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The purpose of this paper is to examine the effect of visual technology on the price discovery process in listings of residential properties in Singapore from 2015 to 2018.

The authors empirically model the effects of 360 virtual tours and drone video on four dimensions in price discovery – buyers’ arrival rate, sale probability, transaction prices and time-on-market – using a comprehensive data set for the residential properties in Singapore.

The analysis shows that the availability of virtual tours or drone video in a listing increases the arrival rate from potential buyers, the probability of a successful sale and the selling price. These findings are consistent with the hypothesis that technologically enhanced tools improve the quality of information and the marketability of property. However, listings with virtual tours tend to be associated with longer marketing time, which is consistent with the prediction of the information overload hypothesis.

This paper extends the housing and price discovery literature by examining how technologically enabled new information affects property transactions.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first paper to consider the impact of drone video on property market outcome.

This study examines the issue of cross‐continental publishing in real estate research to understand the research interaction between the two major English‐speaking countries and to determine if a home bias exists. This study also determines the extent to which authors from other countries publish in US and UK journals, and provide a ranking of non‐US universities and authors. The survey of top US and UK real estate journals from 1993 through 1998 reveals that a home bias exists. The home bias concentration is higher in US journals than in UK journals, while UK journals exhibit more balanced origins, emanating not only from the USA/Canada, but also from Australia, New Zealand and Asia. In addition, the study reveals that the Universities of Reading, Ulster and Glasgow are well placed among European universities, while the National University of Singapore ranks well in Asia. Top US researchers tend to publish exclusively in US journals; likewise the same is observed for UK researchers. However, some notable exceptions are observed. Finally, a possible reason for the home bias could be the different research approaches undertaken by US and UK journals.

While the development of real estate derivative contracts has important implications for real estate as an asset class, it has not been widely accepted in Asia. This paper aims to examine the issues involved in developing the real estate derivative market for Singapore.

The concept of real estate derivatives is reviewed. The limitations to the extant real estate index are discussed. Different approaches to constructing real estate indices are discussed in particular reference to the features of the Singapore real estate market.

The Singapore residential market is dominated by public housing, heterogeneity and relatively low turnover. The applicability of repeat sales approach may not be well suited. Geostatistical models appear promising. The commercial real estate market suffers from even lower turnover. The most appropriate commercial real estate index could be similar to that offered by IPD. Several issues were also highlighted. First, the index must pass the stringent scrutiny of academia and experts. Second, the index must be well understood and accepted by the industry. Third, the index must be published in a timely fashion and without biases. Fourth, there must be a trustworthy producer of the index.

For an index to be accepted, it must satisfy the issue of fungibility. International investors looking for exposure or hedging strategies are likely to be familiar with established methodologies such as the repeat sales and appraisal‐based approaches.

Market acceptability of RED. If the experience in Europe is anything to go by, this is not an insurmountable issue that cannot be addressed with education and knowledge dissemination.

While real estate derivatives have immense potential and a tremendous growth in its development in Europe has been witnessed, it is clear that the real estate derivative industry is in its infancy. The paper examines the issues peculiar to Singapore with regard to the establishment of real estate derivative contracts. The paper is of interest to policy makers and industry practitioners.

This paper examines the adverse selection problem associated with the pre‐completion marketing of property developments. When developers choose to finance their projects by pre‐selling in a pooling equilibrium, they pass on the risk of failure to the buyers and increase expected profits. Pre‐selling not only places buyers at a potential disadvantage if unexpected negative price shocks occur, but encourages more less‐profitable projects to be undertaken by bad developers. In addition, pre‐selling aggravates the building boom and bust cycle. However, the adverse selection problem can be eliminated if good developers choose to separate themselves by not pre‐selling under the appropriate conditions. This paper also examines interesting comparative statics and policy implications.