This study updates and expands upon the existing work on the accuracy of the IPF’s Consensus Forecasts. The paper evaluates the extent to which the consensus forecasts were able to predict the relative performance. It also assesses the accuracy of implied yield forecasts and concludes that failure in yield forecasting is the main source of failure in forecasts of capital growth and total returns. A high level of agreement between the actual and forecasted sector rankings was found. Evidence of a pessimism bias was identified. Yield forecasts are consistently found to perform worst using a range of forecast performance metrics.

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to develop an operational framework with guidelines and lessons to improve the current real estate portfolio disposal procedures of freeholds, based on empirical evidence from the banking sector. Design/methodology/approach: The empirical research is based on a comparative analysis of four case studies, representing approximately 80 per cent of the Dutch banking sector. The case studies comprise a systematic document review of corporate business and real estate strategies and semi-structured interviews with decision makers who steer the organisation’s corporate real estate (CRE) portfolio composition. Findings: This research shows a strong relationship between organisation characteristics, legacy and strategy, disposal drivers and CRE disposal strategies. The weighing of drivers and order of steps in strategy execution strategies largely depend on organisational objectives. Research limitations/implications: This paper reports empirical findings from Dutch case studies. To generalise, further research is needed in different legal, financial and economic contexts and in other sectors. This paper suggests a more thorough study of the relationship between space-use efficiency and technological innovation implementation. Practical implications: The framework proposes strategy improvements and a proactive approach to corporate real estate management (CREM) to create value through real estate portfolios. Originality/value: This paper provides a thorough analysis of the CREM of the Dutch banking sector and is applicable to CREM in this and other sectors.

This paper provides a preliminary evaluation of staged introduction of the Minimum Energy Efficiency Standards in England and Wales in the period after announcement but before policy implementation. A process evaluation of the specific policy design focussing on potential sources of policy failure is provided. Drawing upon a database of all EPCs registered for offices in London, preliminary empirical evidence is presented on policy outcomes post-announcement and pre-implementation period. The extent to which EPC G and F rated office buildings in London have improved their EPC rating in anticipation of the introduction of the policy between 2011 until 2017 is analysed. It is found that a maximum of 0.65% of the properties affected by the introduction of minimum standards had modifications that could have been triggered by the policy intervention in the period prior to policy implementation.

De toenemende onzekerheid over de planningshorizon van kantooreigenaar-gebruikers zet de financiële efficiëntie van hun afstootstrategieën onder druk. Dit artikel identificeert verbeteringen voor besluitvorming over afstootstrategieën uit de praktijk voor eigenaren en managers van bedrijfsvastgoed. De focus ligt op de Nederlandse bankensector, gezien de grootschalige en turbulente ontwikkelingen en transitie die deze innovatiegevoelige sector momenteel doormaakt. Gebaseerd op de bevindingen in de Nederlandse bankensector beveelt dit onderzoek een proactieve aanpak aan voor het managen van bedrijfsvastgoed, aangezien dit resulteert in concurrentievoordeel en financiële waarde in afstootbesluiten.

This paper investigates the impact of vertical location and tenant sorting on commercial office rents within the tall office towers of Amsterdam. In economic geography and urban economics’ approach to productivity tall buildings constitute an important, density-increasing typology that fosters agglomeration. Through econometric modelling of 627 office rent transactions in 33 tall office buildings in Amsterdam rented during the period 2000–2016, this paper provides empirical evidence to the growing body of knowledge on the economics of height. This paper is the first to decompose the vertical rent premium whereby 27% is related to view, 3% to industry-level differences and the remaining 70% to firm-level signalling and other factors. The results indicate positive rent premiums for higher floor locations consistent across a wide range of specifications, strong premiums associated with the top output-per-job industry sectors and a weak presence of vertical sorting. Additional sorting evidence shows clear differences among industry sectors for height preference (law firms and consultancy & management practices), or lack of it despite high productivity (ICT sector). Relative price differentials for view and status were consistent across the various industry sectors with the exception of insurance carriers who seem to prefer status over the view aspect of height. The good performance of the OLS model with submarket fixed effects indicates the strong delineation of office submarkets in Amsterdam.

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to investigate how strategic corporate real estate (CRE) management varies across different types of organizational culture. Additionally, the authors examine how a set of well-established strategies is categorized by CRE executives and investigate whether there have been any changes in priorities of managers’ rating in importance of these strategies compared to a post-GFC study. Design/methodology/approach: A wide-scale survey of CRE managers was undertaken in summer 2016. Two key components of the survey are namely importance scoring of CRE strategies after the framework of Gibler and Lindholm (2012) and organizational culture assessment based on the competing values framework of Cameron and Quinn (2006). Analysis of CRE strategy importance is undertaken based on the average score comparison per each cultural family, and additional features are reported based on the industry sector, firm size and CRE department size. Principal component analysis is used to provide statistical evidence on the grouping of CRE strategies by practitioners. Findings: Empirical evidence points toward a clear division on the organizational culture dimension that differentiates effectiveness criteria of flexibility and discretion from stability and control. More specifically, clan and adhocracy cultural types prioritize employee-centric CRE strategies, whereas hierarchy and market cultures consider “Reducing real estate cost” as their single most influential strategy. Research limitations/implications: The competing values framework has been adapted from the original ipsative scoring process to reflect the fact that only one respondent per firm assesses their organization’s culture. Practical implications: The findings of this study are useful to CRE managers striving for maximum strategic fit within their firms as they unveil clear patterns of CRE strategy prioritization among different organizational culture types. Originality/value: To the authors’ best knowledge, this is the first study that analyzes the inter-relationships among CRE strategies and organizational culture variations. Additionally, the paper provides a categorization of CRE strategies through statistical methods that follow a clear pattern based on the scope of each strategy.

The quote “Culture eats strategy for breakfast” was made famous by Mark Field, president at Ford, in 2006 and has, ever since, been a guiding principle in management practice of corporations operating across the globe. The general management profession has widely embraced culture as a key factor in strategy design. However, in corporate real estate (CRE) management, it appears to be implicit within organizational differences at best, or lacking proper consideration at worst. Multinational corporations are faced with the need to centralize decision-making regarding their real estate to increase its agility in meeting rapidly changing business needs. In this new scenario of “acting globally and thinking locally,” understanding cultural variations across nations and organizations alike is crucial. Analyzing the link between CRE strategies and organizational culture is essential for delivering value to multinationals. Given this significant knowledge gap, we set out to explore these new frontiers through empirical research that uses data from a survey with 231 CoreNet Global members. This article provides a concise overview of the findings from this study that bears particular importance for the CRE management profession at large.

Multinational corporations are faced with the need to centralize decision-making regarding their real estate to increase its agility in meeting rapidly changing business needs. In this new scenario of ‘acting globally and thinking locally’ understanding cultural variations across nations and organizations alike is crucial. Analyzing the link between corporate real estate strategies and organizational culture is essential for delivering value to multinationals.

The quote Culture eats strategy for breakfast was made famous by Mark Field, president at Ford, in 2006 and has ever since been a guiding principle in management practice of corporations operating across the globe. General management profession has widely embraced culture as a key factor in strategy design. However, in corporate real estate (CRE) management it appears to be implicit within organizational differences at best or lacking proper consideration at worst. Analyzing the interrelationships between corporate real estate strategies and organizational culture is essential for delivering value to multinationals.

The department of MBE was originally called Real Estate & Project Management (BMVB: ‘Bouwmanagement & Vastgoedbeheer’) covering the domains of construction management and real estate management. The “raison d’être” for this new department was based on the recognition that a fair amount of architecture graduates were more interested in managing a building’s design and construction process than in its actual design. These students, however, were not taught management theories and skills at that time. As a result, they would end up in the construction industry poorly equipped for doing the job they were required to do. This lack in education was addressed by our new department. Our graduates are multi-disciplinary schooled, not only in architectural design, computational design and management theories and skills, but very importantly also in building economics. The research domain Building Economics comprises research on the market and the value of buildings, and the relationship between quality and revenues, and costs and fi nance (Soeter et al., 2009). In the real estate market, the space market is interlinked with the asset market and the construction market. The Building Economy research programme analyses the real estate portfolios of investors. In what type of properties do they invest and what are the returns, risk profi les and outcomes? A crucial aspect in this is the expected rental income. To a large extent, the research focuses on the rent level and return on investment, in connection to location and building characteristics (quality) (see for instance Koppels et al., 2009, 2011). A guideline for studies on costs and quality is the consideration that organisations are interlinked with their location and buildings. An optimal solution for accommodation depends on the selected approach. For example, with a lowest cost approach, a minimum of investment costs, running costs and life-cycle costs are sought after, usually resulting in low values as well. Research on the relationship between cost, quality, and willingness-to-pay is important to understand and steer on costs and quality.

This paper estimates the impact of quality design attributes on real estate value through empirical investigation of the owner-occupied multifamily residential sector. The methodological design is based on spatiotemporal modelling using a unique data-set of 424 Belfast City Centre apartments sold during the period 2000–2008. The key findings indicate that urban scale aspects of quality such as connectivity and vitality associated with building density add to real estate value. At the building level, quality features highly valued by home buyers are namely appropriateness of material quality, fenestration and massing to the surroundings. These key criteria are considered to have a significant visual perception compared to more complex concepts such as identity, material choice and overall condition. The contribution to knowledge involves extending the hedonic model to incorporate a wider selection of design quality variables; and improving estimation through the use of spatiotemporal modelling.

Transition from a centralized to a market economy yielded different responses from the former Eastern Bloc countries with economic performance directly affecting spatial composition of the cities. Post-socialist urban transformations across Central and Eastern Europe exhibit main, common features but always preserve singularities, characteristic of individual states. This paper, by using comparative methods and urban planning analyses, emphasizes differences in the degree of change for inner city areas under same transition conditions. Drawing on empirical evidence from Tirana, the paper stresses the fact that besides the obvious general change in the communism-inherited urban fabric, the degree of this change is predicated on the area's centrality and its pretransitional urban pattern. It is pointed out that this spatial change follows a mutually interactive, parallel path with the socio-economic composition of the city. The peculiarity of Tirana stands in the fact that post-socialist socio-spatial transformations are better defined by Balkanization (implying individuality and hostility) rather than segregation (which implies clustering).