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The study seeks to identify and document definitional challenges that hamper the delineation of the scope of real estate as a discipline and as an industry. Through literature review the article distils the perception of body of knowledge (BOK) of real estate within the academia. Two main issues are flagged up: the problem of undefined BOK and the collegiate dilemma. Later the study looks at the standard economic classification documents to capture the occupational domains of real estate professionals or real estate activities. These steps are necessary to help define an alternative academic, practical and social meaning of real estate that is sufficient and precise.

The study uses literature review and, as primary method, qualitative document analysis (QDA). The study has made a special appeal for the application of qualitative strategy in real estate research other than following the methodological orthodoxy of quantitative causal research designs. Further, it has argued for the recognition of QDA as a legitimate research method in the context of real estate studies. Consequently, the study performed QDA procedures on international economic classification standards.

From literature review and QDA, the study identified five definitional problems in the meanings or understandings of real estate: undefined body of knowledge, collegiate dilemma, inadequate classification of real estate occupations, inadequate industry classification and inadequate economic sector positioning. These are aspects that lead to misconceptions of the true boundary of knowledge in society and in the academia. The paper offers clarity and insights for the redrawing of these boundaries to give real estate its rightful place in the academia and in the real world.

The article follows up on the academic and social misconceptions on the BOK of real estate as a discipline and an economic activity domain to identify the contribution of real estate to the welfare of mankind. Ontology or the organization of academic or social knowledge is used to map out or catalogue real estate against competing domains and to show that the role of real estate is grossly understated and misunderstood. From the findings, the study makes recommendations to university curriculum developers, and international organizations like ILO, and UN-DESA to revise their conceptions of real estate to give the discipline its rightful position in society.

The study aims to develop a model that supports the application of data science techniques for real estate professionals in the fourth industrial revolution (4IR) era. The present 4IR era gave birth to big data sets and is beyond real estate professionals' analysis techniques. This has led to a situation where most real estate professionals rely on their intuition while neglecting a rigorous analysis for real estate investment appraisals. The heavy reliance on their intuition has been responsible for the under-performance of real estate investment, especially in Africa.

This study utilised a survey questionnaire to randomly source data from real estate professionals. The questionnaire was analysed using a combination of Statistical package for social science (SPSS) V24 and Analysis of a Moment Structures (AMOS) graphics V27 software. Exploratory factor analysis was employed to break down the variables (drivers) into meaningful dimensions helpful in developing the conceptual framework. The framework was validated using covariance-based structural equation modelling. The model was validated using fit indices like discriminant validity, standardised root mean square (SRMR), comparative fit index (CFI), Normed Fit Index (NFI), etc.

The model revealed that an inclusive educational system, decentralised real estate market and data management system are the major drivers for applying data science techniques to real estate professionals. Also, real estate professionals' application of the drivers will guarantee an effective data analysis of real estate investments.

Numerous studies have clamoured for adopting data science techniques for real estate professionals. There is a lack of studies on the drivers that will guarantee the successful adoption of data science techniques. A modern form of data analysis for real estate professionals was also proposed in the study.

With the increased demand for the application of technology in property activities, there is a growing need for property professionals adept in using digital technology. Hence, it is important to assess the competence of academia in equipping property professionals with digital technology skills. This study, therefore, assesses property academics in Australian universities to identify their level of knowledge and use of digital technology applicable to the property industry.

Online questionnaire surveys were administered to 22 out of 110 property academics contacted through the Australia Property Institute (API) database to achieve this aim. The collected data were analysed using mean score ranking and ANOVA.

The study found that apart from databases and analytics platforms such as Corelogic RP data, price finder and industry-based software such as the Microsoft Office suite and ARGUS software, the academics were not knowledgeable in most identified and sampled proptech tools. Similarly, most proptech tools were not used or taught to the students. It was also found that early career academics (below five years in academia) were the most knowledgeable group about the proptech tools.

Relying on the API database to contact property academics potentially excludes the position of property academics who may not be affiliated or have contacts with API, hence, the findings of this study should be generalised with caution.

The study bears huge implications for the property education sector and industry in Australia; a low knowledge and use of nascent tools such as artificial intelligence, machine learning, blockchain, drones, fintech, which have received intense interest, reveals some level of skill gap of students who pass through that system and may need to be upskilled by employers to meet the current day demand.

In response to the clamour for technology-inclined property professionals, this paper presents itself as the first to assess the knowledge levels and application of digital technology by property academics.

Green building education, an important aspect of sustainability in higher education, has rapidly expanded across the world. Yet, a bespoke pedagogical model integrating the essential elements of green building knowledge into a university course is lacking. To plug this deficiency, this study aims to develop an innovative pedagogical model that incorporates four types of teaching activities, namely, lecture, virtual reality (VR)-aided site visit, physical site visit and practicum-based project.

Based on an extensive review of the relevant literature and course materials, a pedagogical model was constructed for application to the teaching and learning activities of a university’s hospitality and real-estate programme. Using a case study approach involving in-depth interviews with green building professionals and a workshop coupled with an online survey on building professionals, the model’s transformative effectiveness was evaluated.

The study finds that the pedagogical model was able to effectively equip students with the essential green building knowledge pertinent to the different stages of a building life cycle. Concerns about wider applications of the model, including barriers to implementation in other academic programmes and resources for updating the VR platform, were identified.

The VR-aided and project-based pedagogy model is novel and effective in delivering green building education. Future work, particularly expanding the VR platform to cover more green building cases, thereby allowing multiple case studies to be conducted, is recommended for illustrating further contributions and implications of the model.

Errors or negligence are inherent parts of professional services, thus necessitating the adoption of professional indemnity insurance (PII) as a risk management tool to protect professional interest. This paper sought to examine the adoption of PII among Estate Surveying and Valuation firms in Oyo State, Nigeria.

The quantitative research methodology was adopted, and primary data were collected via questionnaires distributed to 84 purposively selected Estate Surveyors and Valuers (ESVs) who are mostly principal partners or branch managers in the study area. Sixty-three questionnaires representing 75.0% were returned and found useable. Data collected were analysed with the aid of descriptive statistics of percentages and relative importance index (RII).

The study found that the influence of foreign investors as well as the requirements of PII by the professional body as a basis for annual license renewal were responsible for higher level of awareness among the practitioners. However, about average of the firms had adopted PII with few taking professional insurance policy of as low as ₦500,000 per annum. The study recommends that NIESV/ESVARBON should sensitize, monitor and enforce the adoption of PII by ESVs as a means to increase public confidence and credibility of valuers while rendering professional services to clients.

The current study was limited in coverage to Ibadan thus necessitating a study with wider area of coverage of national status.

The study has major implications on real estate education and practice in Nigeria. There is an urgent need for the professional body to devise means of enforcing compliance with the adoption of PII so as to be able to get the confidence of their teeming clients for subsequent patronage.

The paper is one among the scanty studies that provides a useful guide to real estate practitioners in developing countries towards adopting PII to shield the company from unnecessary negative exposure and financial loss.

The purpose of the research is to propose reforms that would help to bridge the gap between theory and practice and produce more effective urban planners. The research on urban planning curricula in the global South is a valuable contribution to the field of urban planning education. It provides a new perspective on the challenges facing urban planning education in these countries and offers a roadmap for improvement.

The research explores and evaluates the urban planning curricula in the global South, with a particular interest in Egypt. The research employs the use of questionnaires with 56 university instructors, analysed thematically, to evaluate the current content of curricula. The results are compared and correlated with a pilot study exploring research interest, government policies and practices of urban planning in Egypt.

Through comparing the results of the evaluation with the current research interest in urban planning in Egypt, the paper investigates the possibility of improving current educational curricula using comparative network analysis which would establish stronger interdisciplinary connections.

The seeming disconnects between urbanism concepts taught in educational curricula and their relevance in practice and reality is a vital issue in urban studies and planning. Interdisciplinary connections with topics like politics, economies, gender, and others can assist curricula in becoming more relevant to real-world situations. This disconnect is even more apparent in the global South where most educational content is highly derivative from Northern contexts. Though such interdisciplinary aspects are under discussed in educational curricula, they are frequently discussed in academic research.

Facility management (FM) is picking up steam in Turkey. However, delays in creating standards and adopting FM as a profession by corporate and public institutions led to an unusual predicament, unlike in Europe and the USA. The purpose of this study is to take an inductive and constructivist approach to explore the extent of maturity in the FM industry within Turkey.

Qualitative understanding of the complexity of the Turkish FM sector drives the design used in the study. All data has been collected through an in-depth interview and semi-structured questionnaire with FM stakeholders.

The findings revealed the perceptions of stakeholders working in various businesses and research institutions in Turkey, including FM organizations, supply markets and educational institutions, regarding the key challenges and opportunities in the business environment.

The trend on Turkish FM revealed a slow growth in FM professionalization, which needs the authority’s attention as the professionalization reduces the unemployment rate, reduces cost and enhances the life cycle of the physical property.

This is the first study, to the best of the authors’ knowledge, on Turkish FM that provides comprehensive studies on Turkish FM professionalization trends to draw the attention of policymakers to the need to enact policies that would improve FM professionalism.

Higher education institutions provide a vital role in providing education towards solving sustainability issues. Hence, the adoption of development agendas, such as the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) through the SDG Accord, into curriculum. As a signatory of the sector SDG Accord, Coventry University Group has the responsibility of providing an enabling environment to promote the achievement of the Goals. This article introduces a model for embedding the goals into curriculum; with creative teaching practice and enriching student experience at the centre to the approach taken. The approach considers three dimensions: Staff Development, the Goals within Teaching, and Students' Activities.

This paper aims to examine the extent to which these reforms address the limitations of Saudi Arabia’s previous investment framework. Long viewed as a hostile environment in which to do business, the Saudi Government has enacted a broad sweep of measures aimed at restoring investor confidence in central aspects of the country’s evolving private law framework.

This paper offers a timely assessment of the raft of foreign investment reforms, both legislative and regulatory, that have been introduced in Saudi Arabia over the last decade.

The paper will proceed by outlining the perceived failings of the old investment regime before going on to reforms.

It will consider the remaining obstacles to the flow of foreign investment in Saudi Arabia in the context of the dual forces that have historically defined the Kingdom’s ambivalent investment law regime.

The rising concern for the accuracy of residential valuations in Nigeria has created the need for key stakeholders in the residential property markets in the study areas to know the level of accuracy of valuations in order to make rational residential property transactions, amongst other purposes.

A blend of descriptive and causal designs was adopted for the study. Data were collected via structured questionnaire administered to 179 estate surveying and valuation (ESV) firms in the study areas using census sampling technique. Analytical techniques such as median percentage error (PE), mean and relative importance index (RII) analysis were employed in the analysis of data collected for the study.

The study found that valuation accuracy is greater in the residential property market in Abuja than in Minna, with inappropriate valuation methodology as the most significant cause of valuation inaccuracy.

The practical implication of this study is that a reliable databank should be established for the property market to provide credible transaction data for valuers to conduct accurate valuations in these cities. Strict enforcement of national and international valuation standards by the regulatory authorities as well as retraining of valuers on appropriate application of valuation approaches and methods are the recommended corrective measures.

No study has comparatively examined the accuracy of valuations in two extremely different residential property markets in the country using actual valuation and transaction prices.