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The purpose of this paper is to examine realtors and residents’ perceptions of the effectiveness of Crime Prevention through Environmental Design (CPTED) in reducing night-time and daytime break-ins in residential estate.

The study adopted case study methods. Two residential estates (one at inner and the other at outer city) were selected as cases of the study. Data were collected from two sets of respondents: realtors and tenants. In the realtors’ cluster, all real estate and property development companies were sampled since the population is very small. Systematic sampling technique was used to select residents. Respondents were asked to answer closed-ended questions on socio-economic and demographic characteristics, perception of property crime, spending on CPTED and effectiveness of CPTED. Data were analyzed using the descriptive and inferential statistics.

Findings disclose that more than half of the residents of inner and outer city had been victims of housebreaks and these incidences are expected to increase in the nearest future. To reduce break-ins, findings show that realtors and residents have spent on both formal and informal surveillance with emphasis on ensuring visual control over premises. Furthermore, respondents confirm the effectiveness of CPTED in deterring break-ins. The study establishes variation in the realtors and tenants’ perception of break-ins as spending on CPTED strategies vary between them, with locations and types of properties.

Social and human factors remain very important as far as the prevention of break-ins is concerned. These should be taken into considerations when improving CPTED approach in the future. Besides, adequate attentions should be given to daytime break-in. Nonetheless, night-time break-ins should not be neglected. Furthermore, the study emphasizes the importance of visible, clean and well-lit premises as ways of reducing break-ins. It is therefore suggested that residential properties should be well lit at nights, while CCTV and security personnel be positioned in strategic places and within security viewing range so as to send fast alerts to the nearest police stations in the cases of break-in(s).

Very few studies on effectiveness of CPTED have mainly concentrated on how CPTED works in residential estates. No study till date, have explored how realtors perceive CPTED in preventing break-ins. Besides, this study contributes to existing literature having revealed variation in the realtors and tenants’ spending on CPTED on the basis of property location and types of residential properties.

The UK's purpose-built student accommodation (PBSA) sector has seen significant institutional investment in recent decades. This paper unpacks contemporary trends and perspectives on the sector. It questions whether PBSA has moved from being an “alternative” to “mainstream” residential asset class, framing the analysis through the lens of market maturity.

The methods triangulate perspectives drawn from literature on the evolution of PBSA as an asset class with illustrations of investment trends across the UK between 2005 and 2020 using data from Real Capital Analytics (RCA), combined with findings from 40 semi-structured interviews with investors and stakeholders in PBSA in the UK London is the focus of the work, whilst other regional cities are integrated for comparison.

The results demonstrate that London's PBSA market is ahead of trends currently being replicated in regional cities. However, the regions currently offer greater return potential and opportunities for risk taking compared to London, where yields are compressed, and the market is considered lower risk. The concept of maturity remains useful as a framework for evaluating markets, however a more granular analysis of sectors is necessary to further understand asset classes within sectors. PBSA continues to trade at a premium across the UK; it is considered the most mature residential asset class.

The emergence of PBSA as an asset class continues to play a developing role within the residential sector and UK investment market. Risk, value and local context remain key when integrating PBSA into institutional portfolios, and as the first to consider the UK market from a qualitative research approach, this research provides a snapshot of these influences in 2021.

Our approach offers original insight into investment trends across the UK and is the first to focus reflections on the London market specifically. The research highlights the role of PBSA as a vanguard asset class for investors into residential, situating its growth within the framework of market maturity and drawing out market nuances from interviews.