, during which time the real estate brokers made additional financial demands, such as tax payments on the sale, and various administrative fees. Mrs. Dimitruk even sent them a $5,000 wire to pay off her remaining balance on the timeshare they thought they were selling.

In a phone interview with KrebsOnSecurity, Mr. Dimitruk said they lost over $50,000.

“They kept calling me after that saying, ‘Hey your money is waiting for you here’,” said William Dimitruk, a 73-year-old retired long-haul truck driver. “They said ‘We’re going to get in trouble if the money isn’t returned to you,’ and gave me a toll-free number to call them at.”

In the last call he had with the scammers, the man on the other end of the line confessed that some bad people had worked for them previously, but that those employees had been fired.

“Near the end of the call he said, ‘You’ve been dealing with some bad people and we fired all those bad guys,'” Dimitruk recalled. “So they were like, yeah it’s all good. You can go ahead and pay us more and we’ll send you your money.”

According to the FBI, there are indeed some very bad people behind these scams. The FBI warns the timeshare fraud schemes have been linked to the Jalisco New Generation drug cartel in Mexico.

In July 2024, the FBI and the Treasury Department’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) warned the Jalisco cartel is running boiler room-like call centers that target people who own timeshares:

“Mexico-based [transnational criminal organizations] such as the Jalisco New Generation Cartel are increasingly targeting U.S. owners of timeshares in Mexico through complex and often yearslong telemarketing, impersonation, and advance fee schemes. They use the illicit proceeds to diversify their revenue streams and finance other criminal activities, including the manufacturing and trafficking of illicit fentanyl and other synthetic drugs into the United States.”

A July 2024 CBS News story about these scams notes that U.S. and Mexican officials last year confirmed that as many as eight young workers were confirmed dead after they apparently tried to quit jobs at a call center operated by the Jalisco cartel.

Source: US Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control.

The phony escrow company the Dimitruks dealt with — ecurrencyescrow[.]llc — is no longer online. But the documents sent by their contact there referenced a few other still-active domains, including realestateassetsllc[.]com

The original registration records of both of these domains reference another domain — datasur[.]host — that is associated with dozens of other real estate and escrow-themed domains going back at least four years. Some of these domains are no longer active, while others have been previously suspended at different hosting providers.

061nyr[.]net
061-newyorkrealty[.]net
1nydevelopersgroupllc[.]com
1oceanrealtyllc[.]com
advancedclosingservicesllc[.]com
americancorporatetitle[.]com
asesorialegalsiglo[.]com
atencion-tributaria.[]com
carolinasctinc[.]net
closingandsettlementservices[.]com
closingandsettlementsllc[.]com
closingsettlementllc[.]com
crefaescrowslimited[.]net
ecurrencyescrow[.]llc
empirerllc[.]com
fiduciarocitibanamex[.]com
fondosmx[.]org
freightescrowcollc[.]com
goldmansachs-investment[.]com
hgvccorp[.]com
infodivisionfinanciera[.]com
internationaladvisorllc[.]com
jadehillrealtyllc[.]com
lewisandassociaterealty[.]com
nyreputable[.]org
privateinvestment.com[.]co
realestateassetsllc[.]com
realestateisinc[.]com
settlementandmanagement[.]com
stllcservices[.]com
stllcservices[.]net
thebluehorizonrealtyinc[.]com
walshrealtyny[.]net
windsorre[.]com

By loading ecurrencyescrowllc[.]com into the Wayback Machine at archive.org, we can see text at the top of the page that reads, “Visit our resource library for videos and tools designed to make managing your escrow disbursements a breeze.”

Searching on that bit of text at publicwww.com shows the same text appears on the website of an escrow company called Escshieldsecurity Network (escshieldsecurity[.]com). This entity claims to have been around since 2009, but the domain itself is less than two years old, and there is no contact information associated with the site. The Pennsylvania Secretary of State also has no record of a business by this name at its stated address.

Incredibly, Escshieldsecurity pitches itself as a solution to timeshare closing scams.

“By 2015, cyber thieves had realized the amount of funds involved and had targeted the real estate, title and settlement industry,” the company’s website states. “As funding became more complex and risky, agents and underwriters had little time or resources to keep up. The industry needed a simple solution that allowed it to keep pace with new funding security needs.”

The domains associated with this scam will often reference legitimate companies and licensed professionals in the real estate and closing businesses, but those real professionals often have no idea they’re being impersonated until someone starts asking around. The truth is, the original reader tip that caused KrebsOnSecurity to investigate this scheme came from one such professional whose name and reputation was being used to scam others.

It is unclear whether the Dimitruks were robbed by people working for the Jalisco cartel, but it is clear that whoever is responsible for managing many of the above-mentioned domains — including the DNS provider datasur[.]host — recently compromised their computer with information-stealing malware.

That’s according to data collected by the breach tracking service Constella Intelligence [Constella is currently an advertiser on KrebsOnSecurity]. Constella found that someone using the email address exposed in the DNS records for datasur[.]host — jyanes1920@gmail.com — also was relieved of credentials for managing most of the domains referenced above at a Mexican hosting provider.

It’s not unusual for victims of such scams to keep mum about their misfortune. Sometimes, it’s shame and embarrassment that prevents victims from filing a report with the local authorities. But in this case, victims who learn they’ve been robbed by a violent drug cartel have even more reason to remain silent.

William Dimitruk acknowledged that he and his wife haven’t yet filed a police report. But after acknowledging it could help prevent harm to other would-be victims, Mr. Dimitruk said he would consider it.

There is another reason victims of scams like this should notify authorities: Occasionally, the feds will bust up one of these scam operations and seize funds that were stolen from victims. But those investigations can take years, and it can be even more years before the government starts trying to figure out who got scammed and how to remunerate victims. All too often, the real impediment to returning some of those losses is that the feds have no idea who the victims are.

If you are the victim of a timeshare scam like this, please consider filing a report with the FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3), at ic3.gov. Other places where victims may wish to file a complaint:

Federal Trade Commission – https://www.ftccomplaintassistant.gov
International Consumer Protection and Enforcement Network – https://www.econsumer.gov/en
Profeco – Mexican Attorney General – https://consulmex.sre.gob.mx/montreal/index.php/en/foreigners/services-foreigners/318-consumer-protection

https://krebsonsecurity.com/2024/09/timeshare-owner-the-mexican-drug-cartels-want-you/