Keywords
Citation
Nick French (2015), "Real Estate Concepts: A Handbook", Journal of Property Investment & Finance, Vol. 33 No. 5, pp. 474-475. https://doi.org/10.1108/20426741211226037
Publisher
:Emerald Group Publishing Limited
Copyright © 2015, Emerald Group Publishing Limited
This is an odd book. I can’t work out for whom the book was written. It is said that this is an essential reference tool for all real estate, property, planning and construction students but the eclectic mix of topics in the book means that there are chapters that will not apply to all the intended readership. For example, if I were a real estate student, I wouldn’t buy a book with so many chapters devoted to Building Surveying and Quantity Surveying and vice versa. I appreciate that here are some core topics that relate to all cohorts, such as economics and law but in both cases, the student is better advised to seek out a good book on that topic rather than to rely on the specific summaries contained within.
Indeed, that is one of the other faults with the book. It is like a compendium of small booklets; the sort of booklets that all good students avoid and that poorer students use as bibles at revision in the hope that they can cram sufficient information in their heads to pass the exams. It isn’t as if the contents of this book are actually wrong (albeit some of the chapters are woefully out of date) but they are superficial and often make reference to other texts that are also very poor.
To look at the contents in detail, together with the authors of each chapter, the book is divided as follows:
Preface.
Chapter 1 – “Agency” by Andy Dunhill, Jane Stonehouse and Rachel Williams.
Chapter 2 – “Building surveying” by Stuart Eve, Minnie Fraser and Cara Hatcher.
Chapter 3 – “Commercial property” by Andy Dunhill, Dom Fearon, John Holmes and Becky Thompson.
Chapter 4 – “Construction” by Graham Capper, Barry Gledson, Richard Humphrey, Eric Johansen, Ernie Jowsey, Mark Kirk, Cara Hatcher and John Weirs.
Chapter 5 – “Development” by Hannah Furness, Ernie Jowsey and Simon Robson.
Chapter 6 – “Economics” by Ernie Jowsey.
Chapter 7 – “Finance” by Ernie Jowsey and Hannah Furness.
Chapter 8 – “Investment” by Ernie Jowsey and Hannah Furness.
Chapter 9 – “Land management” by Dom Fearon and Ernie Jowsey.
Chapter 10 – “Law” by Rachel Williams and Simon Robson.
Chapter 11 – “Planning” by Andy Dunhill, Hannah Furness, Paul Greenhalgh, Carol Ludwig, Dave McGuinness, and Rachel Williams.
Chapter 12 – “Property asset management” by Cheryl Williamson, Dom Fearon and Kenneth Kelly.
Chapter 13 – “Quantity surveying” by Glenn Steel.
Chapter 14 – “Regeneration” by Julie Clarke, Hannah Furness, Paul Greenhalgh, Rachel Kirk and David McGuinness.
Chapter 15 – “Residential property” by Julie Clarke, Rachel Kirk and Cara Hatcher.
Chapter 16 – “Sustainability” by Graham Capper, John Holmes, Ernie Jowsey, Sara Lilley, Dave McGuinness and Simon Robson.
Chapter 17 – “Taxation” by Ernie Jowsey and Rachel Williams.
Chapter 18 – “Valuation” by Lynn Johnson and Becky Thompson.
As you can see, it is an eclectic mix. Some topics are natural bed fellows whilst other are, as noted above, uneasily juxtaposed for reasons that I don’t comprehend. Another problem with the book, which often applies to multi-authored books of this nature, is that the English is inconsistent. I appreciate that it is a book that is more likely to be read out of sequence and dipped into by topic, but for a reader (such as myself) reading it from front to back, the lack of consistency in style and grammar was annoying.
Lastly, its contents. As I have said, what is there is not necessarily wrong but it is lacking. Looking at the chapter on valuation, as just one example, it is impossible for a student to mimic the examples given as there is no explanation of the formulae used. It also doesn’t define value or the importance of a valuation. Valuation is presented as a mechanical exercise disengaged from the market and whilst it refers to the Red Book (The Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors – RICS Valuation – Professional Standards) 2014, it fails to talk about the three recognised valuation approaches. Likewise, it uses terminology that the RICS has tried to discourage (e.g. equated yield) and which is not used in the market place. I guess this is understandable as the at least two of the “further reading” suggestions are of books that make the same errors.
The same applies to a lesser or greater extent for most of the other chapters. All the chapters seem to lack context and all of them would benefit from an introduction and better structure. Many of the chapters flit between headings and there is no natural flow.
I think that my overall view of the book can be summed up by the fact that when reading all 18 chapters, there was only one chapter, Chapter 6 – “Economics” that was greeted, in my head, with the words “that was good.” The other chapters had too many lacunae, too little detail and were too disparate for my reaction to be anything other than muted. It is not a text that I would recommend particularly when there are books from the same publisher that are so much better.