This study investigates the formation of adaptive expectations among unsophisticated home buyers and the factors influencing these expectations in Auckland, a market dominated by the participants. Adaptive expectations refer to the phenomenon where buyers form future price expectations based on past market performance. This research comprehensively analyses the determinants of unsophisticated buyers' expectations using vector error correction models (VECMs) that incorporate survey-based expectations and age-weighted historical returns. The findings indicate a strong association between historical returns and the formation of expectations, while other variables have limited or short-term impacts, supporting the adaptive expectations hypothesis. This reflects that unsophisticated home buyers who dominate housing markets rely on adaptive expectations, anchoring their forecasts on past performance rather than forward-looking indicators or broader market conditions. Furthermore, the reliance on past returns also suggests the potential for self-reinforcing cycles in housing markets, which can amplify fluctuations in prices. From a policy perspective, the results imply that the effectiveness of macroprudential interventions depends on how market participants form expectations.

This study examines the sectoral impact of ESG ratings on the financial returns of global REITs, with particular focus on the hotel sector. Using a dataset of 5,241 firm-year observations of global REITs from 37 countries spanning 2001 to 2022, we examine the relationship between ESG scores and the financial performance of hotel REITs and compare it with that in other real estate sectors. ESG ratings are sourced from MSCI, while financial data is obtained from Bloomberg and Compustat via WRDS. The analysis reveals that hotel-focused REITs benefit more financially from ESG enhancements than REITs focused on other sectors. Investments in ESG significantly enhance financial returns for hotels, primarily through increased capital gains rather than operational income. This is consistent with the Resource-Based View, which conceptualizes ESG initiatives, such as energy efficiency, governance quality, and social responsibility, as firm-specific strategic capabilities embedded in hotel REITs' operating and asset management processes. By enhancing demand conditions and improving asset quality and valuation, these ESG capabilities translate into superior financial returns for hotel REITs, supporting the positive ESG-performance association, which is stronger than in other REIT sectors. These insights reinforce the sector-specific financial implications of ESG adoption.

This study explores how environmental conditions shape housing prices across different neighborhoods. By combining satellite imagery with data from over 32,000 property transactions in Tehran, we investigate how environmental factors, including greenery, urban heat islands, and urban density, affect housing values. Our analysis reveals that environmental quality, as measured by indicators such as vegetation, urban heat island effects, and urban density, is a significant determinant of housing prices. However, clear spatial inequalities exist, where wealthier northern districts benefit from cooler temperatures and better-managed green spaces, which in turn boost property values. In contrast, residents in southern and peripheral areas face higher heat exposure and limited vegetation, contributing to lower housing prices. These patterns reflect deeper issues of environmental injustice, where access to green amenities and climate comfort is unevenly distributed. To address this, we recommend targeted investments in green infrastructure, particularly in underserved areas, and greater integration of environmental criteria into housing and urban planning policies.

Purpose This study examines the adoption potential of Earthship housing in Australia by analyzing public perceptions of its sustainability benefits, identifying systemic barriers and exploring pathways for integrating Earthship principles into mainstream housing.Design/methodology/approach A mixed-methods exploratory design was employed, utilizing a self-administered online survey that combined quantitative Likert-scale questions with qualitative open-ended responses. Participants were recruited via purposive sampling from sustainability-focused online groups. Quantitative data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, non-parametric tests, Spearman correlations and k-means clustering. Qualitative data were analyzed using thematic analysis.Findings Respondents expressed generally positive attitudes towards Earthship homes, particularly passive solar design, structural resilience and integrated water systems. Key barriers were identified within a knowledge-regulation-market triangle: low public awareness, complex regulatory requirements and financing challenges. The analysis also revealed two attitudinal segments: (1) Realist Supporters, recognizing both benefits and barriers and (2) Optimistic Enthusiasts, focusing on advantages. Overall, participants favored selective integration of Earthship principles into conventional homes rather than full adoption.Research limitations/implications The small, sustainability-aware sample limits generalizability, indicating the need for broader and longitudinal studies.Originality/value This study provides the first empirical assessment of Australian public perceptions of Earthship housing, which has been under-researched. It highlights how climate-specific priorities shape benefit valuations and introduces the knowledge-regulation-market triangle as a framework for understanding systemic barriers to the adoption of alternative housing.

Real estate constitutes a core segment of the global building and built environment industry, absorbing substantial volumes of international institutional investment capital. Unlisted real estate has featured prominently in the portfolios of global institutional investors. In recent years, global real estate markets have been significantly impacted by rising interest rates, posing a real and significant risk to investors. In response, more tactical asset allocation strategies have been adopted. Investment fund managers and institutional investors seek to rebalance through sector selections and sectoral portfolio diversification when tactical asset allocation strategy may be insufficient in phases of heightened rate volatility. By deploying MSCI US unlisted sector-specific real estate quarterly total returns between March 1999 and June 2024, this research assesses portfolio asset allocation strategy for unlisted sector-specific real estate over both rate-easing and rate-tightening phases to investigate how the structural change shapes portfolio asset allocation strategy resulting from the rising interest rates. Overall, the findings show that unlisted sector-specific real estate played a substantial role in the US institutional mixed-asset portfolios during rate-hike phases in the period before the COVID-19 recession. The allocation to unlisted sector-specific real estate was close to the maximum 10% cap, averaging 9.5% during rate-easing phases but decreasing to 7.5% during rate-tightening phases. At a sector level, unlisted office real estate allocations were higher across constrained mixed-asset and real estate portfolios in rate-tightening phases relative to those in rate-easing phases, while portfolio asset allocations to unlisted real estate sectors were lower in rate-easing phases relative to those in rate-tightening phases. These empirical findings provide real estate investment stakeholders with practical and crucial insights into rebalancing portfolios’ tactical asset allocation strategies for unlisted sector-specific real estate responding to interest rate phases and macro-financial markets, albeit static asset allocation strategies being insufficient in phases of heightened rate volatility. The investment implications of empirical outcomes are identified and further discussed.

The construction industry faces significant challenges in materials management, including inefficient supply chains and limited adoption of Circular Economy (CE) goals, which blockchain may address through automated tracking and verification systems. This systematic review examines blockchain technology applications in construction materials management to support CE strategies. Following PRISMA guidelines, 138 articles were selected from 1891 publications across four databases covering 2018 to 2025. The findings present a lifecycle-based framework across five building stages integrating smart contracts, IoT sensors, digital material passports, and tokenized waste exchange systems. Blockchain enables automated supply chain transparency, eliminates manual verification, and facilitates continuous material tracking. This research contributes by transforming conventional materials management into autonomous, data-driven workflows through a blockchain-enabled framework that systematically maps automated solutions for tracking, compliance, and circular resource flows across five building lifecycle stages, enabling practitioners to implement automated CE strategies.

Housing prices in Greater Sydney have risen sharply over the past two decades, raising concerns about speculative overvaluation and spatially uneven housing bubble formation. While prior research has examined housing bubbles at aggregated city scales, limited attention has been given to their spatial-temporal dynamics across nested submarkets. This study develops a macro–micro framework to analyse housing bubble formation across SA4 (regional) and SA2 (local) geographies in Greater Sydney from 2003 to 2023. Using price-to-rent ratios, spatial GIS mapping, regression analysis, and ARIMA/ARIMAX time-series forecasting, the study identifies both persistent and cyclical patterns of speculative activity. The main results reveal enduring bubble intensity in economically agglomerated and service-sector–dominated regions, particularly the Eastern Suburbs, Inner West, Ryde, and North Sydney–Hornsby. In contrast, peripheral areas exhibit more moderate, cyclical dynamics. Regression results show that transport accessibility, homeownership structure, labour market conditions, and income segmentation significantly influence bubble intensity, consistent with the New Economic Geography assertion. Time-series projections further indicate that speculative persistence is strongly conditioned by monetary policy trajectories, with low-interest-rate environments increasing the risk of renewed overheating. By integrating spatial econometrics with long-horizon forecasting, this study advances a multi-scalar understanding of urban housing bubbles. It provides an evidence base for geographically targeted macroprudential and planning interventions.

This Inquiry provides the first significant examination of the Australian construction sector’s ability to deliver both detached and high-rise housing. It analyses construction workflows, markets, regulation, workforce, technologies and supply chains. The housing construction industry in Australia is at crisis point. The rate of Australia’s detached housing output has been largely static since at least 1980. Apartment construction can lift in response to demand, but output is volatile. There is no overarching strategy aimed at addressing housing construction constraints. This Inquiry provides eight interconnected options for policymakers and industry.

Australia's soaring housing prices have intensified affordability concerns, with a key emerging issue being the widening price gap between houses and units. While prior spillover studies primarily examined how housing booms spread between cities, this research introduces a novel two-market spillover model that augments the traditional Diebold-Yilmaz framework to capture both house-unit spillover disparities and cross-market interactions within and across capital cities. Our findings reveal that skyrocketing house prices generate significantly stronger spillovers than units, reinforcing their dominant role in driving market-wide fluctuations. Moreover, intercity house spillovers exceed intra-city effects, highlighting the systemic nature of price transmission across regions. Given these insights, policy efforts should focus on mitigating overheated intercity house spillovers (demand-side measures), rather than attributing affordability challenges solely to unit supply shortages. This study provides a new empirical foundation for understanding housing market volatility and guiding more effective regulatory interventions.

In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, numerous countries implemented lockdowns. In Victoria, Australia, a unique two-tier system was employed, segregating areas with a Ring of Steel boundary and imposing additional restrictions within. This study focuses on the impact of lockdowns on housing prices and rents, exploring whether people are willing to pay a premium to live in areas with fewer lockdown restrictions and thus proposing this premium as an alternative measure of lockdown cost. We utilized a spatial difference-in-differences design to test on the lockdown boundary area and address many confounding factors. The research reveals a 7%-8% relative drop in housing rents within the Ring of Steel, dissipating within 6 months after lockdowns ended. A surprisingly large drop of 6%-7% in housing values is observed inside the Ring of Steel. These empirical estimates suggest homebuyers' behavioral biases could further depress housing values during a pandemic.

As climate change intensifies, frequent shifts in climate strategies and international negotiations have created substantial climate policy uncertainty (CPU). This study examines the effects of CPU on China's housing market, an especially relevant context given China's status as the world's largest carbon emitter and its rapidly evolving climate policy landscape. Using transaction data from 35 major Chinese cities (2010-2022) and panel fixedeffects models, we find a positive association between CPU and housing prices. These results can be explained by growth options theory, which suggests that uncertainty about potential future gains incentivises investors to act rather than delay. At the same time, housing simultaneously functions as a precautionary asset, prompting homebuyers to accelerate purchases to secure long-term stability. Heterogeneous effects emerge across cities with ambitious climate targets or superior carbon performance and those with higher exposure to physical climate risks. These findings offer critical insights for investors, policymakers, and urban planners seeking to navigate the interplay between climate policy and housing market dynamics, with broader implications discussed.

Purpose Climate change has become a critical challenge, drawing attention to the need for sustainable practices in the built environment. Despite the recognised environmental benefits of green buildings (GBs), research on the economic value of GBs, especially in the housing sector, remains limited, with mixed results documented. To better comprehend the economic value of green residential buildings, this study aims to examine the consistent effects of GB certifications (GBCs) on housing markets and identify factors contributing to the documented mixed results. Design/methodology/approach This study applies a meta-regression analysis supplemented by the Scientific Procedures and Rationales for Systematic Literature Reviews (SPAR-4-SLR) protocol to synthesise findings from past literature in testifying to the existence of green housing (GH) effects and identifying drivers for the varied effects. Findings The meta-regression evidence exhibits consistent green premiums in housing markets. In addition, four principal influential factors governing GH premiums are identified, including certification characteristics, data attributes, model specifications and external considerations. The implications of these findings and their practical applications are also discussed. Originality/value As the first study to examine price premiums and the reasons for heterogeneous effects related to GB certifications in housing markets, this meta-regression analysis extends the body of knowledge in this research domain. The findings of this study enhance the understanding of the economic value of GH and provide policymakers with some practical guidance aligning with markets.

Recognising the discrepancies in the features of dwelling types, we adopted a submarket model using quarterly panel data for 31 local government areas (LGAs) of Greater Melbourne, spanning March 2000 to December 2021, and documented the following findings. First, challenging entry affordability is causing a deterioration of rent affordability in the private rental housing market. As entry to the market has become a difficult venture for prospective homebuyers, the ultimate result is an expansion of the private rental market. Second, as the supply of vacant dwellings with multiple bedrooms increases, the rent of dwellings with fewer bedrooms would likely drop. Third, the more the state government offers the first homeowner grant, the greater the chances of improving rent affordability in the private rental market. These results could inform the decisions of various stakeholders of the private rental housing market including policymakers, residential property developers, and investors in terms of their activities in the rental market.

Office is one of the core sectors within the buildings sector, attracting tens of billions of dollars in global real estate investment flows. Most of these are achieved through non-listed investments, where office real estate represents one of the major sectoral investment exposures for many global institutional real estate investors and investment managers. The rising interest rates in recent years have been a significant concern, impacting the global real estate markets significantly. Based on these premises and by using quarterly total returns of non-listed office real estate across the US, UK, Germany, Canada, and Australia from June 2008 to June 2024, this research assesses the risk-adjusted performance and portfolio diversification benefits of non-listed office real estate across the five markets over both interest rate cut and interest rate hike cycles. The results empirically validate the added-value role of non-listed office real estate in institutional multi-asset portfolios across the UK, Germany, Canada, and Australia during the interest rate hike cycle preceding the COVID recession. In the 10% capped real estate allocation, the average allocation was 0.7% in the UK, 0.4% in Germany, 0.7% in Canada, and 9.1% in Australia. Over the interest rate hike cycle after the COVID recession, Australian non-listed office real estate offered enhanced benefits as part of the multi-asset portfolio, constituting an average of 0.8% in the capped real estate allocation. In the global non-listed office real estate portfolio, the US dominated the portfolio across varying interest rate cycles, with an average allocation of approximately 65%. The average allocation to Australia was 24.2% over the interest rate hike cycles, while the average allocation to Germany was 32.0% over the interest rate cut cycles. These findings offer institutional real estate investors and investment managers critical and practical insights into how the investment performance and portfolio construction strategy of office assets—an essential component of the buildings sector and a major non-listed real estate investment exposure for global institutional real estate investors—respond to macro-financial and interest rate cycles. The investment implications of the findings are also discussed.

Using the cross-sectional data from the 2015 and 2021 Yunnan Migrant Workers Urban Integration Survey, this study assesses the different effects of the three types of land rights that migrant workers possess in their rural hometowns on their urban settlement choices in Yunnan, western China. Specifically, it examined the existence of migrant workers moving between urban and rural areas in response to the importance of land rights for rural migrant workers, in western China, a region with the lower level of economic development and fastest growing number of migrant workers in China. After controlling for the impact of other variables, the multinomial Probit model was used to estimate the impact of the migrant workers' land rights in their rural hometowns on their settlement choices in urban areas. We found that rural land rights significantly increased migrant workers' willingness to return to their hometowns. This indicates that land right security is a key factor affecting Yunnan migrant workers' urban settlement intentions, although it is conditional in terms of age groups and places of origin. Importantly, we found that migrant workers in western China are more inclined to keep their dual identities as both urban migrant workers and rural residents. They, hence, are more inclined to rationally allocate their resources between urban and rural areas to maximize their economic outputs. Particularly, they prefer to only working - rather than settling - in urban areas, while retaining their rural land as assets and income sources. Instead of settling in either urban or rural areas, the older migrant workers who migrate to smaller and economically underdeveloped cities are more inclined to drift between urban and rural areas without permanent settlement. This confirms the argument of livelihood resource maximization and migratory bird-type migration as important mechanisms via which land right ownership affects migrant workers’ urban settlement intentions. This study suggests that policymakers should consider the land rights of rural migrant workers when making urban settlement policies, especially for small and medium-sized cities, where migrant settlement intention is weaker. Policymakers should also promote the flexibility of rural land use rights transfer and explore reforms concerning the separation of the three types of land rights to achieve a balance between urbanization and land use efficiency, particularly in small and medium-sized cities.

PurposeThis study aims to analyse the inconsistencies found in previous research regarding the impact of environmental, social and governance (ESG) factors on real estate investment trusts’ (REITs) performance. By identifying the individual contributions of each ESG pillar, the research seeks to clarify ESG’s role in determining REIT outcomes.Design/methodology/approachThe study conducts a meta-analysis of 26 selected studies from a pool of over 300 academic papers that investigate the relationship between ESG factors and REIT performance. The meta-analysis aggregates regression findings from these studies, and logistic regression models are used to examine the distinct effects of each ESG factor on REIT performance.FindingsThe results indicate that the environmental and social pillars significantly influence the relationship between ESG and REITs performance. The social factor consistently shows a positive and significant effect, while the environmental factor is significant but with an unclear direction of influence. The governance factor does not show a significant impact, suggesting that under the current REITs regulatory framework, governance is less influential. The results address the distinct contribution of ESG factors in shaping REIT outcomes across different market contexts and time periods. Moreover, the positive impact of the social pillar aligns with Freeman’s (1984) social impact hypothesis, which suggests that business practices associated with stakeholders’ interests positively affect financial performance.Originality/valueThis study enhances the understanding of ESG factors’ impact on REITs by being the first to systematically analyse the underlying reasons for the varied outcomes in previous research. It is also the first attempt to employ meta-analysis in exploring the theoretical foundations of ESG effects within the real estate and construction sectors. The findings assist investors in making more informed decisions based on ESG components and offer guidance for policymakers in crafting regulations that better reflect the influence of ESG factors.

PurposeThe property industry has been experiencing massive transformation due to rapid technological advancement in the last decade. A large body of literature has attempted to identify the challenges confronting property professionals, with some examining the impact brought by Property Industry 4.0 on the future workforce. To effectively address the challenges, however, we need participation from diverse stakeholders, as previously proposed strategies have often only considered perspectives from specific cohorts and lacked broader engagement. Hence, this study aims to formulate comprehensive strategies to address the challenges facing our future workforce in the age of Property Industry 4.0.Design/methodology/approachFor the first time, we invited a unique lineup of stakeholders to our co-design workshops. These include property leaders, property professionals, recent property graduates, property students, property academics, program directors, as well as university leadership executives, to make sure the outcomes are relevant, effective and user-oriented.FindingsFour strategies were recommended to future-proof our property graduates: (1) enhancing AI-focused content in universities and collaborating with industry stakeholders, (2) regulating AI adoption by bodies like the Australian Property Institute (API), (3) introducing industry certifications to address ethical concerns and (4) developing students' soft skills via internships and networking events in collaboration with professional bodies.Originality/valueThis study is the first to employ a co-design workshop, incorporating the perspectives of all stakeholders in crafting potential solutions. These include property leaders, property practitioners, recent property graduates, property academics, property students and senior school executives (e.g. deputy dean and deputy head of education).

This study contributes to the existing literature by examining how carbon regulation initiatives influence corporations' ESG actions in the real estate sector, with a special focus on Environmental (E) performance. Specifically, it investigates if stringent carbon regulations like emissions trading systems (ETS) enhance corporates' ESG performance by analyzing data of listed real estate across 37 countries rated by MSCI. Our findings indicate that implementing ETS leads to heightened environmental responsibility in the real estate sector. This supports North's (1990) institutional theory, highlighting the impact of regulations on organizational behavior and business strategies. Our channel analysis suggests that listed real estate leverages ETS-driven regulations to participate in green building initiatives. However, the study does not find comparable effects on carbon taxes. This research highlights the pivotal role of carbon regulations in shaping sustainable practices in the real estate sector.