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The purpose of this paper is to investigate how the pandemic affects tenants’ response to their lease obligations. This paper commences with examining the adopted tenant selection criteria during the COVID-19 pandemic. Then, this paper statistically tests if there is a relationship between selection criteria and response on whether the pandemic has effects or not. Then, this paper investigates the specific areas of impact on tenants’ ability to adequately keep to lease agreements in the Nigerian rental market. Finally, this paper proceeds to confirm if there is a relationship between selection criteria and the aspects of tenants’ deficiencies in rental obligations because of COVID-19.

Survey data, backed with interviews, is elicited from practicing estate surveyors and valuers and licensed property managers in Lagos, the largest property market in Nigeria and sub-Sahara Africa. Policy solutions and implications were solicited from personnel at the ministry of housing and senior professionals in the property sector. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, factor analysis and computer-aided qualitative data analysis, Atlas.ti.

Tenant’s health status is now accorded a priority together with others. Numbers of tenants are challenged with keeping to the prompt-rent-payment rule. Other areas of slight breaches included livestock rearing, subletting, alteration and repair covenants. Except for tenant reputation and tenant family size, there was no significant relationship between tenant’s health status consideration and the COVID-19 effect on tenant non-compliance with lease obligation. Tenants’ non-compliance with tenancy obligations has a connection with the tenants’ affordability, reputation, ability to sign an undertaking and health conditions during the pandemic. This paper recommends rental housing policy review.

It is recommended that the rental policy should be reviewed to give room for rental allowance or palliatives, private rental market regulation, exploration of the national housing fund and, if possible, social housing adoption policy in Nigeria.

This paper draws policymakers’ attention to the need to prepare for the future safety net that caters to citizenry welfare in challenging times.

Maintenance policy is an element of building maintenance management that deals with organisation policy, planning and procedures, and delineates how maintenance units in an organisation will manage specific building components, auxiliary facilities and services. Given this contextual setting, this study investigates whether organisational maintenance policies (OMPs) utilised in developed countries are relevant in developing countries – using Nigeria as a case study exemplar.

An empirical research design (using deductive reasoning) was implemented for this research. Specifically, a Delphi study conducted revealed 23 elements that impact OMP development in Nigeria.

Of these twenty elements, six had a very high impact on maintenance management (VHI: 9.00–10.00), nine variables had a high impact (HI: 7.00–8.99) and eight other variables scored a medium impact (MI: 5.00–6.99). Emergent findings reveal that the elements of organisational maintenance policy that engender effective building maintenance management include preparation of safety procedure, optimisation of the maintenance policy, optimisation of the maintenance action plan, well-defined priority system, risk factor establishment, suitable maintenance procedures and a clearly delineated process.

The study findings will guide policymakers in identifying the main elements required in maintenance policies development towards making national public asset preservation and economic gains. Also, the content of the future educational curriculum on maintenance management study will be more receptive to the body of knowledge and the built environment industry.

Cumulatively, the research presented illustrates that these elements replicate those adopted in other countries and that effective maintenance management of public buildings is assured when these elements are integral to the development of an OMP.

Although facilities management (FM) has been advocated in the construction industry to address the issues of facilities in buildings, their adoption is still plagued with barriers. The factors affecting FM practices need detailed investigation. However, few studies have been conducted on the factors affecting FM practices in developing countries such as South Africa. This study aims to investigate the factors affecting effective FM practices in public buildings in South Africa.

To achieve this aim, a quantitative survey was carried out using questionnaire to gather relevant data in the study area. The collected data were analysed using descriptive statistics and principal component (factor) analysis. The study was conducted on 39 facilities managers in the Department of Public Works in KwaZulu-Natal Province, South Africa.

The descriptive analysis revealed that availability of funds, occupants’ knowledge of FM, absence of policy guiding FM practice, state of deterioration of facilities and design concepts and scope were significant challenges affecting effective FM practices in public buildings in South Africa. The result of the principal component analysis of the factors affecting FM practices were grouped into organisational factors, structural/design errors and end users’ elements.

As it is widely understood that “money” plays a significant role in the performance of any activity or function, administrators/governments of public facilities should strive to plan and make appropriate finances accessible to facilities managers. Participation of facilities managers in the planning stage can also help reduce design flaws and their maintenance implications. In addition, adequate training for professionals can improve FM awareness and productivity.

The paper reveals the structural framework of the factors that can influence the effective facilities management practices in public buildings.

A maintenance budget is an element of maintenance management (MM) that deals with financial planning for maintenance operations and execution within a maintenance organisation. Developed countries have standardised MM structures which guides maintenance activities. This, however, cannot be said of developing countries, as there are few or no MM standards adopted. Given this contextual setting, the study aims to validate the relevance of maintenance budget (MB) elements utilised in developed countries for developing countries – using Nigeria as a case study exemplar. Also, the study further examines the effectiveness of the validated maintenance budget elements.

The research adopts qualitative techniques and employs the Delphi survey to collect and analyse primary data from an operational perception through structured questionnaires to solicit views from panellists on the subject being assessed. A relative importance index (RII) was used in measuring consensus for the Delphi study outcomes, while a Cronbach Alpha test was carried out on all the MB elements to determine their level of reliability.

The key finding from the study reveals that of the 21 elements that influence the implementation of MB, 10 elements have a very high influence on the MM of buildings (VHI: 9.00–10.00), 5 elements had a high influence (HI: 7.00–8.99) and 6 other elements scored medium impact (MI: 5.00–6.99). The elements of MB that recorded very high influence on prompt MM effectiveness include MB implementation, corruption-free maintenance process, reduction in maintenance expenditure, maintenance financial plan, cost implication of maintained asset, cash flow indexing, prioritisation of maintenance financing, maintenance funding, incorporation of financial indicators and audit of operational maintenance cost.

On a practical note, these elements will guide the built environment professionals in organising maintenance activities to best use limited resources.

Cumulatively, the research presented shows that these elements are similar to those of other countries. Effective MM of buildings is assured when these elements are integral to developing a MB.

Contrary to the traditional technology project perspective, real estate investors see building-specific renewable energy (on-site energy) investments as part of the property and as something affecting the property’s ability to produce a (net) cash flow. This paper aims to show the value-influencing mechanism of on-site energy production from a professional property investors’ perspective.

The value-influencing mechanism is presented with a case study of a prime logistics property located in the Helsinki metropolitan area, Finland. The case study results are compared with the results of a survey answered by over 70 property valuation professionals in the Finnish real estate market.

Current valuation practice supports the presented value-creation mechanism based on the capitalisation of the savings generated by a building’s own energy production. Valuation professionals see benefits beyond decreased operating expenses such as enhanced image and better saleability. However, valuers acted more conservatively than expected when transferring these additional benefits to the cash flows of the case property.

Because the savings in operating expenses can be capitalised into the property value, property investors should consider on-site energy production when the return of on-site energy exceeds the return of the property. This enhances the profitability of on-site energy, especially in urban areas with low initial yields.

This is the first research paper to open the value-influencing mechanism of on-site energy production from a professional property investors’ perspective in commercial properties and to confirm it from a market study.

It has long been recognised that the top-down approach is prevailing over bottom-up approach in landuse planning in African countries. The purpose of this paper is to evaluate and identify the facilitators and limitations to have effective public participation (PP), and suggest how the practices can be improved in Nigeria.

Using Nigeria as a case study, this paper involves interviews of various stakeholders, including government staff, representatives of interest groups, general public, members of the planning board and planning commission. Information is analysed by narrative techniques of reporting.

There is a general judgment that PP is vital to landuse policy. Early public consultation was preferred, as many respondents pointed out that this would help shape the final policy. Yet, their opinion varied on whether relevant information was provided to the public, as well as their level of satisfaction with the whole process. While the process was fairly seen as giving opportunities for the public to make comments on public policy, the approach appeared not to be fruitful in many cases: (a) when the scope was broad; (b) lack of representativeness and abstruse information; (c) insufficient feedback to the participants; and (d) corruption and shortage of resources to complete the process promptly.

Understanding the facilitators and limitations that impact the success of PP can help provide guidance to improve the decision-making processes of public policies.

This paper fills the knowledge gap by providing the Nigerian experience on stakeholders' perspectives of PP in developing countries.

This study examines the relationship between environmental building certification Building Research Establishment Environmental Assessment Method (BREEAM-NL) and office rents in the Dutch office market.

A hedonic price model was used to assess the impact of BREEAM certification on office rents. The study is based on 4,355 rent transactions in the period 2015 to mid-2022, in which 331 transactions took place in certified office buildings and 4,024 transactions in non-certified office buildings.

The results provide empirical evidence on quantitative economic benefits of BREEAM-certified offices in the Netherlands. After controlling for all important office rent determinants, the results show a rental premium for certified office buildings of 10.3% on average. The green premiums highly differ across submarkets and vary between 5.1 and 12.6% in the five largest Dutch cities. Additionally, the results show significant positive correlation between BREEAM-NL label score and rents, whereby better performing buildings generally command higher rents.

The study contributes to the current literature on green building economics by providing, as one of the first, empirical evidence on the existence of financial benefits for BREEAM-certified office buildings in the Dutch office market.

Across the world, many universities are dealing with a pressure on resources, caused by both organisational developments and ageing campuses. Space utilization studies have a strategic role, providing information on how space is being used, thereby informing decisions about the type and scale of facilities that are needed.

This study reports on the space use measurements conducted at TU Delft over the past five years, complemented by their use to make decisions about the university's real estate portfolio.

The education spaces of the university are found to perform well in terms of frequency rates and can be improved in terms of occupancy rates. The information helped to support short- and long-term decision-making. The study places of the university have a satisfactory occupancy in some types of study places, while in others there is room for improvement. More research is needed here to understand the relationship between space norms and space use.

The space utilization studies have supported discussions with the student council and decision makers on which interventions are required and which current facilities meet students' needs best.

Not much space utilisation studies are reported in the academic literature, and those that do have several limitations. This study may serve as a best practice for benchmarking by other universities and as evidence in other research for the planned and actual use of university facilities.

Due to the young age of proptech, little is known about the dynamics of its expansion. In particular, there is limited agreement about a definition of “proptech,” while different categorizations are popping up. A severe lack of information emerges for the proptech scenario in Italy. The goal of this paper is to systematize multiple proptech maps in the attempt to create a framework for comparison of country-specific trends and an overarching definition of proptech. The research examines the evolutionary stage of the Italian digital real estate sector and compares it to the international context.

An in-depth analysis of 12 proptech maps at both national and international level was conducted based on online research. A list of Italian proptech companies was composed through multiple methods. A map was built for a cross-country comparison.

Each country or organization tends to develop its own categorization. This creates a multifaceted context where comparison and analysis are challenging. The Italian proptech sector seems underdeveloped compared to neighboring countries. Big room for improving the proptech business in this country still exists.

The results are valuable for proptech start-ups, business investors and well-established real estate actors to build on new entrepreneurial initiatives. The opportunity to advance proptech mapping and categorization emerges as a prospect for future research.

This research adds an overview of cross-country proptech categories and proposes the first analysis of Italian proptech. This will contribute to support entrepreneurial opportunities.

The purpose of this paper is to identify the variables that influence corporate real estate (CRE) decision-making and gauge their relative importance to each other, thereby understanding the consequent challenges/implications for CRE managers (CREM’s).

Interviews were undertaken with experienced CREM’s using the causal network elicitation technique to create decision networks for the variables they considered for the specifically defined scenario: dealing with surplus property from a change of business strategy. These networks illustrate the complexity of the mental representations required for the realignment of the CRE portfolio. The key variables are more extensive than alignment theory suggests, namely, financial stakeholders. Additional variables identified include risk, lease accounting, costs, financial analysis, business metrics and motivational drivers. The latter indicates the importance of self-esteem and peer recognition for CREM’s and financial benefits for the C-suite. Accordingly strategy alignment needs to incorporate CRE both in terms of strategy creation and implementation.

These networks illustrate the complexity of the mental representations required for the realignment of the CRE portfolio. The key variables are more extensive than alignment theory suggests, namely, financial stakeholders. Additional variables identified include risk, lease accounting, costs, financial analysis, business metrics and motivational drivers. The latter indicates the importance of self-esteem and peer recognition for CREM’s and financial benefits for the C-suite. Accordingly, strategy alignment needs to incorporate CRE both in terms of strategy creation and implementation.

This research appears to be the first that looks in detail at the mental representations used by decision-makers while making CRE decisions.