M.A. (Geography) / The timeshare industry is one of the least researched segments of tourism accommodation or lodging. In the international scholarship the existing writings are mostly focussed on marketing, consumer behaviour and management issues. Within existing writings on timeshare most material relates to timeshare developments and the industry in either North America or Western Europe, the two leading regions for timeshare in the world. Outside of these areas only a limited amount of work has been done on timeshare. An important gap relates to the evolution and development of timeshare in particular countries and of the role of timeshare as part of tourism development. This research contributes to the limited body of literature and knowledge concerning the evolution, organisation and challenges of the timeshare industry in South Africa. The study contributes to international scholarship on the timeshare industry as one of the first detailed investigations which has been conducted in an important timeshare destination in the global South. Three core themes run through this study. First, the research analyses the evolution of the timeshare industry in South Africa from its inception in the late 1970s to the present-day (2012) and analyses its critical challenges and issues that have shaped and re-shaped its development. Second, the research maps and interprets the evolving geography of the timeshare industry in South Africa and situates the current position of the timeshare industry within the African and global context. Finally, the research seeks to understand also the changing position and importance of timeshare as part of a changing South African tourism economy.

Thesis: S.M. in Real Estate Development, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Program in Real Estate Development in conjunction with the Center for Real Estate, 2019 / Cataloged from PDF version of thesis. / Includes bibliographical references (pages 169-177). / Co-living, while a relatively new concept for the real estate industry, has become increasingly pervasive within the United States over the past decade. This form of communal rental housing offers reduced personal and private space in exchange for certain benefits, including a 15-30% reduced rental rate when compared to studio units. Changing social and economic factors have led to an increased interest in this type of residential product among both real estate developers and tenants alike. Today, there are approximately 30 co-living companies operating in the United States with close to 3,500 rooms in operation (JLL 2019a). Furthermore, this growth is expected to accelerate as global funding for co-living has increased by more than 210% since 2015 and around 7,000 rooms are planned to open in the United States over the next two years (JLL 2019a). However, while the concept has gained traction, it remains a nascent product type within real estate. Even with high growth, co-living's long-term sustainability remains to be proven. This thesis uses a mixed-methods approach to evaluate the long-term resiliency of co-living as a product type. Our research provides insight into the various types of co-living business models currently active in the United States, and we conduct a thorough review of the international and domestic co-living markets. Financial models are utilized to assess the financial resiliency of co-living given potential changes to certain market conditions and demand drivers. We investigate the planning policies affecting co-living in targeted markets in the United States. The thesis concludes with a report on the market perception of co-living from real estate professionals and the general populous. / by Sam Pepper and Aaron Manji. / S.M. in Real Estate Development / S.M.inRealEstateDevelopment Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Program in Real Estate Development in conjunction with the Center for Real Estate

Thesis: S.M. in Real Estate Development, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Program in Real Estate Development in conjunction with the Center for Real Estate, 2019 / Cataloged from PDF version of thesis. / Includes bibliographical references (page 86). / Joint ventures are widely used in real estate investments, and especially so in development projects where partners bring different value to the venture: an Operating Partner who has the desire and operational capabilities to manage the investment but lacks the capital to fund the entire project, and a Money Partner who has the capital, but lacks the expertise and the desire to manage the project. A formal joint venture (partnership) agreement governs the relationship between the Operating Partner and Money Partner in the development project. Real estate investment performance is generally evaluated at the property level (before considering the impact of financing) and then at the venture level (taking into account the impact of financing). Differing real estate investment performance within the venture, due to specific partnership terms, has generally taken a back seat for performance evaluation, and is less of a focus when the investment is performing well. / However, with the current competitive real estate market flooded with cheap financing options, partnership terms between the Operating Partner and Money Partner ought to be scrutinized more carefully, as certain terms can serve as additional sources of return, or "safety net", when dark clouds over the real estate market loom ahead. This paper will focus on partnership terms in a real estate joint venture which can be quantified, discuss the metrics that can be used to evaluate the investment performance of joint ventures, and explain the need to employ probabilistic modelling methods. After setting that context, deterministic modelling methods (Discounted Cash Flow, or "DCF") as well as probabilistic modelling methods (Monte Carlo simulation) will be applied to quantify the impact of relevant partnership terms on a hypothetical real estate development project. / This will be followed by a discussion on how one can use the results of the Monte Carlo simulation alongside traditional DCF with scenario analysis which is more commonly used in the industry. Lastly, the paper will provide a casual narrative from the perspective of a financial analyst who is doing financial modelling from the asset level down to the partnership and partner level and using Monte Carlo simulation analysis. / by Wee Kian, Alvin Ong. / S.M. in Real Estate Development / S.M.inRealEstateDevelopment Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Program in Real Estate Development in conjunction with the Center for Real Estate

Thesis: S.M. in Real Estate Development, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Program in Real Estate Development in conjunction with the Center for Real Estate, 2019 / Cataloged from PDF version of thesis. / Includes bibliographical references (page 36). / Leaseholds play roles in many different types of transactions -- from single-family home purchases to multi-tenant office tower developments. Despite their flexibility, however, leaseholds are rare in the US and are not widely understood by investors and developers. Compared with freeholds, leaseholds involve additional layers of complexity and can present valuation challenges. If not structured thoughtfully, they can substantially erode the value of the real estate by lowering its quality and usability. Nevertheless, leaseholds can be useful devices to facilitate real estate investment and significantly impact communities by bringing together parties that would not have otherwise worked together. This thesis focuses on leaseholds in the US: how they are valued, how they are structured, and what issues they pose. It analyzes the motivations behind each party involved in a leasehold and finds that they can benefit from acting more like joint venture partners rather than opposing counterparts, specifically concerning issues related to leasehold improvement financing and the redevelopment option. / by Justin Lai. / S.M. in Real Estate Development / S.M.inRealEstateDevelopment Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Program in Real Estate Development in conjunction with the Center for Real Estate

Thesis: S.M. in Real Estate Development, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Program in Real Estate Development in conjunction with the Center for Real Estate, 2019 / Cataloged from PDF version of thesis. / Includes bibliographical references (pages 50-51). / This thesis affirms that self-storage is further maturing into a core type asset class in juxtaposition to the characteristics of the traditional core asset types: multifamily, office, retail and industrial. This shift is shown by an increased participation of traditional core investors in the space, the resiliency of the product and the future of the industry. Core investors seek a risk and return profile that favors the conservative end of the security market line. They seek more stabilized and forecastable assets than value add or opportunistic funds (Geltner, Miller, Clayton, & Eichholtz, 2014). Even though the percentage of self-storage in institutional portfolios is still small due to fragmentation of the industry and self-storage's total market share, the investment opportunity is growing due to its proven resiliency through market and natural disruptions. This resiliency is evident in the micro-level occupancy and cash flow performance of self-storage properties as well as the macro-level total returns of the class over time. The resilient nature of the class and the resulting higher long-term returns have attracted core asset investors to diversify their portfolios to include self-storage assets at an increasing rate. The future of self-storage is strong due to positive sentiment and culture associated with self-storage. Sophisticated parties on both the user and investors sides are increasing their participation in the industry. The resulting outlook is positive for growth and maturation of the self-storage asset class. / by Charles Hope. / S.M. in Real Estate Development / S.M.inRealEstateDevelopment Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Program in Real Estate Development in conjunction with the Center for Real Estate

Thesis: S.M. in Real Estate Development, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Program in Real Estate Development in conjunction with the Center for Real Estate, 2019 / Cataloged from PDF version of thesis. / Includes bibliographical references (pages 55-57). / This thesis examines an emerging product type, single-family build-to-rent, and tests its potential application in tertiary markets of the United States. The build-to-rent ("BTR") model has proven successful in a number of fast-growing secondary markets, such as Phoenix. However, the attributes of these markets differ widely from tertiary markets. This paper examines the key drivers in Phoenix, such as demographics, land costs, construction costs, cap rates and rents that have made this product successful and compares these metrics against those of tertiary markets in an effort to evaluate whether single-family BTR is a viable product type in those markets. Case studies are used to compare secondary markets to tertiary markets. Oklahoma City, Tucson and Fresno are selected as the tertiary markets based on their varying affordability scores as measured by the Housing Opportunity Index. This index was chosen to test whether homeownership affordability predicts BTR success. While there are different varieties of BTR products, these case studies examine a hypothetical 20-acre project of 160 single-family detached homes of approximately 1,800 square feet each. Untrended Returns on Cost ("ROC") were found to be similar to Phoenix in Oklahoma City and Tucson. However, due to the slower rent growth and higher cap rates of these tertiary markets, Internal Rates of Return and Equity Multiples were found to be too low to justify this specific BTR design. However, further institutionalization of this asset class and a reevaluation of the pricing of SFR volatility has the potential to lower cap rates to a level that justifies the BTR product in tertiary markets. / by Bretton C. Finley. / S.M. in Real Estate Development / S.M.inRealEstateDevelopment Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Program in Real Estate Development in conjunction with the Center for Real Estate

Thesis: S.M. in Real Estate Development, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Program in Real Estate Development in conjunction with the Center for Real Estate, 2019 / Cataloged from PDF version of thesis. / Includes bibliographical references (pages 54-60). / Digital-native retail brands have business models that sit at the intersection of two major narratives in retail: technology and brick-and-mortar stores. Founded online, they rely on technology to attract a Millennial customer base that gets most of their brand information over the internet. Digital-native retailers are also opening, not closing, brick-and-mortar stores at an accelerating pace. Recent studies have suggested that digital-native retail brands will grow from roughly 600 to over 1,400 brick-and-mortar locations in the coming years. However, these projections only consider existing brands, and industry trends suggest that the actual number of physical stores opened by digital-native retail brands will be significantly greater. Real estate owners that develop leasing strategies focused on the specialized needs of digital-native retail brands are positioned to benefit. / The brick-and-mortar store locations of digital-native retail brands provide key insights into their site selection criteria and brand strategies. Store locations are based on customer data from their online stores. As a result, the sites brands select indicate locations with strong target consumer demand. To analyze trends, we identified 58 major digital-native retail brands that have opened a permanent physical store location in the United States. Then, we collected the addresses of the 608 individual stores that they operate. Among other insights, the store location results indicate that digital-native brands concentrate in New York, Los Angeles, and San Francisco before moving into other major metro areas. Within each metro area, digital-native brands agglomerate into both shopping centers and retail streets located within high-income neighborhoods. / Retail property owners have an opportunity to leverage their expertise in physical retail to assist digital-native retail brands in successfully establishing themselves offline. A brand's first few brick-and-mortar locations are a high-stakes bet that falls outside of the company's core competency. Beyond leasing the physical space, landlords can offer support in identifying store locations, completing tenant improvements, and assisting in the store permitting process. Real estate owners and investors that provide low-capital, turnkey spaces and a streamlined leasing process will be attractive to a growing number of digital-native retail brands. / by Jeffrey Dougherty. / S.M. in Real Estate Development / S.M.inRealEstateDevelopment Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Program in Real Estate Development in conjunction with the Center for Real Estate

Thesis: S.M. in Real Estate Development, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Program in Real Estate Development in conjunction with the Center for Real Estate, 2019 / Cataloged from PDF version of thesis. / Includes bibliographical references (pages 28-29). / Real estate developers and investors have a vested interest in discovering new techniques for estimating the direction and magnitude of changes in residential rent within a neighborhood. This study hypothesizes, and finds evidence, that taxi activity is a proxy for changing income and neighborhood quality as well as an indicator of gentrification. Novel research is performed to determine if taxi activity is a significant predictor of rents in New York City at the neighborhood level. Nine OLS regression models are created using data about 1,466,234,991 taxi pickups and drop-offs, median rent, and median income across 188 neighborhoods in New York City in the years of 2010-2015. In all nine models, taxi activity is found to be a statistically significant predictor of rent at 99% confidence. This study finds that a I standard deviation positive shock in taxi drop-offs will result in a 0.009% 0.155% higher rent the next year on average. / by Philip Caporaso. / S.M. in Real Estate Development / S.M.inRealEstateDevelopment Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Program in Real Estate Development in conjunction with the Center for Real Estate

Thesis: S.M. in Real Estate Development, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Program in Real Estate Development in conjunction with the Center for Real Estate, September, 2020 / Cataloged from student-submitted PDF of thesis. / Includes bibliographical references (page 78). / This thesis introduces an Integrated Analytical Framework that provides guidelines on mapping the analysis structure and reporting essentials for the commercial real estate ("CRE") investment with coverage from Acquisition Management, Development Management, Asset Management to Divestment. The motivation of this thesis responds to the need that small-scale Private Equity Real Estate ("PERE") firms have for efficient, comprehensive, and streamlined tools to manage investment assets. There are two purposes of this thesis. First, it is to introduce an analytical framework, integrating the entire lifecycle of a commercial real estate investment. From a quantitative analytical perspective, the framework introduces Key Performance Indicators that CRE investors should rely on to understand the expected performance of their investments. Second, it is to help CRE investors achieve analytical efficiency. A model template, in Microsoft Excel, is developed here to translate the framework into a practical tool. This thesis serves as a practical manual for small-scale PERE firms and real estate entrepreneurs who have limited resources and possess strong desires for a streamlined but comprehensive analytical tool to fulfill their investment management demands. This thesis focuses on both asset-level and portfolio-level investment analyses. While the asset-level perspective intends to be micro-level analysis and emphasizes the detail of every aspect of the asset, the portfolio-level analysis consolidates the asset fundamentals and provides a bird's-eye view of the entire investment lifecycle. This thesis contains a supplemental Excel file The Integrated Analytical Framework Model Template that can be obtained from DSpace@MIT with the persistent identifier: https://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/126014. / by Junyi Zhang. / S.M. in Real Estate Development / S.M.inRealEstateDevelopment Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Program in Real Estate Development in conjunction with the Center for Real Estate

Thesis: S.M. in Real Estate Development, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Program in Real Estate Development in conjunction with the Center for Real Estate, September, 2020 / Cataloged from student-submitted PDF of thesis. / Includes bibliographical references (pages 107-117). / This thesis investigates the scientific underpinnings of climate change, its physical manifestations, the complications society faces in adapting to this phenomenon and its likely impact on real estate investment values. It concludes by proposing an initial investment framework for real estate investors concerned with climate change. This framework highlights non-traditional due diligence considerations and asserts that probabilistic valuation methods allow for more accurate asset underwriting. The first chapter is structured as a general primer on climate change and includes references for those who would like additional reading on its science. The second chapter describes the geophysical effects of climate change. The intent here is to provide enough background for readers to understand its causes and potential severity. The third chapter covers how geopolitical actors are responding to a warming world and introduces important macroeconomic trends. / The fourth chapter outlines the substantial engineering and insurance challenges ahead and presents cases of societies that have won and lost while dealing with either a changing climate or extreme weather events. The fifth chapter highlights key economic, legal, and demographic research on climate change's impacts to date and those that are likely to occur going forward. The purpose of these chapters is to provide historical context for how dramatic atmospheric changes can lead to dramatic economic losses, and to provide some lessons that real estate investors should incorporate when underwriting new opportunities. The conclusion summarizes the first five chapters and offers an initial framework for how real estate investors can incorporate climate change into their underwriting, including a brief review of how property values are currently underwritten using relatively short-term, deterministic discounted cash flows. / In closing, I describe how a longer timescale underwriting with additional simulations is beneficial to account for the uncertainties associated with climate change and suggest further research to explore possible market mispricing of assets based on widely divergent upside and downside skews given likely future climates. / by Daniel Hare. / S.M. in Real Estate Development / S.M.inRealEstateDevelopment Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Program in Real Estate Development in conjunction with the Center for Real Estate