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Augmented Reality (AR) and Virtual Reality (VR) technologies possess the potential to transform the scenario of making real estate investment decisions through the immersive experience they offer. From the literature it was observed that the research in this domain is still emergent and there is a need to identify the latent variables that influence real estate investment decisions. Therefore, by examining the effects of these technologies on investment decision-making, the purpose of the study is to provide valuable insights into how AR and VR could be applied to enhance customers' property buying experiences and assist in their decision-making process.

From an extensive review of the literature four latent variables and their measure were identified, and based on these a survey instrument was developed. The survey was distributed online and received 300 responses from the respondents including home buyers, developers, AEC professionals and real estate agents. To validate the latent variables exploratory factor analysis was used whereas to establish their criticality second-order confirmatory factor analysis was used.

From the results, the four latent constructs were identified based on standard factor loadings (SFL) that is Confident Value Perception (CVP, SFL = 0.70), Innovative Investment Appeal (IIA, SFL = 0.60), Trusted Property Transactions (TPT, SFL = 0.58) and Effortless Property Engagement (EPE, SFL = 0.54), that significantly influence investor decision-making and property purchase experience.

This study contributes to the literature on real estate investment decisions by providing empirical evidence on the role of AR and VR technologies. The identified key variables provided practical guidelines for developers, investors and policymakers in understanding and leveraging the potential of AR and VR technologies in the real estate industry.

This study systematically reviewed existing literature on the impact of economic uncertainty on property performance to highlight focus areas and spur future research amid unprecedented global uncertainty levels. Conceptually, uncertainty levels and environmental dynamism are related to investors' risk judgement and decision-making.

Peer-reviewed journal articles published from 2007 to 2022 were assembled and arranged through the Scientific Procedures and Rationales for Systematic Literature Reviews (SPAR-4-SLR) protocol. The initial search produced 2,028 results from the Web of Science and Scopus databases, which were rigorously purified for a final dataset of 70 articles. These records were subsequently assessed through content analysis, bibliographic modelling, topic modelling and thematic analysis. Recurring themes were visualised using the VOSviewer software.

The existing literature suggests that economic uncertainty negatively impacts investment volumes, returns and performance. Research has also increased since 2018, with a strong emphasis on the housing sector and developed property markets. Commercial property and emerging markets account for only 10 and 8% of previous research, respectively.

These findings highlight the negative impact of economic uncertainties on property performance and investment volumes, which necessitate careful risk assessment. Given the high susceptibility of emerging and commercial property markets to uncertainty, these markets warrant further research amid ongoing uncertainty concerns across the globe.

Given current unprecedented levels of global uncertainty, the effects of economic uncertainty have received renewed interest. This study synthesised the current understanding of how different property markets respond to increased uncertainty and outlined future research directions to enhance understanding. Themes and relationships were also integrated into a conceptual map summarising the reported effects of economic uncertainty on housing, commercial property, investment and behaviour in the property market.

The technological disruption from artificial intelligence (AI) within the economy requires intelligent property professionals for tomorrow. This paper proposes that the direction of interaction between AI and tomorrow's property professional, the property graduate, should be AI-empowered rather than AI-directed.

The paper reflects on the growing influence of AI in property combined with literature on technological adoption in the workplace. It proposes a way forward in navigating future decision-making.

An AI-empowered paradigm promotes the importance of industry-specific knowledge to determine factual information in decision-making. In contrast, an AI-directed paradigm leads to over-dominance of the user on pre-specified knowledge available through AI tools that could lead to AI-directed output that carries significant risk for the property industry.

Navigating the future requires a paradigm that moves from a computational focus driven predominantly by technological tools to one where tomorrow's professionals have a cognitive focus that leads to AI-enabled property graduates that can apply the correct tools in the right circumstances.

This paper reflects on the increasing role that technology and AI have within the property profession and brings to light the importance of learning through experience and the transparent use of AI tools in property.

This viewpoint article explores the transformative capabilities of large language models (LLMs) like the Chat Generative Pre-training Transformer (ChatGPT) within the property valuation industry. It particularly accentuates the pivotal role of prompt engineering in facilitating valuation reporting and advocates for adopting the “Red Book” compliance Chain-of-thought (COT) prompt engineering as a gold standard for generating AI-facilitated valuation reports.

The article offers a high-level examination of the application of LLMs in real estate research, highlighting the essential role of prompt engineering for future advancements in generative AI. It explores the collaborative dynamic between valuers and AI advancements, emphasising the importance of precise instructions and contextual cues in directing LLMs to generate accurate and reproducible valuation outcomes.

Integrating LLMs into property valuation processes paves the way for efficiency improvements and task automation, such as generating reports and drafting contracts. AI-facilitated reports offer unprecedented transparency and elevate client experiences. The fusion of valuer expertise with prompt engineering ensures the reliability and interpretability of valuation reports.

Delineating the types and versions of LLMs used in AI-generated valuation reports encourage the adoption of transparency best practices within the industry. Valuers, as expert prompt engineers, can harness the potential of AI to enhance efficiency, accuracy and transparency in the valuation process, delivering significant benefits to a broad array of stakeholders.

The article elucidates the substantial impact of prompt engineering in leveraging LLMs within the property industry. It underscores the importance of valuers training their unique GPT models, enabling customisation and reproducibility of valuation outputs. The symbiotic relationship between valuers and LLMs is identified as a key driver shaping the future of property valuations.

This paper identifies the need to expand the range of research methodologies considered suitable for high-calibre property research publications in the top property journals, particularly concerning the critical “bigger” property research issues going forward. This is important for early career researchers (ECRs), as the ECRs develop the suitability of the research methodologies used by the ECRs in expanding the ECRs' property research agendas.

This research is based on a thorough understanding and extensive experience of the range of property research methodologies available today to publish in the top property journals. This depth of understanding is supported by extensive discussions with leading property industry professionals, as well as reviewing the property research, track record of several leading property researchers from the UK.

A broader range of research methodologies is needed in property research today to fully capture the challenges of the critical property research questions going forward. These methodologies need to go well beyond the finance paradigm that has dominated property research in recent years.

Many of the key property research questions going forward need to be addressed by a range of methodologies for richer and deeper insights into resolving these property issues. This particularly relates to the important research issues for the property industry which require a “bigger picture” analysis of these issues, with the research presented in a manner which is accessible and relevant to property industry professionals.

This paper addresses the need to expand the research methodologies used in property research today. This is a key issue for property researchers going forward, as many of the important property research questions cannot be addressed from just within the traditional finance paradigm.

The intent of this Practice Briefing is to provide clarity on drivers of property pricing in a changing economic environment. The principal basis of this analysis is to investigate how properties have been priced relative to interest rates over the long haul. Such an insight may help investors navigate the world of property investment in a post zero interest-rate policy (ZIRP) world.

This practice briefing is an overview of the role of economic drivers in pricing property in different economic eras pre- and post-ZIRP. It looks at returns over time relative to risk criteria and growth.

This briefing is a review of property pricing and its relationship to economic drivers and discusses the concept of return premiums as a market indicator to spot under/over-priced property assets in the market.

This briefing considers the implications of identifying salient and pertinent market indicators over time as bellweathers for property pricing. Good property investment is grounded in understanding when assets are under and overpriced relative to investors’ expectations of growth and returns going forward. An understanding of markets and the current indicators thereof can provide investors with insights into those criteria.

This provides guidance on how to interpret markets and get an understanding of property pricing over time.

This research investigated Australian property valuers' identification and consideration of physical climate change risks in valuation practice.

Thirty Australian valuer members of the Australian Property Institute from a variety of specialisations were interviewed. The semi-structured interviews explored climate change risks and the extent of risk investigation and consideration in valuation practice. The analysis utilised the Moser and Luers (2008) climate risk preparedness framework as a lens to evaluate current valuation practice in Australia.

The analysis reflects that while physical risks are easily identified and engaged with by valuers, correspondingly, there is a lack of understanding of and engagement with, climate change risks. This supports the need for better information sources and guidance to inform valuers of climate change risks and the development of specific mechanisms for the consideration of such risks to be included in valuation processes, practices and reports.

The research was limited by its sample size and qualitative approach. Therefore, the research is not a representative opinion of the Australian profession; however, the analysis provides the perspective of a range of valuers from across Australia with different valuation specialisations.

This research has established that valuers have the potential to be prepared to address climate change in their professional capacity, as described by Moser and Luers (2008). However, they are constrained by information communication, access and detail and subsequent market awareness of information on climate change risk exposure on properties. There is a need for further support, guidance, information and tools, as well as awareness-raising, to enable valuers to accurately identify and reflect all risks affecting a property in the process of valuation.

This research provides the first investigation into the consideration of climate change in valuation practice. Property stakeholders—owners, investors, financiers and occupiers—are escalating their climate change risk analysis and reporting for property portfolios and organisations. This research suggests that valuers also need to be aware of the changing dynamics of market reporting and decision-making related to climate change risks to ensure appropriate reflection in valuation practice.

With access to the large-scale search data from Rightmove plc, the paper firstly indicated the possibility of using user-generated data from online property portals to predict housing market activities and secondly embraced a GIS approach to explore what people search for housing and what they chose and investigated the issue of mismatch between search patterns and revealed patterns. Based on the analysis, the paper contributes a visual GIS-based approach which may help planners and designers to make more informed decisions related to new housing supply, particularly where to build, what to build and how many to build.

The paper used the 2013 housing search data from Rightmove and the 2013 price data from Land Registry with transactions made after the search period and embraced a GIS approach to explore the potential housing demand patterns and the mismatch between searches and sales. In the analysis, the paper employed the K-means approach to group prices into five levels and used GIS software to draw maps based on these price levels. The paper also employed a simple analysis of linear regression based on the coefficient of determination to investigate the relationship between online property views and values of house sales.

The result indicated the strong relationship between online property views and the values of house sales, implying the possibility of using search data from online property portals to predict housing market activities. It then explore the spatial housing demand patterns based on searches and showed a mismatch between the spatial patterns of housing search and actual moves across submarkets. The findings may not be very surprising but the main objective of the paper is to open up a potentially useful methodological approach which could be extended in future research.

It is important to identify search patterns from people who search with the intention to buy houses and from people who search with no intention to purchase properties. Rightmove data do not adequately represent housing search activity, and therefore more attention should be paid to this issue. The analysis of housing search helps us have a better understanding of households' preferences to better estimate housing demand and develop search-based prediction models. It also helps us identify spatial and structural submarkets and examine the mismatches between current housing stock and housing demand in submarkets.

The GIS approach in this paper may help planners and designers better allocate land resources for new housing supply based on households' spatial and structural preferences by identifying high and low demand areas with high searches relative to low housing stocks. Furthermore, the analysis of housing search patterns helps identify areas with latent demand, and when combined with the analysis of transaction patterns, it is possible to realise the areas with a lack of housing supply relative to excess demand or a lack of latent demand relative to the housing stock.

The paper proves the usefulness of a GIS approach to investigate households' preferences and aspirations through search data from online property portals. The contribution of the paper is the visual GIS-based approach, and based on this approach the paper fills the international knowledge gap in exploring effective approaches to analysing user-generated search data and market outcome data in combination.

Healthcare property has become an important alternate property sector in recent years for many international institutional investors. The purpose of this paper is to assess the risk-adjusted performance, portfolio diversification benefits and performance dynamics of French healthcare property in a French property portfolio and mixed-asset portfolio over 1999–2020. French healthcare property is seen to have different performance dynamics to the traditional French property sectors of office, retail and industrial property. Drivers and risk factors for the ongoing development of the direct healthcare property sector in France are also identified, as well as the strategic property investment implications for institutional investors.

Using annual total returns, the risk-adjusted performance, portfolio diversification benefits and performance dynamics of French direct healthcare property over 1999–2020 are assessed. Asset allocation diagrams are used to assess the role of direct healthcare property in a French property portfolio and in a French mixed-asset portfolio. The role of specific drivers for French healthcare property performance is also assessed. Robustness checks are also done to assess the potential impact of COVID-19 on the performance of French healthcare property.

French healthcare property is shown to have different performance dynamics to the traditional French property sectors of office, retail and industrial property. French direct healthcare property delivered strong risk-adjusted returns compared to French stocks, listed healthcare and listed property over 1999–2020, only exceeded by direct property. Portfolio diversification benefits in the fuller mixed-asset portfolio context were also evident, but to a much lesser extent in a narrower property portfolio context. Importantly, this sees French direct healthcare property as strongly contributing to the French property and mixed-asset portfolios across the entire portfolio risk spectrum and validating the property industry perspective of healthcare property being low risk and providing diversification benefits in a mixed-asset portfolio. However, this was to some degree to the loss or substitution of traditional direct property exposure via this replacement effect. French direct healthcare property and listed healthcare are clearly shown to be different channels in delivering different aspects of French healthcare performance to investors. Drivers of French healthcare property performance are also shown to be both economic and healthcare-specific factors. The performance of French healthcare property is also shown to be different to that seen for healthcare property in the UK and Australia. During COVID-19, French healthcare property was able to show more resilience than French office and retail property.

Healthcare property is an alternate property sector that has become increasingly important in recent years. The results highlight the important role of direct healthcare property in a French property portfolio and in a French mixed-asset portfolio, with French healthcare property having different investment dynamics to the other traditional French property sectors. The strong risk-adjusted performance of French direct healthcare property compared to French stocks, listed healthcare and listed property sees French direct healthcare property contributing to the mixed-asset portfolio across the entire portfolio risk spectrum. French healthcare property’s resilience during COVID-19 was also an attractive investment feature. This is particularly important, as many institutional investors now see healthcare property as an important property sector in their overall portfolio; particularly with the ageing population dynamics in most countries and the need for effective social infrastructure. The importance of French direct healthcare property sees direct healthcare property exposure accessible to investors as an important alternate real estate sector for their portfolios going forward via both non-listed healthcare property funds and the further future establishment of more healthcare REITs to accommodate both large and small institutional investors respectively. The resilience of French healthcare property during COVID-19 is also an attractive feature for future-proofing an investor’s portfolio.

This paper is the first published empirical research analysis of the risk-adjusted performance, diversification benefits and performance dynamics of French direct healthcare property, and the role of direct healthcare property in a French property portfolio and in a French mixed-asset portfolio. This research enables empirically validated, more informed and practical property investment decision-making regarding the strategic role of French direct healthcare property in a portfolio; particularly where the strategic role of direct healthcare property in France is seen to be different to that in the UK and Australia via portfolio replacement effects. Clear evidence is also seen of the drivers of French healthcare property performance being strongly influenced by healthcare-specific factors, as well as economic factors.

Sustainability has become an integral part of the real estate industry, alongside advancing globalization and demographic development. Due to real estate's influence on greenhouse gas emissions throughout its life cycle, both the regulatory and legal requirements concerning the sustainability of real estate are growing and, as a result of social responsibility, the interest of tenants and investors in sustainable real estate. However, criteria for measuring the ecological sustainability of a real estate investment in the purchase process in order to reduce the risk of including “stranded assets” in the portfolio are missing. This paper aims to address the need to integrate the issue of carbon stranding into existing sustainability rating tools.

Existing tools are examined based on defined criteria to determine whether they are suitable for purchasing a property before suitable tools for purchase are compared. Strengths and weaknesses are identified, which are to be remedied with the scoring tool. Taxonomy regulation is integrated into the existing valuation basis as a legal regulation.

The result is a scoring tool that enables real estate companies to measure and evaluate the ecological sustainability performance of a property during the acquisition process, taking into account the three aspects of sustainability and considering them when determining an appropriate purchase price in line with market conditions. Moreover, the developed tool helps to minimize the risk of acquiring a stranding asset.

The environmental, social and governance (ESG) framework employed in this study does not incorporate governance considerations. While the analysis extensively evaluates the building's environmental and social aspects, it does not extend to examining the governance practices of the companies involved. Thus, the assessment is confined solely to the physical attributes of the property without accounting for broader corporate governance factors.

The developed scoring tool represents a valuable tool for the real estate industry, offering insights into sustainability performance during property acquisitions and providing a structured framework for decision-making. By addressing both certification and taxonomy regulation requirements, the tool contributes to the industry's evolution toward more sustainable and environmentally responsible real estate practices.

In response to the growing importance of sustainability in the real estate industry, this paper introduces a novel scoring tool for evaluating the sustainability of real estate investments during the acquisition process.