The aim of this thesis is to evaluate the impact of urban design quality variables on real estate value through comparative performance analysis of the residential, office and retail sectors. Based on the highly intangible nature of design and the controversy surrounding the approach to measuring quality, real estate value is considered the best means to capture the implicit prices of different aspects of quality. In order to quantify these aspects the research uses both qualitative and quantitative methods to introduce a set of measurable elements of good urban design. The framework for this approach is based on the principles of utility theory and employs the hedonic pricing method to measure quality aspects. This constitutes a unique attempt to explicitly identify and model the aspects of quality design and measure their added value to real estate. The intra-sectoral focus informed a holistic approach to quality design which consisted of the formulation of three different hedonic models, one for each 'measurable' sector in core urban locations. Ordinary Least Squares Regression was used to estimate the equations for a unique dataset of property transactions in Belfast City Centre. The fmal database was characterised by a sectoral categorisation and comprised 424 apartments sold between 2000 and 2008, 279 commercial offices rented during the period 1995-2009 and 301 retail units rented between 1994 and 2009. The main fmdings suggest that aspects of quality design such as context/identity, connectivity/permeability of the urban fabric, vitality and liveability of the surroundings and appropriate quality of construction material add real estate value. Other outcomes of interest were attributed to the peculiarity of the study area, sectoral characteristics and property cycles. This implies that in addition to the widely accepted place-specificity, urban design is highly dependent on the factors that drive the real estate markets.

The real estate industry has posited that 24-hour cities provide superior risk-adjusted returns. This thesis examines that claim rigorously for the first time. Urban characteristics are related to literature in urban history, planning theory, and economic geography. An operational definition of the 24-hour city based on empirical data is specified. 24-hour and 9-to-5 cities are evaluated by the operational definition, and by K-means Cluster Analysis. 24-hour cities are found to have higher city densities, greater use of mass transit and walk-to-work commutation, higher percentages of late night automobile traffic, more 24-hour drug stores, lower crime rates, and higher measures of regional distinctiveness. Superior performance is observed in inflation-adjusted office rents, occupancy, and risk-adjusted return on office investment for 1987 - 2009, at the 0.01 level of statistical significance. A multivariate regression of urban attributes on CBD office building prices also finds significance at the 0.01 level. Survey data and expert interviews provide new detail on industry desiderata. 24-hour cities can be considered exceptions to the standard Alonso-Mills-Muth urban spatial model. An anentropic model based on complexity theory (requiring development) , may better explain emergent self-organisation as displayed in those cities.

This research study investigates the effects of the process of European monetary integration on the investment performance of European commercial real estate markets. In particular, it addresses the question of whether European monetary integration has produced convergence in the performance of European office markets. Different dimensions of convergence are analysed in terms of whether there is growing similarity in terms of causation of market change, market timing and market levels. The study uses data from both the non-securitised and securitised real estate sectors.

This study investigates how firms in the Australian property and construction sector manage their intangibles in order to operationalise sustainable development. Previous research linking intangibles and corporate sustainability has tended to focus on intangibles as a phenomenon endeavouring to establish links between intangibles and corporate financial performance. This thesis makes a unique contribution to knowledge by drawing a conceptual bridge between the intangibles and corporate sustainability literature using both the phenomenon and practice based approach to intangibles. The practice based approach aims to understand how firms manage and mobilise their intangibles towards a purpose – which for this research is sustainable development. A key outcome of this study is a framework to manage firms’ intangibles which outlines how firms identify, measure/value, control, and report their intangibles at various stages of corporate sustainability. The research design is a case study methodology, implemented across two phases, using mixed methods. The first phase focused on the phenomenon of intangibles in the wider Australian property and construction sector. Data was collected using a questionnaire, semi-structured interviews and content analysis. In the second phase, four case studies of individual firms were conducted to study the practice of intangibles. There were two key findings of this research. The first is that the practice based approach to intangibles more accurately reflected how firms in the Australian property and construction sector manage their intangibles. However, tensions still exist between the more traditional accounting-based phenomenon approach to intangibles and the practice based approach. This is particularly relevant in the business case for sustainability. The second main finding is that firms in the case study sector are actively managing their intangibles to implement organisational change for sustainability. This finding led to the development of the ‘inside- out’ approach to operationalising sustainable development which focuses on managing a firm’s intangibles rather than just its environmental and social performance.

No description available.

A spatial hedonic model was constructed for a lakefront golf course community in South Carolina. Geographic information system (GIS) analysis classified 589 vacant lots into eight different view categories including golf course, mountain, and lake views. The OLS results confirm a hierarchy in the pricing of views with premiums ranging from 42% to 54% for golf course views, 94% to 133% for lake views, and 131 %to 305% for lakefront lots. Spatial variables including the slope of a lot, length of shoreline, and proximity to the lakeside village were also found to be statistically significant variables influencing the value of the property. Other spatial variables were found to be statistically insignificant including view aspect and length of golf course frontage. Tests for spatial autocorrelation were conducted for the 589 properties utilizing spatial lag and spatial error models. Both spatial models were statistically superior compared to the original OLS model. The diagnostic tools indicate that the modeling of the spatial errors using a maximum likelihood framework produces a statistically significant model that improves goodness-of-fit indicators compared to an alternative spatial lag model. These results confirm the importance of modeling spatial errors. The period of study, from 2000 to 2010, was a decade of turbulence in the real estate market on Lake Keowee. The empirical evidence indicates the emergence of a speculative bubble that reached its crescendo in 2005/2006 with median real estate prices doubling in a five year period. This study examines the role of launch marketing tactics as a price amplifier by creating an urgency to buy in response to a systematic increase in property prices and simultaneously limiting supply by restricting lot sales to 30% of reservations. Finally, the study illustrates that the construction of golf courses is no panacea to the problems confronting today's residential real estate developers. The results suggest that communities based on waterfront properties may have greater potential price growth in strong markets and resiliency in weak markets. Further research is warranted to understand the changing role of golf courses in the 21st century.