The Law of Real Property Mortgages

This book examines the principles and practice of real estate mortgages in an easily accessible text referenced to all the Australian States. It specifically deals with the major theoretical and practical aspects of the land mortgage including vitiating factors in formation, mortgagees powers and duties and mortgagors’ rights both statutory and other, assignment, insurance and discharge. As a successor to Mortgages Law in Australia, this book adopts an exclusive focus on real estate mortgages in Australia and provides a thorough account of the law through analysis of the plethora of court decisions and statutory provisions in this area. Duncan and Dixon analyse the substance of the mortgage transaction from creation through to rights of enforcement. This analysis includes detailed consideration of the rights and obligations of both mortgagors and mortgagees covering topics such as priorities and tacking, insurance, variation and assignment, rights of discharge, entry into possession, foreclosure and power of sale. In addition, the book contains a separate chapter on factors that may affect the validity and enforcement of a mortgage together with separate consideration of a mortgagee’s right to enforce a guarantee provided on behalf of a mortgagor and the rights and liabilities associated with a receivership regime initiated by a mortgagee. Written for the national market, the book is one of the few substantial works on this subject for practitioners throughout Australia. It is a very accessible text which enables readers to decide whether or not they have a problem and provides primary guidance to its solution. The book has been deliberately, heavily referenced to incorporate statutory references from across Australia and contains extensive case analysis in order to satisfy both these objectives.

Assessing the real value in residential property investment

One of the major fall outs from the Global Financial Crisis has been the decline in residential property construction, home lending and residential property prices. This has lead to some extent to a reduction in the number of small investors willing to commit funds to an investment market that is not seen to perform as well as other investment assets, particularly in relation to income return.With a decreasing supply of rental accommodation in the housing markets, less public housing being constructed by both State and Commonwealth Governments, there is the potential for the residential property market to provide more substantial returns than previous years.This paper will analyse the current residential housing market in Brisbane, Australia to determine if there are sectors in this market that are outperforming the average income and total return for residential investment property and the variation in investment performance across the various housing sub-markets. The results show that property investment in residential property provides opportunities to maximize returns based on geographic location and socio-economic economic status, with lower value areas showing the highest income returns and higher value suburbs showing greater capital returns

Its place in property education : where does property law fit into property programs?

Property law is one of the key elements in any property-based degree program. In particular, an understanding of 'property law' is one of the required knowledge fields for inclusion in property programs accredited by professional institutes such as the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors, the Appraisal Institute and the Australian Property Institute. Despite the importance of property law as a cornerstone element of all property programs this aspect of the program is often approached from a more generic legal perspective with teaching resources used and pedagogical approach more aligned to the study of law that property. The specificity of this type of program is rarely adequately acknowledged. The question arises as to what the study of 'property law' entails and what the composition of a 'property law' subject should be. Replicating the methodology used by Placid and Weeks (2009) in their examination of the current composition of real estate law courses in the United States, this paper examines the current composition and pedagogical approach adopted by Australian universities based on the study of three Queensland property programs. In particular the curriculum, teaching resources used, assessment and engagement strategies are considered with a view to making improvements to the way these property law courses can be more effectively tailored to property students. It is anticipated that the outcomes of this paper will be of interest to all academics who are responsible for developing and delivering property law subjects and those who manage property programs in Australia and internationally.

Education on plant and machinery valuation for the real market : Malaysian practicality

The purpose of this paper is to determine and discuss on the plant and machinery valuation syllabus for higher learning education in Malaysia to ensure the practicality of the subject in the real market. There have been limited studies in plant and machinery area, either by scholars or practitioners. Most papers highlighted the methodologies but limited papers discussed on the plant and machinery valuation education. This paper will determine inputs for plant and machinery valuation guidance focussing on the syllabus set up and references for valuers interested in this area of expertise. A qualitative approach via content analysis is conducted to compare international and Malaysian plant and machinery valuation syllabus and suggest improvements for Malaysian syllabus. It is found that there are few higher education institutions in the world that provide plant and machinery valuation courses as part of their property studies syllabus. Further investigation revealed that on the job training is the preferable method for plant and machinery valuation education and based on the valuers experience. The significance of this paper is to increase the level of understanding of plant and machinery valuation criteria and provide suggestions to Malaysian stakeholders with the relevant elements in plant and machinery valuation education syllabus.

The Law of Real Property Mortgages [2nd. Ed.]

This book examines the principles and practice of real estate mortgages in an easily accessible text referenced to all the Australian States. It specifically deals with the major theoretical and practical aspects of the land mortgage, including vitiating factors in formation, mortgagees’ powers and duties and mortgagors’ rights – both statutory and other – as well as assignment, insurance and discharge. It focuses exclusively on real estate mortgages and provides a thorough account of the law through analysis of the plethora of court decisions and statutory provisions in this area. Duncan and Dixon analyse the substance of the mortgage transaction from creation through to rights of enforcement. In its detailed consideration of the rights and obligations of mortgagors and mortgagees, it covers topics such as priorities and tacking, insurance, variation and assignment, rights of discharge, entry into possession, foreclosure and power of sale. In addition, the book contains a separate chapter on factors that may affect the validity and enforcement of a mortgage, together with separate consideration of a mortgagee’s right to enforce a guarantee provided on behalf of a mortgagor, and the rights and liabilities associated with a receivership regime initiated by

Professional indemnity insurance, performance and pre-emptive negligence: The impact of ‘non-claims’

As part of Australian licensing requirements professional valuers are required to maintain a level of professional indemnity insurance. A core feature of any insurance cover is that the insured has an obligation to notify their insurer of both actual and potential claims. An actual claim clearly will impact upon future policies and premiums paid. Notification of a potential claim, whether or not the notification crystallises into an actual claim, also can have an impact upon the insured’s claims history and premiums. The Global Financial Crisis continues to impact upon business practices and land transactions both directly and indirectly. The Australian valuation profession is not exempt from this impact. One example of this ongoing impact is reflected in a worrying practice engaged in by some financial institutions in respect of their loan portfolios. That is, even though the mortgagor is not in default, some institutions are pre-emptively issuing notices of demand regarding potential losses. Further, in some instances such demands are based only on mass appraisal valuations without specific consideration being given to the individual lot in question. The author examines the impact of this practice for the valuation profession and seeks to provide guidance for the appropriate handling of such demands.

The cluster effect in China: Real or imagined?

Policy makers, urban planners and economic geographers readily acknowledge the potential value of industrial clustering. Clusters attract policy makers’ interest because it is widely held that they are a way of connecting agglomeration to innovation and human capital to investment. Urban planners view clustering as a way of enticing creative human capital, the so-called ‘creative class’, that is, creative people are predisposed to live where there is a range of cultural infrastructure and amenities. Economists and geographers have contrived to promote clustering as a solution to stalled regional development. In the People’s Republic of China, over the past decade the cluster has become the default setting of the cultural and creative industries, the latter a composite term applied to the quantifiable outputs of artists, designers and media workers as well as related service sectors such as tourism, advertising and management. The thinking behind many cluster projects is to ‘pick winners’. In this sense the rapid expansion in the number of cultural and creative clusters in China over the past decade is not so very different from the early 1990s, a period that saw an outbreak of innovation parks, most of which inevitably failed to deliver measurable innovation and ultimately served as revenue-generating sources for district governments via real estate speculation. Since the early years of the first decade of the new millennium the cluster model has been pressed into the service of cultural development.

Projecto de investimento imobiliário no edifício residencial no Estoril

Trabalho de Projecto para obtenção do grau de Mestre em Engenharia Civil

Means, motive and opportunity? Disentangling client influence on performance measurement appraisals

This paper investigates the extent to which clients were able to influence performance measurement appraisals during the downturn in commercial property markets that began in the UK during the second half of 2007. The sharp change in market sentiment produced speculation that different client categories were attempting to influence their appraisers in different ways. In particular, it was recognised that the requirement for open-ended funds to meet redemptions gave them strong incentives to ensure that their asset values were marked down to market. Using data supplied by Investment Property Databank, we demonstrate that, indeed, unlisted open ended funds experienced sharper drops in capital values than other fund types in the second half of 2007, after the market turning point. These differences are statistically significant and cannot simply be explained by differences in portfolio composition. Client influence on appraisal forms one possible explanation of the results observed: the different pressures on fund managers resulting in different appraisal outcomes.

Annual CREMRU-JCI survey of corporate estate management practices in Europe and North America: 1993-1997

This paper summarizes the results of the 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996 and 1997 surveys of chief real estate officers (CREO) from major organizations in Europe and North America. Since 1997 the annual survey is being undertaken jointly by the Corporate Real Estate Management Research Unit (CREMRU) and Johnson Controls Incorporate (JCI). The annual survey has been supported by the International Development Research Council (IDRC) and the International Association of Corporate Real Estate Executives (NACORE International), two leading professional associations concerned with this field of professional activity. The emphasis of this summary is on two aspects of the survey: the incidence of corporate real estate management (CREM) policies, functions and activities; and the assessment of knowledge or skills relevant to the CREM function in the future. Both are of paramount interest to the educational institutions concerned with CREM on both sides of the Atlantic. This includes the educational organs of international organizations concerned with corporate real estate, such as IDRC and NACORE, which play increasingly important roles in the education of their members. The CREMRUJCI annual survey will hopefully offer a useful tool in the international educational effort in this field

Real option pricing in mixed-use development projects

The application of real options theory to commercial real estate has developed rapidly during the last 15 Years. In particular, several pricing models have been applied to value real options embedded in development projects. In this study we use a case study of a mixed use development scheme and identify the major implied and explicit real options available to the developer. We offer the perspective of a real market application by exploring different binomial models and the associated methods of estimating the crucial parameter of volatility. We include simple binomial lattices, quadranomial lattices and demonstrate the sensitivity of the results to the choice of inputs and method.

Precisely wrong or roughly right? An evaluation of development viability

This paper investigates the effect of choices of model structure and scale in development viability appraisal. The paper addresses two questions concerning the application of development appraisal techniques to viability modelling within the UK planning system. The first relates to the extent to which, given intrinsic input uncertainty, the choice of model structure significantly affects model outputs. The second concerns the extent to which, given intrinsic input uncertainty, the level of model complexity significantly affects model outputs. Monte Carlo simulation procedures are applied to a hypothetical development scheme in order to measure the effects of model aggregation and structure on model output variance. It is concluded that, given the particular scheme modelled and unavoidably subjective assumptions of input variance, that simple and simplistic models may produce similar outputs to more robust and disaggregated models.

An investigation of the effect of eco-labeling on office occupancy rates

This paper investigates the extent to which clients were able to influence performance measurement appraisals during the downturn in commercial property markets that began in the UK during the second half of 2007. The sharp change in market sentiment produced speculation that different client categories were attempting to influence their appraisers in different ways. In particular, it was recognised that the requirement for open-ended funds to meet redemptions gave them strong incentives to ensure that their asset values were marked down to market. Using data supplied by Investment Property Databank, we demonstrate that, indeed, unlisted open ended funds experienced sharper drops in capital values than other fund types in the second half of 2007, after the market turning point. These differences are statistically significant and cannot simply be explained by differences in portfolio composition. Client influence on appraisal forms one possible explanation of the results observed: the different pressures on fund managers resulting in different appraisal outcomes.

Access to the countryside of England and Wales: popular leisure; commodified culture

Risk and uncertainty are, to say the least, poorly considered by most individuals involved in real estate analysis - in both development and investment appraisal. Surveyors continue to express 'uncertainty' about the value (risk) of using relatively objective methods of analysis to account for these factors. These methods attempt to identify the risk elements more explicitly. Conventionally this is done by deriving probability distributions for the uncontrolled variables in the system. A suggested 'new' way of "being able to express our uncertainty or slight vagueness about some of the qualitative judgements and not From its modern origins, associated with the urbanising effect of industrialisation, walking has remained a popular form of outdoor recreation. It has, furthermore, remained an important site of class struggle, with the 'landless' seeking to establish their moral 'citizen' right to roam over open country in contradistinction to the 'landed', who have successfully limited this right to legally-defined public rights of way. In the face of declining farm incomes, however, farmers and landowners have, apparently, modified their attitudes towards public access, but only in return for compensation and management payments under grant schemes such as Countryside Stewardship and the Countryside Premium Scheme. With the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food now seeking to extend paid access arrangements to other grant schemes, as part of its response to the European Union's Agri-Environment Regulations, access 'rights' are assuming an increasingly commodified form, thereby questioning, if not undermining, the former citizen claims. For rather than being a benefit of citizenship, the existence of limited, often poorly maintained and inadequately signposted, public rights of way has tied inextricably the extension of legally-enforceable access to the needs of the landowners and farmers. At a time of falling prosperity in agriculture, therefore, they have now exercised their discretion by annexing the populism of consumer culture to reproduce the bourgeois liberal values of the market as a principal determinant of the extension of citizen rights of access to the countryside.

Property company performance and real interest rates: a regime-switching approach

Linear models of property market performance may be misspecified if there exist distinct states where the market drivers behave in different ways. This paper examines the applicability of non-linear regime-based models. A Self Exciting Threshold Autoregressive (SETAR) model is applied to property company share data, using the real rate of interest to define regimes. Distinct regimes appear exhibiting markedly different market behaviour. The model both casts doubt on the specification of conventional linear models and offers the possibility of developing effective trading rules for real estate equities.