This book looks at how the multiplicity of formal and informal normative systems that actualize the post-disaster recovery goals of the country's Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Act of 2010 has resulted in the inadequate housing and relocation of Typhoon Ketsana victims in the Philippines. Using the sociological and normative pluralist perspectives and the case study method, it evaluates the level of conformity of the components of the housing project according to international conventions and legal standards. It highlights the negative unintended consequences caused by the complex normative regimes of various competing stakeholders, rigid real estate regulation, and the unscrupulous involvement of powerful and 'corrupt' real estate developers and housing groups as largely contributing to the project's deviation from the law's proactive objectives. This book attempts to promote the socio-legal perspectives which have long been overlooked in disaster research. Finally, it invites policymakers to enact a comprehensive disaster law and create a one-stop disaster management agency to improve the long-term rehabilitation of disaster victims in developing countries such as the Philippines.

This book presents an overview of private rented housing in selected new EU member states and other transition countries - a topic scarcely researched to date, as it is largely part of the informal economy, and consequently often invisible to official statistics. Part I presents the private rented sector in Western and Northern European countries, the history of private renting under socialism in Central and Eastern Europe, and thematic issues such as restitution and marginalized groups depending on privately rented housing. Part II provides a series of country case studies from the Central and East European region. Part III concludes with chapters on the possibility of utilizing the private rental sector in affordable housing provision through good practices in both old and new EU member states, and sets out to further the housing policy debate on European housing regimes. This unique edited collection will be of great value to scholars of and practitioners involved in housing policy and economics, urban development, international relations, politics, economics and sociology.

This book presents interviews with 20 successful Malaysian housing developers, to provide real-world insights and practical know-how for future developers. It is designed in a way that reveals the secrets of successful developers, from their origins to their current status with the interviews conducted in a semi-structured manner so that the interviewees were able to freely share their experiences, thoughts, opinions and tips acquired throughout their business careers. Covering the developers' success stories, from their background, educational history and personal traits to their business challenges and achievements, it appeals to academics and practitioners alike.

This book uses empirical research to examine fluctuations and periodicities in housing markets in the United Kingdom. Chapters investigate received wisdom on housing market co-determination before exploring an unconventional approach to analysing the interaction and diffusion evidence base. Finally, the author presents varied case studies, analysing price diffusion across first-time and repeat buyer groups, regions and housing vintages, as well as related macro variables. This volume will be of interest to academics and researchers interested in the area of price diffusion across housing markets.

When and why do countries redistribute land to the landless? What political purposes does land reform serve, and what place does it have in today's world? A long-standing literature dating back to Aristotle and echoed in important recent works holds that redistribution should be both higher and more targeted at the poor under democracy. Yet comprehensive historical data to test this claim has been lacking. This book shows that land redistribution - the most consequential form of redistribution in the developing world - occurs more often under dictatorship than democracy. It offers a novel theory of land reform and develops a typology of land reform policies. Albertus leverages original data spanning the world and dating back to 1900 to extensively test the theory using statistical analysis and case studies of key countries such as Egypt, Peru, Venezuela, and Zimbabwe. These findings call for rethinking much of the common wisdom about redistribution and regimes.

What do you want for yourself in the next five, ten years? Do your plans involve marriage, kids, a new job? These are the questions a real estate agent might ask in an attempt to unearth information they can employ to complete a sale, which as Upsold shows, often results in upselling. In this book, sociologist Max Besbris shows how agents successfully upsell, inducing buyers to spend more than their initially stated price ceilings. His research reveals how face-to-face interactions influence buyers' ideas about which neighborhoods are desirable and which are less-worthy investments and how these preferences ultimately contribute to neighborhood inequality. Stratification defines cities in the contemporary United States. In an era marked by increasing income segregation, one of the main sources of this inequality is housing prices. A crucial part of wealth inequality, housing prices are also directly linked to the uneven distribution of resources across neighborhoods and to racial and ethnic segregation. Upsold shows how the interactions between real estate agents and buyers make or break neighborhood reputations and construct neighborhoods by price. Employing revealing ethnographic and quantitative housing data, Besbris outlines precisely how social influences come together during the sales process. In Upsold, we get a deep dive into the role that the interactions with sales agents play in buyers' decision-making and how neighborhoods are differentiated, valorized, and deemed to be worthy of a certain price.

Finance is essential to the real estate project development sector's success. However, there is still an enormous gap in the real estate sector. What seems to be required is a model that could guide managers in securing real estate project development finance. Findings have shown that no comprehensive framework is presently available. This book presents a toolkit to support real estate managers in securing real estate project development finance. The book will help managers to understand the different financing options and criteria required by financiers. The study includes case studies from developed and emerging economies, including Germany, the United Kingdom, the United States of America, China, Nigeria, and South Africa. The author concludes that the dominant challenges common to managers in both economies are access to land, collateral, and rising interest rates.

The massive dams of the American West were designed to serve multiple purposes: improving navigation, irrigating crops, storing water, controlling floods, and generating hydroelectricity. Their construction also put thousands of people to work during the Great Depression. Only later did the dams' baneful effects on river ecologies spark public debate. Big Dams of the New Deal Era tells how major water-storage structures were erected in four western river basins. David P. Billington and Donald C. Jackson reveal how engineering science, regional and national politics, perceived public needs, and a river's natural features intertwined to create distinctive dams within each region. In particular, the authors describe how two federal agencies, the Army Corps of Engineers and the Bureau of Reclamation, became key players in the creation of these important public works. By illuminating the mathematical analysis that supported large-scale dam construction, the authors also describe how and why engineers in the 1930s most often opted for massive gravity dams, whose design required enormous quantities of concrete or earth-rock fill for stability. Richly illustrated, Big Dams of the New Deal Era offers a compelling account of how major dams in the New Deal era restructured the landscape - both politically and physically - and why American society in the 1930s embraced them wholeheartedly.

The foolproof guide to buying, selling and growing wealth without money, credit or experience.

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Your One-Stop-Shop in the Home Buying Process
What Every Homeowner Needs to Know Before They Sign on the Dotted Line
Thinking about buying a home? The dream of home ownership has become a reality for millions of people in the last few years.
With this book in hand, now it can be yours too.

What's Your Rate? How to Buy a Home and Secure Your Financial Future at the Same Time offers a unique perspective into the process of buying a home. At the same time, it helps you to formulate a financial plan and put together your financial team. Don't neglect to consider your insurance needs, investment strategies, college funding, estate planning or passing on a legacy. These critical factors are often overlooked while transacting what is, for most people, the single largest purchase they'll ever make--their home.
This definitive guide is unique in that all of the home buying and financial planning information is related through a compelling narrative centered on a young family--a family probably a lot like yours. They have grown out of their apartment and they are expecting a third child. When a suggestion from a trusted friend is followed--after a discouraging beginning into the home buying process--an all-encompassing plan soon unfolds.
Learn how to assemble your team of trusted advisors and put together a comprehensive plan for the future. This is a must read for anyone considering buying a home, and for the Core-7 business professional looking to create a system to help in that endeavor.

The definitive guide to understanding the real estate escrow process
Selling a home or purchasing a new one? - How can you prepare yourself?

Navigating an "escrow" is an art, but there are times it feels like an uphill battle ending in an all out WAR. Learn what you can do to make the process less stressful. Just as important, find out what you should not do, so as to avoid the pitfalls. "The Art of Escrow "provides an easy to understand, step-by-step process, so that you can achieve the American dream of home ownership while staying in control At last The escrow process has been de-mystified. Find out how to simplify your dreams, today.

This book discusses the regulatory and trade challenges facing the global adoption of biotechnological products and offers strategies for overcoming these obstacles and moving towards greater global food security. The first section of the book establishes the context of the conflict, discussing the challenges of global governance, international trade, and the history of regulation of genetically modified (GM) crops. In this section, the authors emphasize the shift from exclusively science-based regulation to the more socio-economically focused framework established by the Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety, which was adopted in 2000. The second section of the book provides a snapshot of the current state of international GM crop adoption and regulation, highlighting the US, Canada, and the EU. The final section of the book identifies options for breaking the gridlock of regulation and trade that presently exist. This book adds to the current literature by providing new information about innovative agricultural technologies and encouraging debate by providing an alternative to the narratives espoused by environmental non-governmental organizations. This book will appeal to students of economics, political science, and policy analysis, as well as members of regulatory agencies and agricultural industry firms.

Philip Radner analyzes equity financing phenomena and researches IPO underpricing and SEO announcement effects using data sets for US REITs. Moreover, he discusses underpricing theories and their applicability in the REIT context and gives a theoretical background on IPOs and on underpricing in particular. With this background at hand, the results out of this dissertation imply to focus on the wording in IPO documents as it can help to maximize IPO proceeds. In addition, he analyzes how to better time and announce subsequent equity financing events. It is expected that significantly underpriced issues attract more investors and that subsequent SEOs are then easier to conduct and typically raise more capital.

Originally published in 1996, Urban Land and Property Markets describes the intricacies of the Italian urban planning system and the interconnections between the property sector, the national economy and recent historical developments, including the new challenges facing Italy after the early 1990s collapse of the party system. The book's underlying thesis is that property values are ultimately created by urban planning and investment in infrastructure. Negotiations between local government and developers focus on three basic issues: the ultimate use of urban land, the quantitative control of development via planning permissions relating to city master plans, and the nature of public investment to support growth and property values.

This book presents successful case studies in Muslim and Muslim minority countries that have revolutionized the redevelopment of idle waqf properties into productive land trusts. The revival of this institution over the last two decades shows the growing optimism in galvanizing the socioeconomic role of waqf by adopting its flexible shariah measures. Innovative ways of financing redevelopment allow Muslims to extend these roles to include new beneficiaries. New uses for these properties include providing services to the community, opening jobs for the majority of people, funding small entrepreneurs, educating the masses, providing health care, and sheltering the poor and needy. Countries under study include Sudan, Turkey, Malaysia, Indonesia, Singapore, New Zealand, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, and Iran. Additionally, the book examines the International Development Bank's role in financing the development old waqf properties in different countries.

Understanding the relationship between urban amenities and real estate prices is a key for the future of our cities. Location choices depend on a variety of urban amenities that eventually determine demand for a specific location. Identifying the impact of these urban amenities on the people's preferences allows policy makers and developers to increase quality of life. Jan de Graaff therefore quantifies the impact of crime and migration on residential real estate prices and identifies the location choice preferences of Germans by applying innovative methodologies to unique German data sets.

This book describes in full the major approaches used to evaluate investment in real estate and shows how theory informs decision-aid methods and tools to support such evaluation. The inclusion of numerous examples makes it also a practical guide to assessing the suitability of an investment property. The first part of the text is devoted to an analysis of the housing market through the study of micro- and macroeconomic variables influencing supply and demand, with illustration of how these two components of the market interact. Special attention is given to market research and other preparatory activities able to influence the outcome of the investment. In fact, the quality of the parameters used for the evaluation depends on these activities. The final chapters describe the valuation techniques and highlight their essential features, limitations and potential in relation to ability to manage the investment risk. The book is aimed at graduates who wish to deepen their study of the real estate market and of the methods used to support investment decisions in real estate but also at professionals and managers of companies operating in the real estate market.

This book discusses in detail the impact of the Internet on the real-estate brokerage industry. It starts by tracing the history of the industry in America, and then goes on to present case studies of successful online brokerage companies and startups, and to evaluate future trends from the perspectives of investors as well as researchers. It explains how the Internet can transform an industry, enabling readers to spot potential investment opportunities.

Simon Kempf has developed hedonic (quality-adjusted) office rent indices for German metropolitan areas. His study explores new territory as it constructs, for the first time, such indices for Germany. The author thereby has taken into account the different qualities of the underlying lease contracts regarding location factors, lease factors, building factors, equipment and layout factors of the office rental unit - using more than 22,005 office lease contracts stored in the Rental Databank of IPD GmbH in Wiesbaden. This hedonic index construction methodology is well known among real estate researchers and statisticians, but it has been mainly used in the residential sector. As a second novelty the multiple imputation method in the statistical analysis to solve the problem of missing data is employed. Quality-adjusted office rent indices serve as market and economic indicators as well as a bench-marking instrument.

Christopher Oertel studies the impact of public policy measures on the German real estate market and confirms the assumptions, which imply that a city can influence its economic position in relation to nearby cities in the short run by making use of this tax instrument. His analyses begin with an examination of the German residential real estate market from a consumption good perspective. The findings indicate that the home-ownership allowance had a distorting effect by capitalizing into residential real estate prices, although at lower than expected rates. Then the author studies the German residential real estate market from an investment good perspective. Investigating an important amendment of the German tenancy legislation, there is a positive, yet insignificant relationship between the tenancy law reform act and the development of the cap rate. The analysis is completed by focussing on the German office market and investigating how its rental levels and gross purchase prices are affected by changes in the municipal trade tax multiplier.

This book discusses the most critical issues relating to the recovery of bad loans - a major problem that European banks urgently need to address and resolve. The book describes, in an innovative but also pragmatic way, the new approaches, techniques, and models for optimal management of non-performing loans (NPLs) and the maximization of their recovery value. Drawing on a rigorous academic background and the latest real-life experiences of major European banks, it details a novel means of dealing with NPLs based on velocity, the holistic use of tools and "accelerators", and the active management of collaterals. Also, there is a specific focus on the smart use of "big data" and on the development of "bad banks", at both the single bank and the system-wide level. Ultimately, credit workout is defined as a core capability for any competitive bank - and as a quite interesting business opportunity for independent, specialized "alpha" players.