REP Roundup: July

News from the Department of Real Estate & Planning

Research Award
Gavin Parker -  Nuffield Foundation

• Title - Resubmission: Just neighbourhoods? Understanding the potential of community-led planning in left behind places
• Total bid - £226,300
• Type - Standard Research Grant

PhD News

Conference presentations
Nasr, Rita (2023) ‘Strategies for persistence under the absence of the rule of law: Learning from local recycling practices in the context of Lebanon’; Opening the Bin 3 – Waste, economy, culture, and society: ‘One World, One Bin?’ Lancaster University: Lancaster; 16, June.

Ventura, Chiara (2023) Correlation and Residential Mortgage Default; EFMA 2023 (European Financial Management Association); Cardiff, 1, July.
 

PhD Vivas
Candidate: Rita Nasr
PhD title: Filling the gaps: the delivery of solid waste services in a condition of exception.  Learning from local recycling practices in the refugees' camp and urban areas of Lebanon.
Supervisors: Prof Angelique Chettiparamb (Real Estate and Planning); Dr Lebene Soga (Leadership, Organization & Behaviour).

Candidate: Matt Pollock
PhD Title: Herding in US Housing Markets 
Supervisors: Dr Yi Wu (Real Estate and Planning); Dr Masaki Mori 

Publications

Newton-Fenner, A. , Hewitt, D. , Henderson, J. , Roberts, H. , Mari, T. , Gu, Y. , Gorelkina, O. , Giesbrecht, T. , Fallon, N. , Roberts, C. and Stancak, A. (2023) Economic value in the brain: a meta-analysis of willingness-to-pay using the Becker-DeGroot-Marschak auction. PLoS ONE, 18 (7). e0286969. ISSN 1932-6203
DOI link

Abstract 
Forming and comparing subjective values (SVs) of choice options is a critical stage of decision-making. Previous studies have highlighted a complex network of brain regions involved in this process by utilising a diverse range of tasks and stimuli, varying in economic, hedonic and sensory qualities. However, the heterogeneity of tasks and sensory modalities may systematically confound the set of regions mediating the SVs of goods. To identify and delineate the core brain valuation system involved in processing SV, we utilised the Becker-DeGroot-Marschak (BDM) auction, an incentivised demand-revealing mechanism which quantifies SV through the economic metric of willingness-to-pay (WTP). A coordinate-based activation likelihood estimation meta-analysis analysed twenty-four fMRI studies employing a BDM task (731 participants; 190 foci). Using an additional contrast analysis, we also investigated whether this encoding of SV would be invariant to the concurrency of auction task and fMRI recordings. A fail-safe number analysis was conducted to explore potential publication bias. WTP positively correlated with fMRI-BOLD activations in the left ventromedial prefrontal cortex with a sub-cluster extending into anterior cingulate cortex, bilateral ventral striatum, right dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, right inferior frontal gyrus, and right anterior insula. Contrast analysis identified preferential engagement of the mentalizing-related structures in response to concurrent scanning. Together, our findings offer succinct empirical support for the core structures participating in the formation of SV, separate from the hedonic aspects of reward and evaluated in terms of WTP using BDM, and show the selective involvement of inhibition-related brain structures during active valuation. 

Lin, P.-T. and Robberts, A. (2023) Regional house price convergence:implications of monetary policy. Regional Studies. ISSN 1360-0591 (In Press)   

Abstract 
Motivated by the structural change since the adoption of inflation targeting in October 1992, this research investigates regional house price convergence in the UK over 1973:Q4 to 2020:Q4. By utilising subsample comparisons, results show that all regions in the inflation targeting regime converges to one club until the global financial crisis. The finding suggests that the successful inflation targeting policy can promote integration among regions. 

Maidment, C. and Parker, G. (2023) An understanding gap? Planning education in a time of change: a response to Taylor and Close. Town Planning Review, 94 (3). pp. 255-270. ISSN 1478-341X
DOI link

Abstract
Building on Taylor and Close’s (2022) commentary reviewing the skills gap concerning how planners are educated and trained, this response places this ‘gap’ in the context of key relationships that shape this; between skills, knowledges and attitudes, including a more nuanced understanding of knowledge; between the Royal Town Planning Institute, planning schools and employers and between planning and other built-environment disciplines. The resulting argument is that a more nuanced understanding of where different responsibilities lie for educating and training planners needs to be a pre-requisite for understanding how the skills gaps identified by Taylor and Close should be addressed.

Hossain, S. M., Van de Wetering, J. , Devaney, S. and Sayce, S. (2023) UK commercial real estate valuation practice: does it now build in sustainability considerations? Journal of Property Investment & Finance, 41 (4). pp. 406-428. ISSN 1463-578X
DOI link 

Abstract
Purpose
This paper investigates the extent to which commercial property valuers in the UK refer to Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) professional standards and guidance on the inclusion of sustainability in valuation reports. Data collection, analysis and reporting related to sustainability attributes is examined, as well as the perceived importance of these attributes to clients and any value impacts that are associated with them.

Design/methodology/approach
An online survey of UK commercial property valuers was conducted from July to September 2019. The survey included both structured and open-ended questions.

Findings
Reference to RICS standards and guidance on sustainability has improved since earlier research. However, progress on data collection is still limited. At the time of the survey, UK valuers indicated that sustainability attributes were of more importance to owner-occupiers than investors and lenders. UK valuers also indicated that, out of a range of sustainability attributes, only certification was influencing market value (MV) and investment value (IV) to any great extent.

Research limitations/implications
The online survey had 53 responses and this limited the ability to draw definitive conclusions. Hence, whilst the results may be indicative of the perceptions of some valuers of the significance of sustainability-related matters in the UK, the sample is not large enough to be considered representative of the opinions of property valuers per se in the UK.

Practical implications
Explicit reflection of sustainability in market or investment values is still limited in the UK valuation practice, but there are challenges faced by valuers that need further investigation, including difficulties in pricing sustainability attributes.

Originality/value
This is the first empirical investigation of the perception of sustainability by valuers in the UK commercial property market since the 2012 survey reported by Michl et al. (2016).