REP Research Roundup 2025 Overview

January 2025

Early 2025 internal research awards in the Department supported projects on land inequality and governance in urban China (Ziyou Wang, £2,172), post-pandemic mobility and socio-spatial sorting using mobile data (Yi Wu & Kwan Ok Lee, £2,472), and the impact of climate risk on housing supply elasticity (Ren Ren, £2,835). Externally, Yi Wu submitted a British Academy bid exploring UK–EU collaboration to address social inequalities linked to climate hazards. An earlier publication included Parker & Dobson’s study in Cities, which examined how political narratives around “delay” and “project speed” shape planning policy, revealing how the politicisation of time influences urban governance and democratic processes.

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February 2025

February welcomed funding successes in Real Estate & Planning include an Investment Property Forum award of £53,700 to Gianluca Marcato, Lukas Makovsky and their team for research on UK commercial property depreciation, and a £4,970 David Robins Fund grant awarded to Angelique Chettiparamb, Kaio Nogueira and Yiquan Gu to analyse the equity impacts of Section 106 and CIL contributions across England. Externally, Ren Ren submitted a major bid to the Independent Social Research Foundation on institutions, supply constraints and housing market cycles, while Xiaolun Yu’s paper on construction density regulation in China has been nominated for the 2025 ECR Research Output Prize. New publications at the time included work on housing supply elasticity in Hong Kong and a forthcoming edited volume on rural planning futures. In PhD news, Adele Wylie organised The Manc Kitchen, a community social-dining pilot in Manchester funded through her ESRC scholarship, bringing together local leaders and residents to address food equity and social isolation.

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March & April 2025

The Department of Real Estate & Planning launched its new LinkedIn page and showcased a vibrant term of student activities, including raising £5,500 at the LandAid Sleepout, an International Women’s Day workshop at Helical, visits to Barings London HQ, and field trips to the Chichester Community Development Trust and key London redevelopment sites. Research impact also featured strongly, with the release of the Design Codes for Health and Wellbeing report and several major funding successes: Yiquan Gu secured a £119k British Academy Innovation Fellowship, while Pin-Te Lin and Yuan Zhao received EPRA funding alongside an additional British Academy grant. Further research bids were submitted, and new publications explored themes including post-COVID spatial transitions, agglomeration and skills, tourist–host identity risk, the local nature of housing markets, and the value of quiet green spaces.

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May 2025

May brought a dynamic period of activity, launching the then new REP LinkedIn page and hosting insightful events including a guest lecture from Royal HaskoningDHV on climate risk in housing markets and a visit from RICS Governing Council member David Hourihan. Student success shone through with Oluwalani Jeremy Oshunrinade winning the 2025 Undergraduate of the Year Award, while both he and Mithiran Sivapalan reached the national finals. Impact and engagement highlights included Victor Nicholls presenting New Town research at RIBA, and major research achievements such as Xiaolun Yu winning the University’s Early Career Researcher Output Prize and new external funding bids led by Gianluca Marcato. The department also celebrated vibrant public engagement from PhD researchers and a strong list of new publications spanning planning, land use, ESG in real estate, systemic risk, and housing market dynamics.

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June 2025

The Department hosted the two-day Urban Economics and Economic Geography Workshop, featuring 40 papers and keynotes from Henry Overman and Tony Venables. Students excelled at the Women in Property South East Regional Finals, with Mary Melindji and Rusul Ramadhan winning and Nida Zahra highly commended. Engagement events included CBRE and Green Street seminars, an MSc Real Estate Finance fieldtrip to Grosvenor and Hines, and the innovative Dragons’ Den competition, where Team Nestify emerged as champion. Research achievements were strong, with external funding awarded to Carlo Corradini, internal awards for Angelique Chettiparamb and Chris Maidment, and multiple British Academy bids submitted. New publications explored neighbourhood planning, planning education, and territorial governance, while PhD researcher Sarityastuti Saraswati presented her work on urban regeneration at Cambridge.

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July 2025

REP Department maintained its #1 national ranking for Land & Property Management in the Complete University Guide. A new industry report led by Dr Emma Street and Victor Nicholls, funded by the Property Research Trust, revealed developers’ growing commitment to sustainability, with 71% setting short-term net-zero plans, 55% conducting climate risk assessments, and nearly half already meeting Biodiversity Net Gain requirements. Our PhD community also continued to shine, with Aparna Das and Oliver Tannor presenting research at major international conferences. Recent publications at the time included insights into star-analyst peer effects in China and the macroeconomic risks linked to sovereign credit rating downgrades.

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August 2025

The Department of REP celebrated the promotion of Dr Christopher Maidment to Associate Professor, alongside the graduation of the Undergraduate Class of 2025 and this year’s outstanding prize-winning students. Research activity remained strong, with Xiaolun Yu submitting a major ESRC bid on urban sprawl and new publications from Angelique Chettiparamb, Michael Dobson, and Lynn, Sturzaker, Parker & Wargent offering fresh insights into planning theory, decision-making, and community-led justice. Our PhD researchers continued to excel internationally, with Y. Zhang and G. Shin presenting their work at the 2025 Asian Real Estate Society Conference in Melbourne.

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September 2025

Achievements in research and scholarship included grants awarded to Dr Claire Deng (£9,997 from the British Academy for her project on Green Investment and Carbon Footprint) and Dr Alexandros Skouralis (£9,584 from the Building Societies Association for Measuring Systemic Risk and Resilience in Building Societies). Notable publications included Tian et al. (2025) in the Journal of Corporate Finance, which shows that non-star analysts improve forecast accuracy following the departure of star analysts, especially in hierarchical or resource-rich settings. PhD student A. Wylie published a chapter on gender and food in the Elgar Encyclopedia of Food and Society and presented research on alternative care infrastructures through creative foodwork at the Royal Geographical Society conference.

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October 2025

October’s REP Research Roundup showcased student engagement and cutting-edge research. MSc Real Estate Finance students visited Hines’ European HQ for insights into investment, underwriting, and development, while new MSc cohorts explored London on a walking tour. The Real Estate and Planning Career Fair connected students with leading employers. Research highlights include studies on gender inclusivity in African real estate education, UK housing market dynamics, park home residents’ wellbeing, ESG rating inconsistencies, corporate carbon risk strategies, workplace ecosystems post-pandemic, and planning theory development, reflecting the department’s diverse and impactful scholarship.

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November 2025

November’s REP Research Roundup celebrates student success, staff achievements, and impactful research. The Best Final Year Undergraduate Development and Planning Project Prize was awarded to Emily MacGregor, Alice Kirscher, Tom Williams, James Lloyd-Jones and Heli Thornton. Dr Emma Street has been appointed as the new PGR Director, with thanks to Prof. Pat McAllister for his longstanding service, and Prof. Carlo Corridini received a Henley Research Award for his leadership. PhD researcher Gabriel Gyojun Shin won South Korea’s national Top Research Award for his work on generative AI risk and governance. New research bids were submitted by Ziyou Wang on climate-change perceptions and Pin-Te Li on affordability for first-time buyers. Recent publications span planning theory, climate-related investment behaviour, and land value capture, offering fresh insights into flooding impacts on commercial property, temporal perspectives in planning, and the complexities of developer contributions.

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Be sure to keep up to date with our insights on Henley Live to receive REP Research Roundup updates throughout 2026 and beyond! We look forward to what the new year brings.