Given the large increase in Swedish house prices and households_ indebtedness since the 1990s, it is important to study the seemingly strong relationship between house prices and bank lending. Credit expansion may increase house prices and higher house prices increases the wealth and, thereby, the bank lending. A better understanding of the interrelationship between bank lending and house prices is important on a macro level, e.g., as it influences policy decisions geared towards both the housing and the banking markets. However, it is also important on a micro level. For instance, it may have an impact on credit rating, property valuation and decisions regarding allocating bank funds to households vis-‡-vis firms as well as the bank_s risk exposure, in particular related to potential bubbles on the housing market, and the bank_s exposure to default risks on the housing credit market. Our aim here is to analyze this interaction by investigating the Granger causality in Sweden over the period 1993-2010. The plan is to estimate a structured vector autoregressive model and a vector error correction model and thereby investigate if changes in bank lending causes house prices to change and/or vice versa. If our results indicate that causality goes in both directions, credit expansion and increased bank lending stimulate the housing market at the same time as rising house prices induce more bank lending to the household sector. Hence, in that case mortgage restrictions may have an effect on the housing market with lower prices in the short run. Disequilibrium in the lending market and housing market may also have an effect on the house prices in the long run. This is something that is going to be investigated. There are few studies examining the relationship between house prices and bank lending over time and across regions. Our ambition is to fill this gap. Our results may be of particular interest in the light of the current policy debate in Sweden regarding how to tackle a sharp house price increase in urban areas (partly) due to historically low interest rates.

Nowadays, the indicators used to determine the real estate_s contribution to business activities in most organization are primarily focused on cost reduction or capital minimization. However, what is often not realized is that property can also assist revenue enhancement. This paper highlights the synthesis of previous studies from 1990 to 2010 in relation to the corporate real estate function. The considerations include the task of CRE executives that influence the shareholder_s wealth. The trends of the corporate real estate function are discussed. In summary, by recognizing the important of CRE function, it will provide the greatest support to CRE executives in public listed companies to enhance share price performance and dividend growth.

At a more global scale, the economic importance of infrastructure has been the subject of extensive research since the late 1980s (Finkenzeller and Dechant, 2009). Impelled by the mounting pressure associated with increasing demand for infrastructure coupled with the growing significance of infrastructure, the World Economic Forum (2008) has been committed to an annual global competitiveness report (GCR) reflecting on infrastructure as one of the key drivers of a countryís economic attractiveness and competitiveness, next only to institutional framework. However, there is a growing gap between infrastructure requirements and the ability of the public sector to adequately meet those needs given the large scale of infrastructure financing and governmentsí budgetary constraints, consequently, there is a cogent need to seek alternative and innovative vehicles to finance infrastructure. In the recent time, government across jurisdictions have begun to accept the public private partnership model as a practicable option for mitigating the escalating infrastructure investment shortfall, and this is expected to persist into the future until there is a more viable alternative to the PPP model. A total of 1887 PPP transactions have been identified from the infrastructure journal (IJ) database, covering a twenty two quarterly periods (Q1 2005-Q2 2010). The study examines the various financing options and trend of PPP investment across these periods using the time series modeler (TSM) to determine significant predictors/sectors of PPP transactions globally and across the leading countries within each region, revealing an enhanced signal of investorsí focus and disposition within the PPP markets.

Public Private Partnership (PPP) projects offer realisation and life cycle services for real estate by a fixed charge. For the awarding of PPP contracts the most efficient bid has to be recognized to ensure an efficient application of tax money corresponding to public procurement rules. Efficiency of a PPP bid is not obviously because of the output oriented tender, real estate specific characteristics and long contract periods of the partnerships. The efficiency of a PPP project is expressed by the cost-benefit-ratio. For a calculation of the cost-benefit-ratio of PPP projects a systematic analysis method will be presented. The newly developed method supports public clients (and private companies) by determination of the parameters cost and benefit. In a transparent way the most efficient PPP bid can be identified with this method. The analysis method is based on four levels. On the first level criteria for evaluation of bids are determined, based on user requirements. These criteria are worked out and weighted with help of quality function deployment (QFD) method of Prof. Akao. It ensures that user and client requirements are the important facts for the evaluation of benefit by a PPP project. The weighted criteria become part of the tender documents to support bidding companies by showing the important issues for the user and client and to reach best quality of real estate and related services in sense of the client. After submission of private companyís bids, the method which is presented supports on its second level the identification and objective evaluation of the benefits of a certain bid for the planned PPP project. Therefore evaluation schemes of single quality aspects in three categories building, operation and management are worked out in a catalogue. The objective benefit assessment generates a quality competition for the best real estate and services for the public client. The third level enables the user of the method to analyse the costs of a PPP bid. This cost analysis is based on a further development of German calculation standard for PPP total cost calculation. On the fourth level of the newly developed analysis method the most efficient PPP bid is going to be named due to the best benefit-cost-ratio. Due to the identification of the most efficient bid follows legal security for awarding the contract. Competition for best quality and cost transparency through the new method lead to best value for tax money.

In an increasingly global investment climate, mobile capital interested in residential investment generally seeks the highest return on invested capital (cap rate). However, we observe a very large range in these values. Systematic differences may be explained by tax rates, demographics, regional factors, net migration, political structure and transition, homeownership rates, and other social and economic indicators. For this preliminary investigation, a set of data from Global Property Guide, an on-line investor-related service that has upper-end residential sales and rental information in over 100 countries, was augmented by World Bank data for 2010. A second data set by UN Habitat covers many less-affluent nations during a transitionary period in the world economy during the 1990s is also available. For 2010, factors related to national affluence, availability of credit, and transaction costs were associated with lower residential cap rates. In 1998, only regional dummy variables for politics are significant for developing countries.

Over the last decade, the Middle East real estate industry has gone through a huge boom followed by a precipitous dip. This paper focuses on the challenges faced and responses by middle-eastern real estate companies in strategically adapting to these changes. Externally the market conditions have changed drastically. As the market has moved from a demand exceeding supply condition to the reverse, several shifts have occurred: 1) from investor driven to end-user driven activity; 2) from speculative buying to purchasing completed property; 3) from an off-plan sales model to a long term model with secure cash flows; 4) from high-end housing and premium retail/commercial property to middle income/affordable housing and middle market retail/commercial property. The resulting internal shift in the emphasis within these organizations is from pure development to asset management. This involves a change in the way construction projects are being completed along with providing quality customer services. As a result, the need to shift the strategy and operating models, as well as the mind-set of these organizations has become apparent. This paper analyses how organizations are coping up with these challenges, highlights weaknesses in the current strategic actions, and proposes a more robust approach to overcome the challenges with a strong rationale and practical case studies to support the arguments.

This paper builds upon previous research that investigated the critical factors and essential elements for professionally accredited real estate degree programmes at undergraduate and postgraduate levels in the UK (Poon, Hoxley and Fuchs). The aim of this paper is to compare and contrast the perspective of human resource (HR) professionals with other stakeholders and to identify preferred knowledge, skills and attributes. The previous research targeted real estate professionals (employers) and recent real estate graduates (new entrants) by way of questionnaire survey. The survey enabled a detailed analysis of the knowledge, skills and attributes that employers required and a comparison with those that recent real graduates considered they had gained from their programme of study. The survey results were complemented by detailed interviews undertaken with a small number of course directors of Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) accredited programmes delivered by UK universities. One of the interesting comparisons illustrated by the survey data was the relevant weighting given to the importance of technical knowledge compared with ësofterí skills and attributes such as communication, time management, negotiation skills, interpersonal skills, and adaptability and flexibility. This aspect has been investigated further by undertaking a series of detailed interviews with HR professionals working for leading real estate consultancies in London. Initial results, perhaps not surprisingly, suggest that HR professionals attach greater weight to ësofterí skills and attributes than either employers or recent graduates. The perspectives of HR professionals are of significance for new entrants to the real estate profession. They are important gatekeepers in designing and implementing selection processes and in providing graduate surveyors with appropriate in-house support and training to successfully proceed to full professional membership. The interviews also provide further illumination to the on-going debate about whether undergraduates who have completed a dedicated professional degree or non-cognate postgraduates are most suitability equipped to secure employment in the current extremely competitive market for new entrants to the profession.

It has been observed that Turkish policy makers have experimented and applied a wide spectrum of housing policies since the foundation of the Republic. With the turn of the Century, a sharp change in the housing policies started to take place, thanks to the relatively stable macro-economic conditions in Turkey. In this context, it appears that urban renewal is turning into one of the significant models to raise new dwellings particularly in the central areas as well as the peripheries of the major cities. In the past decade, it appeared that urban renewal projects were subject to numerous criticisms by means of public benefit, financial modeling (like PPP) and social concerns. In this paper, in a broader perspective, the authors question whether housing provision arising from the urban renewal projects is adequate to meet housing needs of the lower income groups and the urban poor. The authors also argue that although urban renewal projects play a pivotal role in the transformation of the squatter settlements in the major cities of Turkey, there are vibrant oppositions against the current renewal practices. Therefore, to determine pros and cons of the urban renewal schemes in Turkey, this paper specifically focuses on the Do?anbey/Bursa Urban Renewal Project - a 3,000-unit project right in the downtown Bursa, besides a brief of other selected projects. It also assesses, specifically in the case of Turkish experience, the financial, political, legal, technical, environmental and socio-economic dimensions of urban renewal projects as a whole. This paper contributes in two different aspects. Firstly, to the best of our knowledge, this is the first attempt to analyze Do?anbey/Bursa Urban Renewal Project particularly in the context of suggested urban renewal performance criteria along with the regional housing policies. Secondly, taking into account both the existing urban renewal literature and the leading housing renewal cases in Turkey, with Do?anbey project, we propose a performance criteria (rating methodology) to evaluate how doable a prospective urban renewal project might be. The suggested model will help perform a cost-benefit analysis and hence rate a specific renewal project based on categorical classification of its defined features. We believe that this value added methodology will help both policy makers and market players to analyze social and economic feasibility of the potential urban renewal projects before actually starting them up.

For a long time, Facilities Management has been marginalized in the realm of management. With the enlargement of the scope of Facilities Management and the emphasis of its strategic influence on business, there has been increasing concern on the social context of Facilities Management. Outsourcing, as a management method, is commonly practiced in this area. It has been demonstrated in relative studies that collaborative outsourcing relationships lead to outsourcing success. This paper will shed light on outsourcing relationships between clients and suppliers of Facilities Management services from a social interaction perspective. It aims to explore the factors that affect outsourcing relationships on an interactive level and their manifestation in the outsourcing process. A generic model of outsourcing success will be developed based on a thorough review of the relevant literature. Case studies will be conducted in order to illustrate the model and to explore further findings.

Public Private Partnerships have made a substantive contribution to the upgrade in infrastructure quality around the world enhancing resident quality of life and supporting economic development. The rollout of the PPP model has not met with universal approval however; indeed in some countries there has been strong resistance to PPPs with misgivings centered on the level of private sector profiteering as well as the long-term obligations placed on the tax-payer. The scale of the infrastructural investment challenge will nonetheless necessitate greater collaboration between the public and private sectors going forward if the infrastructural investment gap is to be addressed. As economies around the world begin the process of transition between recession and recovery it is imperative that key stakeholder groupings work together to formulate long-term infrastructural objectives, create efficient and transparent implementation and operational strategies as well as conceptualising and developing innovative investment models. This paper examines the case for and against the continued expansion of PPPs as a conduit for private sector investment in essential infrastructural provision. The paper reflects the views and opinions of key stakeholder groupings across five PPP markets namely, Australia, Canada, India the US and the UK. The rationale was to reflect the experiences and challenges across jurisdictions at different stages in the PPP maturity cycle. To facilitate comparability, statistics used in the quantitative evaluation are drawn from the Infrastructure Journal (IJ) online database.

In real estate theory ëplaceí and ëpropertyí are considered as two sides of a coin. ëPlaceí is seen as an artifact or as land, buildings and other fixed improvements on it. ëPropertyí is seen as the rights and duties of ownership. In this paper ëplaceí is conceived in a broader sense. Place is not merely a set of physical features, but ñ following Relph and Canter ñ comprises on the one hand observable activities and functions and on the other hand meanings and symbols as well. Activities refer to the behavior associated with, or intended to be housed in, a specific location. Meanings are related to peopleís conceptions and descriptions of these activities in that physical environment. Besides, several scales can be distinguished (e.g. an estate, a neighborhood, etc.). This theoretical paper discusses the dialectical relation between place and property. It is stated that property has influence on, and is influenced by, all three dimensions of place. In order to be able to describe this relation we first will examine the concepts of place and property separately. After this, the relations between property and each of the three dimensions of place will be analyzed. Firstly, we will explore how property is related to the physical features of a given locus. Secondly, we go into the relation between activities and property in places. Finally, we will investigate the most complex dimension: the influence of property on the way users give meaning to their place. The paper ends with a discussion on the dialectical relation between place and property and the consequence for real estate management and development.

It has been widely acknowledged that real estate prices are spatially autocorrelated and correcting for spatial autocorrelation has become a standard practice in hedonic pricing models to improve estimation efficiency. However, its causes have not yet been fully explored. This paper puts forward by hypothesizing that spatial autocorrelations in housing prices are determined by market volatility: low market volatility weakens spatial autocorrelations and vice versa. The hypothesis is tested using data for over 150 000 transactions of homes sold between 1997 and 2009 in Hong Kong. The empirical results confirm the volatility explanation for the spatial autocorrelations. The finding contributes to a better understanding of the causes of spatial autocorrelation.

The real estate business comprises many different segments, value chain parts, functions and consequently jobs. Generally, the precise knowledge about a single job and itsí tasks is a preliminary: -

Sustainability continues to gain relevance in the real estate sector. More and more owners and investors are requesting information and advice concerning sustainability features of their properties. This development represents a challenge to property valuation. Valuation professionals are requested to take a stand if and how sustainability influences property valuation (including the need for quantification, respectively). In order to answer these questions an operationalization of the concept of sustainability in regard to property valuation is required. This is further complicated by the lack of mutual understanding and established standards regarding sustainability in the real estate sector. Since valuation professionals are increasingly confronted with these questions in their daily work, there is an urgent need for clear and practicable guidelines. In Europe or even internationally there are currently no signs of standard solutions any time soon. A group of scholars have started as a private initiative to develop respective sustainability guidelines for Germany, Austria and Switzerland with the support of several valuersí associations. Apart from generic guidelines, the manual includes a long-list of value-relevant property features including sustainability features, a discussion of how sustainability features can be included in the most common valuation methods and guidelines on the quantification of the impact of sustainability features on property value. First results will be presented in the paper.

An earlier paper presented at an ERES conference (Maier et al., 2010) provided evidence that energy efficient improvements in residential properties were not capitalized into prices suggesting that the Austrian residential markets are not efficient. In this paper, we further shed light on this issue by formally testing for the efficiency of the residential markets in Austria. The concept of efficiency has been examined in the literature mainly based on Famaís (1970, 1976) three versions of the Efficient Market Hypothesis (EMH). Our strategy is to use the weak form and the semi-strong form specifications of the EMH to examine if information about past prices and other market fundamentals are already incorporated into the present prices of residential units. We use aggregate house price data published by the Austrian National Bank. To the best of our knowledge, the present study is the first such analysis for Austrian residential markets.

Currently, office vacancy rates in the Netherlands are reaching record breaking levels. Seven million square metres office space is vacant; approximately 14% of a total stock of 47 million square metres. Given the declining demand for office space combined with the impediments related to reducing the office stock, this vacancy level is only expected to rise. The current oversupply on the office market results from both market imperfections and a failing planning system, only partly explained by the well known effects of the hog cycle. A more important explanation is the overproduction of offices that has taken place in the last decade, fuelled by low interest rates and high returns, sustained by a municipal will to develop land, and made possible by governmental belief in free market forces. The emergence of a replacement market, allegedly a market in which good buildings drive out bad buildings (Geraedts and Van der Voordt, 2003), has resulted in a steadily growing collection of obsolete office buildings. Supposedly, these buildings share features that are recognised as being related to obsolescence and depreciation (Baum, 1993; Bottom, 1998; Rem¯y, 2010). Characterising superfluous office buildings is however a difficult task as the odds of vacancy seems to differ along with their location or submarket. Vacancy levels are high on locations that are undesirable to tenants, either as a result of negative location externalities, or because the quality of the local office stock is lacking. In this paper, results from case studies of the Amsterdam and Haarlemmermeer office markets are discussed, showing that the features that can be used to describe obsolete office buildings is to a certain degree linked to local externalities.

The Government of Ghana since independence has tried various strategies in a bid to provide adequate, quality and affordable housing for citizens. This has involved different policies from direct intervention to current contemplation towards self-help mechanisms. The past results have however, been mixed if not a failure. The housing problem therefore continues to increase overwhelmingly, both in quantity and quality, and particularly for the low/moderate income group. The critical question is to what extent has these policy approaches failed, and in what ways can innovative design solutions contribute to solving the housing problem? What evidence exist, if at all, of the difference innovation in design can make? This paper examines these question using the case of the low/moderate income group in Ghana through a review of existing literature and personal observation. As the way forward, the paper proposes the need to reinforce policy decisions with innvoations in design strategies - solutions which empower residents to meet their own housing needs incrementally over time and in response to their particular requirements. The paper contributes to understanding the factors which may contribute to the success or failure of housing solutions and in particular for the low/moderate income in develping countries. It also contributes to understanding how design innovation can contribute to enhancing the housing quality of the low/moderate income residents.

While academic mainstream urban design theory is caught in a paradigmatic debate concerning normative and positive theories, practice research in the field has focused on the added value of quality design. The purpose is to promote, within the wide range of stakeholders, the concept that quality sells. Most of the research in this area is characterised by a descriptive approach based on best practice examples and lack of empirical evidence. This paper aims to fill this gap by investigating the impact of quality-led design on the value of commercial office properties in the urban core of a UK city. In line with mainstream urban economic theory and suggestions from previous research on the value of urban design, the research underpinning this paper uses Hedonic Price Modelling (HPM) to assess the contribution that high quality urban design makes to office rents. In the quest for quantifying quality a new set of Ñurban scale quality design_ variables is specified and each variable estimated for a unique dataset of property transactions. Another novelty relates to the variables that utilise geospatial analysis with the aim of integrating quantitative methods in urban design research and practice.

An former enamelling plant from the 1920`s economic depression, became in the 60`s no longer economically viable. Various subsequently users accelerated the downfall of the inner city plant area. In 2010 a semi state development agency ñ the OFB ñ a daughter company of the State Bank of Hessian, Germany, was asked to decontaminate the area and find a new economic live for the inner city site. Three quarters of the derelict pant area were demolished and an lime stone faced early 1920`s building was retained and became a listed building, to commemorate the industrial heritage. Therefore listed building funds were made available to help towards a new life cycle for the building. To prevent a further sprawling out of shopping centres at the outskirts of the city, it was decided to cater for the inner city shopping needs of the inhabitants in the inner city. The area is close to the railway station and linked to the inner city ring road for easy access. To foster all the possibilities for development, the client decided to get a certificated building of the German DGNB ñ Deutsche Gesellschaft f¸r Nachhaltiges Bauen ñ German Society for Sustainable Buildings ñ a silver grade certificate. In the lecture this case study of the sustainable measures will be delivered.

Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR), far from being a recent phenomenon, has a long history. However it has grown from the individually inspired philanthropy of the Cadburys, Titus Salt and Robert Gordon, for example, to become part of the corporate offer addressing all the stakeholders in a company. Behaving sustainably is an integral part of CSR and most property companies have some kind of environmental statement that describes their commitment to the green agenda. These are set in the context of an industry that sees sustainability as essentially a cost item, since the benefits of investment accrue mainly to occupiers rather than landlords. This paper seeks to measure the impact upon the performance of listed U.K property companies of their CSR policies and environmental statements using their adjusted share price as a performance measure. CSR policies and environmental statements are scored using incidence analysis within their annual reports in the public domain to establish the weight placed upon CSR issues in this formal documentation. The CSR index generated, together with other firm-level control variables, is set against a price index adjusted for market movements to determine whether the quality of CRS has any impact on property companiesí performance and whether shareholders are willing to pay price premium for the high quality of CRS proxied by self- constructed CSR index.