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Earlier studies have suggested the creation of a central database of concluded property transactions as a panacea to the property data debacle. It is in this regard that the purpose of this paper is to examine the perception of potential users of centralised property database on the consideration for the design and management of such database.

Questionnaires were administered on 190 property practitioners (referred as estate surveying and valuation firms) in Lagos property market. Frequency index, frequency distribution and percentage were employed for data analysis.

The result showed that respondents preferred a web-based databank and free access to the information in the databank by those who recorded their market data in it. They also preferred uniform recording standard in the databank, an interface that must be user friendly and secure to prevent unauthorised user from gaining access, amongst others. The practitioners also preferred that their professional body manage the databank when it is created.

The paper provides useful insights into creating a property database that will improve accessibility to property data in opaque markets.

There is still little or no empirical research on framework/end-users’ requirements for the creation of property transaction database in emerging property markets.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the of characteristics of Lagos, Nigeria property market and its submarkets on the prism of the market practitioners’ characteristics, market transaction structure and market maturity. This is done with a view to provide information capable of improving the flow of foreign real estate investment to the Lagos property market.

Primary data were sourced through questionnaire administered on firms of property practitioners in the market. A total of 190 firms were selected using the stratified random sampling technique based on their geographical location. Descriptive statistics and Mann−Whitney U Test were employed for data analysis.

The results showed that the Lagos property market was characterised by practitioners whose highest level of education was majorly first degree, and with a mean computer literacy ranking of 3.38 on a five-point Likert scale. Also, major transactions in the market included letting and sales. The market maturity index of the market was 2.95 and therefore adjudged as an emerging market. The analysis also revealed that there was no significant difference in the characteristics of the submarkets.

The results of the study are capable of enhancing investment decision in the market.

The study differentiates itself from and adds to the previous studies on market characteristics through an examination of the property market on the prism of the market transaction structure, market practitioners’ characteristics and maturity of the market holistically in the context of an African emerging market.

With a focus on Lagos property market, the purpose of this paper is to examine the factors that influence accessibility to data for valuation and investment analysis in Nigeria. This was with a view to improving accessibility to property data in the market, thereby enhancing investment appraisal practice.

Primary data utilized for the study were sourced through the use of questionnaire administered on property practitioners (referred to as estate surveying and valuation (ESV) firms) in Lagos property market. A total of 190 ESV firms were selected using stratified random sampling based on their geographical location. Relative significance index (RSI), frequency distribution and principal component analysis (PCA) were employed for data analysis.

A total of 19 factors were identified as affecting accessibility to data. Confidentiality attached to property data by practitioners was ranked as the most significant factor with RSI of 0.81. The next three factors were lack of cooperation within members of professional body (0.79), accuracy of data (0.76) and duty of care to client (0.75), while the least ranked factor was duplication of data set (0.63). All the 19 variables were further grouped into six principal factors using PCA, namely, economic, attitudinal, ethical, legal, administrative and technical factors; with each factor explaining the following variance, 16.75, 16.1, 13.64, 12.78, 10.51 and 7.95, respectively.

The paper’s results will enable stakeholders to address the challenges to data accessibility in Lagos property market and similar opaque markets elsewhere thereby enhancing property data accessibility and investment analysis.

The paper is an attempt to examine the factors affecting accessibility to data identified in different studies holistically together in a single study and from the perspective of an emerging property market like Nigeria.

With a focus on Lagos, Nigeria property market, the purpose of this paper is to examine the willingness of property practitioners towards property data sharing and assemblage with a view to improving accessibility to commercial property data in Nigerian property market.

Primary data were sourced through the use of questionnaire administered on property practitioners (referred as estate surveying and valuation (ESV) firms) in Lagos property market. In total, 190 ESV firms were selected using stratified random sampling based on their geographical location, frequency distribution, percentage, and cross-tabulation were employed for data analysis.

The results showed that majority of the practitioners (68.1 per cent) were willing to share property data among themselves while 52.6 per cent of the practitioners were in support of data assemblage. The result also revealed the higher the experience of the practitioners, the more they are averse to data sharing. It was also revealed that the bigger firm are more averse to data assemblage than the smaller firms. Meanwhile, majority of the practitioners (93.3 per cent) were in support of creation of a central database.

The study concluded that without the willingness of practitioners to support data assemblage, the data debacle in property market might not be resolved.

The paper is an attempt towards the possibility of creating database of concluded transactions, which will improve accessibility to property data in opaque property market.

This paper aimed to examine the return/risk performance of direct and indirect real estate (listed property stock) in the Nigerian real estate market and analyzed the short-term integration between the two classes of real estate assets. It also established whether investors could achieve diversification benefits by combining both assets in a portfolio.

The data utilized comprised annual returns on direct real estate calculated from the rental and capital values of 226 direct commercial properties obtained from property valuers in Lagos, Nigeria, for a period of January 1999-December 2014. The appraisal-based direct real estate returns were de-smoothed using the Geltner (1993) procedure. The annual returns of indirect real estate were also computed from the transactions of listed property stock on the Nigerian Stock Exchange for the study period. The return-risk profiles were also broken down into short- and medium-term sub-periods, comprising 3, 5, 8 and 12 years to reflect the level of volatility in the market, whereas the nature of the short-term relationship between the two real estate assets classes was tested using Granger causality technique.

The results revealed that listed property stock performed better than unsmoothed direct real estate on a risk-adjusted performance basis. The performance profile, however, varies over the different sub-periods considered. Short-term integration analysis showed that there was no bidirectional relationship between direct and listed property stock, implying diversification and risk reduction possibilities in combining both assets with other asset classes in a domestic asset portfolio. Overall, the results confirm the findings of previous study that listed property stocks return is segmented from the direct real estate market upon which its pricing and trading in the stock market are based.

The conclusion of the study suggests that investors could achieve improved performance by investing in listed property stocks than direct real estate in the Nigerian real estate market. The inclusion of both assets in a domestic mixed-asset portfolio could also be expected to offer diversification and risk reduction benefits.

This is one of the few studies that examine the short-run integration between direct real estate and listed property stocks with a focus on an emerging African market.

This paper aims to investigate the flexible decision pathways adopted by development advisors in the management of uncertainty in property development. Specifically, the study examines the quantitative techniques adopted by development advisors, the level of adoption of real options analysis (ROA) vis-à-vis the level of adoption of heuristics. Finally, the types of options exercised in property development were analysed. This was with a view to providing information that could mitigate the challenges of risk and uncertainty and increasing investment failure associated with property development in Nigeria, an emerging market.

The study adopted a survey method and was conducted on development advisors in property development companies/estate surveying and valuation firms in Nigeria. A total of 195 development advisors participated in the survey. The respondents were required to rate, on a five-point Likert scale, the level of adoption of the quantitative models, heuristics and the types of flexibility exercised during development. The data were analysed using mean rating, one-sample t-test and analysis of variance.

The results revealed that there was a preference for the use of traditional techniques, while probabilistic appraisal models and other contemporary methods such as ROA are seldom adopted by development advisors. While there was a significantly high level of adoption of heuristics, the stratified analysis examining the profile of the respondents and the level of adoption of ROA and heuristics suggests that years of experience influenced the level of adoption of both the ROA and heuristics by the development advisors. The analysis of the types of flexibility showed that staging/phasing and changing the initial use/design were the most prevalent flexibility pathways adopted during the development. However, the study found that there was no significant difference concerning the choice of flexibility being adopted by development advisors who used ROA and those who did not.

The study provides an understanding of the decision pathways adopted by development advisors in an emerging market like Nigeria.

The paper contributes to studies on decision-making pathways in the management of uncertainty under dynamic conditions by development advisors in emerging markets.

The purpose of this paper is to re-examine the framework for determining property market maturity by including the economic characteristics of a country in the measure.

The examination was done in Lagos property market, which was stratified into Mainland and Island markets. A total of 181 estate surveying and valuation firms and 87 property development companies, as represented by top-level managers, participated in the survey. Data were collected on their perception of property market maturity attributes that included market openness, presence of professionals, level of transparency and state of the economy, among others. The data were analyzed using mean rating and mean deviation.

The result showed that “diversity of real estate products and forms” was ranked highly and had reached a mature stage in Lagos Mainland, Island and the aggregated Lagos market. Contrarily, the state of the economy was still at immature stage in Lagos and its sub-markets. Overall, the results showed that the Lagos property market was emerging and that the inclusion of economic features in the maturity framework reduced the level of maturity of the market when compared with previous studies.

The study implied that the assessment of the state of economy of a country, as part of the attributes for measuring property market maturity, will impact on the result and should be taken into consideration.

The study adds to the previous studies on property market maturity by assessing the impact of the economic characteristics of a country on the measure.

In a bid to broaden the understanding of the real estate investment decision-making framework, the purpose of this paper is to examine the real estate asset allocation decision-making practices of real estate funds in Nigeria, a developing economy. This is with a view to providing information toward enhancing real estate investment decisions.

A mixed-methods approach comprising a combination of literature review, expert interviews and semi-structured questionnaire survey is adopted for this study. Through literature review and expert interviews, the asset allocation decision-making process of institutional real estate funds was identified. Based on the literature review and expert discussions, a semi-structured questionnaire was developed and self-administered on fund/portfolio managers of 59 institutional real estate funds in Nigeria to investigate their asset allocation decision-making practice. Data were analyzed using descriptive and inferential statistics for the closed-ended questions while the open-ended questions were content analyzed.

The findings revealed that the asset allocation decision-making process utilized by public and private real estate funds follows an opportunistic asset accumulation approach. The decision-making process also varies depending on the nature of the fund. Further findings showed that government policies, political uncertainties and regulatory mechanism motivate asset allocation decisions. Moreover, majority of the sampled real estate funds employed a combination of in-house personnel and external consultants (hybrid), while mean/standard deviation and cash flow analysis (DCF, NPV) were mostly utilized by the funds in making property investment decisions.

The findings implied that the real estate asset allocation decision-making process of institutional property investors in Nigeria deviates from the normative model of the asset allocation process prescribed in the literature and varies depending on the nature of the real estate funds. As such, familiarization of institutional investors with government policies, political climate and other regulatory mechanism (barriers to entry) guiding the ownership and operation of real estate assets in the country could improve their real estate investment decisions.

The study complements and extends existing literature on real estate asset allocation decision-making process of institutional investors from the viewpoint of the actors involved in a developing African economy.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the performance of asset classes in the South African investment market and assess the diversification benefits from adding listed property stock into domestic mixed‐asset portfolios.

The data sets comprise of quarterly returns on property listed stock, all share, all bond and 90 day Treasury bill for the period of January, 1999 to December, 2009. Return‐risk performance of all the assets were compared using mean return, standard deviation, mean standard deviation ratio, coefficient of variation and correlation coefficient. To determine return enhancement and risk reduction benefits of property listed stock in mixed‐asset portfolios, 22 naïve portfolios (17 with property stock and five without) were constructed and, their return and risk levels, obtained using Markowitz's mean variance analysis, were compared.

The results showed that there was evidence of superior return and risk‐adjusted performance of real estate stock over other assets. Also, adding property stock into mixed‐asset portfolios was found to have produced enhanced and statistically significant risk‐adjusted returns but minimal and insignificant risk reduction benefits. These results however are conditional on the percentage allocation to real estate and the asset class replaced.

The study has implication for investors. They could consider the inclusion of listed property stock in their portfolios with the expectation of a significant risk‐adjusted return enhancement but marginal risk reduction.

The paper is one of the few attempts at assessing the diversification benefits of listed property stock, especially from the perspective of African emerging market.

The paper examined the long-run relationship between real estate equity (property listed stock) and non-real estate equity (common stock) in the Nigerian capital market and established the integration between the investments. The paper aims to discuss these issues.

The data collected comprised quarterly returns on property listed stock and All Share Index for the period of January 1999-December 2011. The calculated quarterly returns of the investments were subjected to the Philip-Person unit root test after which the integration between the investments was analysed using the Johansson integration test.

The results showed that real estate equity performed better the non-real estate equity but with corresponding higher risk level. Also, real estate equity had a slightly lower performance when compared with non-real estate equity on return/risk ratio basis. The findings showed that property listed stock (real estate equity) was integrated with common stock or non-real estate equity and suggest that the Nigerian listed property stock, by nature, was similar to REITs. This result negates the belief that property listed stock's returns are integrated with direct real estate market and are often influenced by the returns of the underlying direct real estate assets.

The paper implied that while investors could consider investing in real estate equity and earn better return than investing in common equity in the Nigerian capital market, the inclusion of both in a domestic portfolio could be expected to bring little or no diversification benefit.

The paper is one of the few attempts at assessing the long-run relationship between property listed stock as a form of real estate equity and non-real estate equity and especially from African emerging market perspective.