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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.

A game‐theoretic model of moral hazard associated with unobservable builder effort is postulated to examine the effectiveness of homeowner warranties and building code enforcement by local government in assuring desired builders’ effort. Builders have an incentive to claim and charge for high unobservable effort level in constructing homes, but actually exert low effort to earn higher profits. We find that a homeowner warranty increases the unobservable effort of the builder, but cost minimizing behavior by the builder results in an effort choice less than the most efficient level. On the other hand, building code enforcement essentially converts unobservable builder effort to observable effort and efficient effort is indeed possible if enforcement cost is justifiable. However, an overly strict building code may be detrimental to buyers. The conditions under which a buyer would prefer one alternative over the other and where both measures can co‐exist are also examined. The model provides several interesting implications and testable hypotheses. A survey of builders and building codes provides preliminary evidence to support the proposed model.

Real estate developers often operate in oligopolistic environments. Pricing strategies must be made in an interactive framework that makes empirical evaluation difficult. This study appeals to economic experiments to examine how developers price their properties, especially when there is an option to market pre‐completed units. In addition, the interaction between bidding for land and pricing the end product is examined. The results indicate that competitor actions are important considerations in pricing decisions. In particular, the profit maximizing pricing strategy depends critically on being competitive, not necessarily being the most aggressive. Interestingly, pre‐completed units sell only at prices that incorporate future price expectations, and successful bids tend to precipitate more aggressive pricing. Finally, competitive bidding and pricing strategies appear to the best profit maximizing strategy.

Prepayment risk is a key concern in securitized real estate. Using repeat sales in transaction data to proxy for holding period and prepayment, this paper provides the first rigorous analysis of residential mortgage prepayment in Singapore. The prepayment rate for new condominiums is increasing in the holding period and exhibits spikes in the fourth and sixth years. The likelihood of observing a subsequent sale and the prepayment rate increases in floor level, sentiment and other investment return, but decreases in floor area and mortgage rate hikes. Appreciation in the property price also tends to increase the probability and rate of prepayment. In contrast, owners of larger property units and HDB upgraders are less likely to resell their properties. The evidence also suggests that the likelihood of prepayment is lowered after the anti‐speculation measures were introduced in May 1996.

Property purchasers who rescind on their contracts and forfeit the initial deposits are exercising their right to not proceed with the purchase. The deposit to purchase endows on the buyer an implicit call option that is valuable and the value exceeds the face value of the deposit. As such, real estate sellers and developers are not adequately compensated for the abortion risk, especially when there is no legal recourse for the sellers to seek specific performance and damages in the event of default. The historical value of this call is estimated by inferring a time‐varying volatility from Singapore residential price data over the last 20 years. The results show that real estate prices are more volatile in up markets than down markets, and that under‐compensation persists in both market conditions. This paper further highlights some measures to reduce the risk of aborted sales and the under‐compensation problem.

Postulates that project financing from pre‐completion marketing accentuates the tendency for the property developer to shirk from exercising the optimal level of care and effort, and leads to a higher incidence of building defects. Evaluates the disincentive effects of pre‐completion marketing against the mitigatory effects of providing defect warranty by way of a simple model of effort aversion. Derives the condition under which defect warranty can eliminate pre‐selling disincentive effects. Concludes that three policy implications follow from this model. The problem of building defects can be alleviated by imposing a longer defect warranty period; tightening building inspection standards; and limiting the extent to which developers can sell their property development prior to completion.

Although studies have been conducted in the USA to test if property‐related investment vehicles are an alternative for direct real estate investment, there has been little research in Singapore. Tests the existence of a relationship between property stocks and real estate prices. Postulates a theoretical construct to analyse property stock and real estate prices, and reports on methodology and findings before drawing implications.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate Shariah compliant real estate development financing and investment in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC).

In this paper, the authors employed desk research and survey to examine issues relating to Shariah compliant real estate development financing and investment. Following the desk research, 18 in‐depth interviews were conducted with senior executives of banks, real estate developers and consultants.

Equity Shariah instruments are found to be in high demand by real estate investors, however they are rarely offered by Islamic banks. In addition, the survey results confirm that Islamic financiers tend to partner real estate companies through land acquisition to post construction, contrary to how conventional financiers operate, therefore reducing moral hazard issues.

As Shariah compliant real estate research and knowledge is limited, the authors faced a challenge in getting respondents who are familiar and willing to participate in the interview. Nevertheless, the 18 respondents gave adequate inputs to enable the authors to write the research paper.

The paper includes challenges and implications for the future developments of Shariah compliant real estate development financing and investment.

This paper provides the Shariah compliant perspective of real estate development financing and investment, where the current knowledge is very limited.

Asset‐backed securitization (ABS) is an interesting financial innovation whereby debt instruments backed by cash flows generated from income‐producing assets are issued for investment purposes in the capital markets. This study examines the characteristics of ABS transactions in Singapore and evaluates whether proper governance mechanisms have been developed to protect ABS investors. We examined the unique features of the Visor case, such as rental guarantee, large block ownerships of junior bonds, credit enhancement, embedded options, managerial relationships between the SPV and servicers, and critically evaluated the effects of these characteristics on the governance of ABS. Rules on separation of banks' participation in ABS and the accountant's requirement of “clean sale” that affect the ABS structure were also discussed. We also develop a simple information asymmetric model to evaluate the pecking order choice of two different financing methods: collateralized loans and ABS.

Existing home sellers may be aware of defects in the home that are not observable to the untrained eye of a buyer. Sellers may not disclose the defects in order to receive a higher price. Home warranties for existing homes appear to provide protection against defects. However, it is not clear how home warranty compares against building inspections and seller disclosure laws. In an adverse selection model, we study the tools available to buyers to overcome this problem.