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Abstract: This paper investigates the relationship between the list and sale price of residential properties over the housing cycle. In down or normal markets the list price generally exceeds the sales price; however, when the housing market is strong, homes sell for more than their list price. This observation is not consistent with the assumptions made in the standard model of home sellers’ search behavior. We consider alternative models. In one, sellers set list prices based on their expectations of future changes in sales prices and the arrival rate of buyers; however, demand shocks occur. This model partially explains our data from the Belfast, U.K. housing market, but it fails to predict the list to sales price ratio during a sustained housing boom. We next describe a model where sellers’ endogenously select their search mechanism depending on the strength of the housing market. We find support for the conjecture that sellers switch to an auction-like model during housing booms. There also is evidence that during a downturn in the market, sellers’ list prices are sticky. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: Progressive cities have competitive advantages in capturing opportunities for development and attracting leading edge business. Regeneration and business strategies are amongst the tools that cities may employ in order to overcome the challenges that influence their competitiveness. However, there has been little research that links these themes. This paper integrates regeneration and property-led business strategies through the development of a hierarchical model for city competitiveness. The methodology employs a Delphi technique and analytic hierarchy process with multi-criteria analysis. The model is used to evaluate the competitiveness performance of four cities in the UK drawing conclusions on the synergy of regeneration and business strategies in promoting city competitiveness. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Purpose – The office is considered as a strategic resource that can support knowledge-based organisations to gain competitive advantage and operational efficiency. Although the modern scholar emphasises the role of user involvement in workplace design and management, there is little evidence showing how it can be linked to occupancy cost performance. The purpose of this paper is to investigate benefits of a user-centric workplace practice by focusing on working time and space utilisation practice of office users. Design/methodology/approach – A scenario-based approach was designed to analyse office occupancy cost performance. A questionnaire survey was conducted from a number of UK-based offices to create three workspace utilisation scenarios, namely, existing, property-centric and user-centric. Key comparison criteria include potential areas of savings, potential total cost savings and cost saving per person. Findings – It was found that a user-centric approach reflects an opportunity to save annual occupancy costs in terms of total costs and cost per person where users indicated how they utilised working time and space. In return, the organisations can gain more productivity from office users who are likely to perform better when they can work in the preferred workplace practice. Practical implications – By adopting this approach, organisations can understand the occupancy characteristics of the offices from multi perspectives, leading to better management in office premises. Originality/value – This paper is concerned with the analysis of how to achieve higher office efficiency by focusing on office user's working time and space utilisation practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Urban regeneration has been an integral focus of central government policy in the UK for more than three decades and has played a pivotal role in enhancing the competitiveness of the UK economy, repositioning cities and city regions as the mainstays of economic growth. Utilising IPD data, this study confirms the capacity of regeneration property to match or outperform the wider real estate market in terms of total return over the medium-long term. Significantly, optimal portfolio analysis demonstrates that urban regeneration property replaces mainstream real estate within a multi-asset portfolio based on the total returns performance of equities, bonds, mainstream property and regeneration property over the 28-year time series 1981-2008. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Government policy is increasingly recognising the importance of business-led initiatives which can make things happen within a locally based commercial environment by promoting partnership between business and local government. Business Improvement Districts (BIDs) are a specific response to the growing interest in tax-based mechanisms to stimulate local economic development and regeneration. The innovative component of the BID model is considered to be its funding capacity based on the selfimposition of a local tax levy on businesses within a defined area, which is then hypothecated for specific service provision to complement that already provided by local government. Within the context of the new institutional economics, BIDs provide the practical outworking of how the private sector is contractualising relationships in the delivery and performance of service provision in publicly defined urban areas. The aim of this paper is to assess the effectiveness of the legislative and pilot BID arrangements operating in Great Britain on governance, financing and stakeholder engagement by drawing upon evidence from expert opinion and case study performance. The key findings indicate that the BID model provides a dynamic to engage with the business community, agree accountability for additional service delivery and target investment at a local level. The clarity of the BID scheme, certainty on cost, accountability of the BID company and a business plan which delivers real solutions are critical to gaining support within the business sector. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study constructs sixteen mean-variance optimal portfolios of private real estate using returns from the United States and the United Kingdom. First, the analysis uses total returns by property type (retail, office, and industrial). Second, the returns are separated into their two components: returns from income and returns from appreciation. Third, optimal portfolios are constructed by type of return and again by property type. Finally, all returns are considered together. Several non-obvious and non-trivial results emerge. For example, the high risk portfolios using total returns are 100% UK for all three property types and when the three property types are combined, offices, generally regarded as the most popular type of institutional real estate investment, never enter the optimal portfolio for either the US. or the UK. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study analyzes the relationship between Corporate Real Estate (CRE) strategy and the financial performance of major companies in the UK for two time periods, 1998 and 2003. The identification of specific CRE strategies is based on the seminal work of Nourse and Roulac (1993). The results indicate that more than 75% of the companies examined had a CRE strategy that could be mapped to the Nourse and Roulac framework and that certain CRE strategies made a contribution in enhancing the financial performance of companies. The relationship was stronger for companies in 2003 than for 1998. This was tested for both share price and profit margin as the dependent variable. This study concludes that CRE strategy can make a limited contribution to company financial performance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study explores the investment style characteristics of unlisted property funds investing in urban renewal/regeneration property in the United Kingdom. The unlisted property funds sector has experienced significant growth and is increasingly utilized by major financial institutions as their preferred route into the real estate market, allowing them to overcome the lack of liquidity and management costs associated with direct investment. Since institutional investors have traditionally considered urban renewal/ regeneration property a high-risk investment option, it was hypothesized that funds investing in regeneration were likely to pursue either value added (top end) or opportunistic investment styles. The findings emphasize inconsistencies in investment style classification and identify how investment style designation impacts on decision making with respect to investment in regeneration property. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article compares the corporate real estate (CRE) strategies of companies in Great Britain, a mature CRE market and in Malaysia, an emerging CRE market and examines whether financial performance is affected by CRE strategy. CRE strategies of companies are analyzed for the 1998 and 2003 time periods. Using multivariate time models the relationship between CRE strategy and financial performance were tested.

This study uses annual data from 1975 through 2003 to construct mean-variance optimal portfolios for the United Kingdom. Real estate return data for all UK properties from the Investment Property Databank (IPD), for UK pooled property funds, and for UK property shares are used, in addition to UK common stocks (equities) and gilts (government bonds). The different mixed-asset portfolio allocations using the different real estate return series are compared/contrasted. Finally, the return series are unbundled for UK IPD real estate, UK common stocks, and UK gilts into income and appreciation returns and additional optimal mean-variance portfolios, which are constructed for income returns, appreciation returns, and total returns (income and appreciation returns). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The extent to which subjective influences impact on assessed valuations is an under‐researched area. Valuation practice within Spain is seemingly less developed than in the UK and other western European countries and explicitly allows for subjective adjustments in deriving the value of a property. This study, using a three stage modelling approach, seeks to quantify the impact of this effect on the valuation of retail property. The analysis uses data from a major valuation company within Spain and examines evidence from five cities. The results show that subjectivity corrects the model by as much as 12%. The study demonstrates that the variables with the greatest impact are age of property and construction quality rather than economic/market factors. This outcome highlights that valuation in Spain is still a more technical rather than a financial discipline. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study addresses the issue of investment returns and risk within urban renewal locations in major metropolitan areas in the United Kingdom. The research indicates that investment performance in regeneration areas has matched, and in the retail sector, exceeded national and local city benchmarks. Returns for regeneration property are analyzed at aggregate and disaggregated levels over a 22-year time period. Separation of the returns highlights the highly risky nature of the appreciating capital return and the low risk bond-like income returns. Optimal mean-variance port- folios are also constructed and analyzed. The results indicate that properties within urban renewal areas can potentially increase portfolio diversification in all but one instance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examines the returns and risks of private real estate investment in the major regional centers of Ireland and Great Britain for the 1981 through 2000 period. Returns for office and retail properties are analyzed at the disaggregate level (income returns and appreciation returns separately), as well as the aggregate level (total returns). Real estate returns are also compared with common stocks, gilts, T-bills and inflation. The results show that real estate in several U.K. regions, but especially in Ireland, offer very competitive returns with compelling risk / return ratios. The analysis indicates that real estate investments in several regions could supply significant diversification in a mixed-asset portfolio context as well as real estate only portfolios. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper evaluates the use of indicators as a means of measuring the performance of regeneration against sustainability criteria. The merits of sustainability indicators are explored with a discussion of the indicator selection process and the derivation of a points scoring framework. The extent to which the sustainability performance of regeneration projects can be evaluated and subsequently benchmarked is examined. Conclusions are drawn on the robustness of the indicators selected, the versatility of the points scoring framework in capturing the sustainability performance of regeneration projects and the potential to identify 'best' practice. The application of the model and associated indicators is the subject of the subsequent paper in this journal issue. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Business Improvement Districts (BIDs) have been widely adopted in the USA as a means of bringing about enhanced service provision and broader regeneration impacts, and interest is now turning to the use of such mechanisms in the UK. However, the fundamental differences between the administrative and social contexts of the USA and the UK mean that BIDs would have to be significantly adapted for application in the UK. Moreover, research conducted by the authors, using case studies of BIDs in Los Angeles, indicates that they can be problematic in operation. Nevertheless, BIDs offer a means of delivering limited objectives in relation to city centre renewal. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The operation of the property market is constrained by an absence of information with barriers to data transparency arising from several sources. This paper reports upon research commissioned by the RICS into the concept of data sharing within the surveying profession with particular reference to the commercial property market. The research employs a range of investigative techniques comprising structured interviews, focus groups and a questionnaire survey. Issues addressed include technical, legal, competitive, commercial and other potential constraints. Trends in data sharing, potential areas for coordinated action, implications for the structure of professional practice and the role of the RICS are assessed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Private sector involvement through partnership, PFI or other mechanisms is a critical component of the urban regeneration process. To date there has been little research into the perceptions of the private sector, reasons for involvement in urban regeneration and relationships between private and public sector actors. This paper is based on focus group discussions with actors involved in the regeneration process. Interpretation, which is from a qualitative perspective, investigates four main themes namely the rationale for private sector investment in urban regeneration; policy mechanisms to lever private sector investment; the financing of urban regeneration; and the alleviation of risk. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Urban regeneration has increasingly emphasised long-term policy objectives and public-private partnership arrangements where risk and profits are more equitably distributed between the parties. Similarly, successive governments have endorsed areabased regeneration vehicles with increasing importance placed on enterprise zones, business improvement districts (BIDs), tax incremental finance, and other local asset backed vehicles. Each regeneration vehicle necessitates a clear policy direction and performance measurement of its policy outputs to ensure that funding is targeted at initiatives delivering sustainability impacts. This paper presents a 'market' and 'nonmarket' appraisal of the financial impact of BIDs as an area-based regeneration vehicle. It utilises data from a UK-wide survey to demonstrate the potential of BIDs in generating direct income and indirect investment and how the output capacity of the BID model increases over time. The paper concludes that BIDs have significant leverage potential whilst acting as a key conduit for coordinating wider area-based regeneration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]