I guess that it is the unavoidable consequence of having spent over 30 years in real estate education that I get to know and respect most of my peers both in the UK and abroad. This is the case with both the authors of this text. I know them well. That said, whilst it is right that I declare the friendships, I can categorically say that my comments would be the same; this is an excellent book.
In fact, my only criticism is the books title Global Property Investment as the book covers so much more than “global” and it could be a core text for any property or real estate course in any country. It covers all the bases and provides a very structured understanding of real estate investment and the drivers thereof.
The book is divided into a number of parts, each with numerous chapters and sub sections:
Part1. real estate as an investment: an introduction;
Part2. making investment decisions at the property level;
Part3. real estate investment structures; and
Part4. creating a global real estate strategy.
The final chapter in Part 4, Chapter 18 is the conclusions chapter, but it is written in such a way that it could also have been a preface for the book. It provides a really strong focus on “why property?” and the preceding chapters that culminate in the conclusions have already answered that question.
Another really useful aspect of the book is the seamless way in which UK models and approaches are interwoven with the US equivalents. George Bernard Shaw (1942) once said that “England and America are two countries separated by the same language” and, having taught in both countries I can certainly attest to that as a fact. But Baum and Hartzell have addressed that shortcoming and produced a text that, whilst it has a mixture of currencies in examples in different chapters, overall appears to be written by one author. That may be the influence of a great editor but the end result is a text that is easy to follow and consistently insightful.
This is text book for the shelf of all real estate students and, dare I say, for that of many practitioners.
