When I first read this book (soon after publication) I was impressed with the coherence of the book as an edited tome. Very often, books of this nature are a “pick and mix” of disparate chapters of varying eruditeness and insightfulness. But the editors in this case, either by red pen or choice of author (or both), have delivered a cohesive and well written piece of work.
I must admit, when I saw that the publishing schedule for book reviews in the journal would delay a prompt review, I was worried that the book would suffer from the market changes over that period. Indeed, the stated objective in the marketing material for the book seemed to concur with my worry that the book has a limited shelf life. It said:
To operate effectively in today’s dynamic global real estate markets, it is essential to understand the complex processes that underpin them. This up-to-date work, which brings together contributions from industry and academic experts from around the world, is a valuable corollary to effective investment decision-making within the property sector and will be of interest to post-graduate property students, researchers and practising real estate investors.
Yet, having just reread it, now with the benefit of hindsight, the book is as insightful as ever and some of the points that it makes have not progressed in the market in the interim. The book is divided into two parts and 13 chapters, each with a different author or team of authors. The chapters are:
Part I: Products
Global REITs universe continues to expand and developAuthors – Lijian Chen and Thomas Mills
The US real estate investment trust (REIT) marketAuthor – Will McIntosh
Progress on REIT regimes in EuropeAuthors – Simon Clark, Tim Hackemann, Olivier Mesmin, Matthias Roche and Tom Road
Listed property trusts in AustraliaAuthor – Graeme Newell
Asian REITs: playing the yield gameAuthors – Joseph Ooi and Neo Poh Har
European real estate unlisted vehicles: a mature market now or is there more to come?Author – Karen Sieracki
Constructing a global real estate investment indexAuthor – Ian Cullen
Property derivativesAuthor – Gary McNamara
Property markets in Central and Eastern EuropeAuthors – Stanley McGreal, Jim Berry and Alastair Adair
Islamic finance and Shariah compliant real estate investmentAuthors – Ali Parsa and Ali Muwlazadeh
PART II: Processes
Socially responsible property investment – background, trends and consequencesAuthors – Thomas Lutzkendorf and David Lorenz
Corporate governance in the real estate industryAuthors – Karl-Werner Schulte, Wolfgang Schäfers and Nicolas Kohl
The future of real estate educationAuthor – Tony Key
Regular readers of the Journal of Property Investment & Finance will recognise many of the authors’ names. Indeed, many of the teams are on the editorial board of this journal. That sometimes makes it difficult to be objective in reviewing work after publication, without the shield of the double blind review process, but I would like to think that my comments would be the same regardless. This is an excellent book. Well written, well edited and still topical. Yes, some of the data sets are now dated but for both the student and the practitioner, this book offers the reader both an introduction to Real Estate Finance, as a sub set of the capital markets, and a more detailed understanding of the role of finance in driving markets.
