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Builds on a previous study and examines the influence of asking prices as anchors in the real property negotiating process. Previous studies have shown that the human mind uses short cuts (heuristics) in process information. Describes a study which gives further evidence that negotiators familiar with real property will, in many cases, devalue cognitively difficult pricing information and base their negotiation expectations on the seller’s asking price. Concludes that the seller’s asking price is thus a potential source of bias.

Information transparency is crucially important in price setting in real estate, particularly when information asymmetry is concerned. This paper aims to examine how a change in government policy in relation to information disclosure and transparency impacts residential real estate price discovery. Specially, this paper investigates how real estate traders determined asking prices in the context of the Scottish housing market before and after the implementation of the Home Report, which aimed to prevent artificially low asking prices.

This paper uses spatial lag hedonic pricing models to empirically observe how residential asking prices are determined by property sellers in response to a change in government policy that is designed to enhance market transparency. It uses over 79,000 transaction data of the Aberdeen residential market for the period of Q2 1998 to Q2 2013 to test the models.

The empirical findings provide some novel insights in relation to the price determination within the residential market in Scotland. The spatial lag models suggest that spatial autocorrelation in property prices has increased since the Home Report came into effect, indicating that property sellers have become more prone to infer asking prices based on prior sales of dwellings in close vicinity. The once-common practice of setting artificially low asking prices seems to have dwindled to a certain extent statistically.

The importance of understanding the relationship between information transparency and property price determination has gathered momentum over the past decade. Although spatial hedonic techniques have been extensively used to study the impact of various property- and neighbourhood-specific attributes on residential real estate market in general, surprisingly little is known about the empirical relationship between spatial autocorrelation in real estate prices and information transparency.

The purpose of this paper is to estimate the expectations component contained in the asking price of residential property, in order to assess whether expectation plays a relevant role in house price appreciation. The paper tests the role of housing characteristics and value perception on asking price.

The hypothesis tested in this paper is that asking price of residential properties includes an element of price expectation. The analysis utilises a valuation database of about 1,900,000 records for the Spanish housing market, each record contains information on the price that owners expect to obtain on the sale of their property and housing and neighbourhood characteristics. There are three stages to the analysis. Regression analysis is used to estimate the hedonic models and separate that part of the price arising from housing heterogeneity, a two‐stage least squares model estimates the role of expectations and a metadata approach measures those characteristics that explain the change in the explanatory power of the hedonic models over time.

The results show that the explanatory power of hedonic models change with time suggesting that the point in the market cycle modifies the perception of price. The results indicate that the theoretical variables which explain expectations account for about 8 per cent of price, with most of the unexplained element of asking prices due to reasons related with local market conditions.

This paper offers two original insights. First, the paper presents analysis based on asking prices and shows how this could be used as a tool to measure house price expectations. Second, the paper provides further perspectives of the Spanish housing market based on a major database of observations.

Property markets are considered efficient when the market price of a transacted property equates with its market worth. If this condition holds then identical properties should sell or let for the same price. However, properties are heterogeneous, and information and operational constraints exist. Consequently, events in the transaction process and factors like time on the market, buyer and seller psychology and agent behaviour influence property prices, whereas in a perfectly efficient market they would have no impact. This gives rise to similar units selling for different prices. This paper examines the relationships between commercial property prices and time on the market for property. Tests fail to find evidence of a direct relationship between time on the market and transacted rents, time on the market and asking rents, and asking rents with transacted rents. The reason for the insignificant results could be because landlords would rather offer potential tenants non‐price incentives such as rent‐free periods, rent break clauses, shorter leases or fitting‐out costs to achieve a faster let than discount the agreed contractual rent. A more detailed examination of the physical, location and market conditions that determine the expected time on the market for a property to let is undertaken. Results suggest that the state of the property market is an important influence on the time it takes to let a property, and concurs with the evidence found in housing studies. With the support of our empirical findings and evidence from the housing market, we conclude that including measures of non‐price incentives, landlords’ motivation, tenants’ characteristics, and search costs in our model may explain the relationship more fully.

The purpose of this paper is to establish whether or not asking price can provide a reliable indication of the impact of a negative externality when transaction data are scarce.

Until recently, transaction data within the UK were either unobtainable or expensive. Subsequently, an analysis of the value impacts of living near negative externalities (such as high voltage overhead power lines (HVOTL)) relies almost entirely on valuer expertise. Since behavioural research suggests that valuers often anchor to asking price which, in theory, is based on the selling agent's opinion of the likely transaction value of a property, the argument is made that “asking price” provides a reliable indication of the impact of a negative externality when transaction data are scarce. This theory is tested through an analysis of the real versus perceived impacts of an HVOTL on proximate house prices.

The results, whilst providing additional evidence to support the relationship between value diminution and the presence of an HVOTL near residential homes, suggest that agents' marketing price does not capture the true impact of this type of negative externality and should therefore be treated with caution by practitioners seeking to establish the value of this type of property.

The results of this article add additional evidence to support the findings from previous studies in this field.

This article examines the role of contingent reward in reducing negotiation anchoring. A case study approach was adopted in the investigation undertaken. Five residencies were offered for sale and university students were assigned the task of negotiating the sales price of one of the houses. The results showed that where no asking price was given the settlement price was consistently lower than for those of incongruously high asking price. It is felt that these results are less biased than previous studies as a system of rewards was offered as the study was a step towards a real life setting.

The purpose of this paper is to demonstrate how the specification of hedonic pricing models can be improved by using insights generated from qualitative research. In doing so, it seeks to address one of the main problems in the specification of hedonic models, namely that theory yields little guidance in the selection of the characteristics that should be included on the right-hand side.

Building on the behavioural tradition in real estate research, this paper introduces a research approach that integrates insights from qualitative analysis in an econometric model of land values. The empirical segment explores the way in which asking prices of building plots for industrial purposes are determined in The Netherlands. It draws from interviews with municipal land developers, who dominate supply in this market. The information secured during these interviews relates to the characteristics considered important and the kind of information used in the valuation process. Based on these qualitative data, an econometric model is developed and estimated.

The estimation results confirm qualitative evidence that the typical developer considers only a limited number of features of the land in the valuation process and that the primary source of information in setting asking prices relates to the prices charged in neighbouring municipalities.

This paper represents a novel attempt to examine the determination of land and property values by merging qualitative and quantitative, econometric analyses.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the widespread of property sellers choosing to sell by themselves or through an estate agent, what characterises them and the reason for their choice. In addition the paper contains comparisons of the gap between sales price and asking price between the sales methods and satisfaction with the sales process. This study is the first study of these phenomena carried out in Norway.

The data used for this study was obtained from a national survey including 1,649 house sellers. A logistic regression analysis is used to analyse the impact of household’s characteristics on the sales method.

The main findings of this study are that 83 per cent of the house sellers used an estate agent through the whole sales process and differences in the choices are related to urbanisation, age and education. The most important reason for preferring a real estate broker is that doing the sale on your own is considered too much work. Conversely, the most important reason for doing the sale on your own is that estate agents are too expensive. Those selling without an estate agent were more satisfied and the gap between sales price and asking price was smaller than for those selling through a real estate broker.

Issues concerning competition within the market for estate agents should be central topics for property management. Property sellers selling their property by themselves are an important contribution to increase the competition in the market for estate agents. This issue has not been on the agenda in Norway, or in Europe, in the same way as in the USA. This is probably due to the complexity in the legislation and strict laws within property sales in Central and Southern Europe. However, in Norway, UK and in the Nordic countries, the legal system is not complicated. It is rather the lockout of private individuals from the housing web sites and the fact that the property sellers are not familiar with this kind of transaction that has prevented property sellers to sell their house by themselves. Today Norway is one of few countries with a booming housing market, which also has increased the commission for estate agents. From 2010 private individuals got access to advertise their house on the housing web sites in Norway. These have influenced the focus on alternative sales methods.

This paper aims to investigate whether developers’ ask lower prices on homes in redevelopment sites than they do on similar units in smaller developments completed over a shorter time span. It also investigates whether developers price units differently at different stages of the redevelopment process. The development of designated redevelopment areas often consists of multiple projects spread across several years, some in parallel, some sequential. New units are put on the market in a piecemeal fashion, and infrastructure, shared green spaces and shared facilities are installed successively.

A hedonic price model is used to analyse sales prices of 7,000 new apartments in Oslo sold between 2011 and 2015, all else being equal. The paper distinguishes between infill as one-stage projects, and multi-staged competitive and multi-staged monopolistic redevelopments.

Dwellings in redevelopment projects sell at a lower price than similar dwellings in infill projects. In competitive redevelopments, those in charge of the last projects put a slightly higher price on apartments. In redevelopments involving only one developer, the last stages ask the lowest prices.

This research expands our understanding of developers’ pricing behaviour. Developers supplying housing for the private market through redevelopments land are willing to take risks particularly in the initial stage.

The findings indicate that credit institutions financing developers’ projects need to take into account the structure of selling prices, including lower prices and higher risk of pursuing redevelopment projects.

Gaining a better understanding of developers’ pricing behaviour deepens our insights into the dynamics of market-led urban brownfield developments; this knowledge may moreover inform policies on sustainable urban growth.

An original investigation of housing transactions in urban brownfield sites in Oslo provides fresh insights into developers’ pricing behaviour.

This paper examines the price setting behaviour over time and space in the Athens residential market. In periods of house price inflation asking prices are often based upon the last observed highest selling price achieved for a similar property in the same micro-location. However, in a falling market, prices may be rigid downwards and less sensitive to the most recent transaction prices, weakening spatial effects. Furthermore, the paper considers whether future price expectations affect price setting behaviour.

The paper employs a dataset of approximately 24,500 property values from 2007 until 2014 in Athens incorporating characteristics and locational variables. The authors begin by estimating a baseline hedonic price model using property characteristics, neighbourhood amenities and location effects. Following this, a spatio-temporal autoregressive (STAR) model is estimated. Running separate models, the authors account for spatial dependence from historic valuations, contemporaneous peer effects and expectations effects.

The initial STAR model shows significant spatial and temporal effects, the former remaining important in a falling market contrasting with previous literature findings. In the second STAR model, whilst past sales effects remain significant although smaller, contemporaneous and price expectations effects are also found to be significant, the latter capturing anchoring and slow adjustment heuristics in price setting behaviour.

As valuations used in the database are based upon comparable sales, then in the recessionary periods covered in the dataset, finding comparables may have become more difficult, and hence this, in turn, may have impacted on valuation accuracy.

In addition to past effects, contemporaneous transactions and expected future values need to be taken in consideration in analysing spatial interactions in housing markets. These factors will influence housing markets in different cities and countries.

The information content of property valuations should more carefully consider the relative importance of different components of asking prices.

This is the first paper to use transactions data over a period of falling house prices in Athens and to consider current and future values in addition to past values in a spatio-temporal context.