1,720,957 research outputs found
An investigation of the linkage between economic cycles and commercial property cycles, and their impact on the income approach of valuation: case of Windhoek
Get PDFStudies conducted in other countries shows that economic cycles and commercial property cycles exist, and that a relationship exit between the two cycles. Few research points to the cyclicality of both cycles to have an impact on property valuations. The aim of this study was therefore to establish whether the Namibian economy and the Windhoek commercial property market are cyclical, and if a relationship exist between the two. The study further aimed at establishing whether the cyclicality of both the economy and the commercial property market have an impact on the valuation of commercial properties in the Namibian context. The three research objectives allowed the research to identify the variables required to establish both economic and commercial property cycles, and the possible challenges faced by valuers using the income approach to value commercial properties during peaks and troughs of these cycles. The mixed-use approach was employed using a literature review to identify the variables required to establish both cycles followed by a secondary analysis. The research made use a questionnaire to gather data on challenges faced by valuers when valuing commercial properties during the different economic and commercial property markets environments. The research found that both economic and commercial property cycles do exist and that they are procyclical and countercyclical under certain variables. A countercyclical relationship exists between GDP and the commercial property vacancy rates. A countercyclical relationship exists between inflation and retail vacancy rates and office cap-rates. A procyclical relationship exist between interest rates and the retail vacancy rates and office cap-rates. The results revealed that during or near a peak of both economic and commercial property cycles, data is easily available and accessible making it easier to value commercial properties using the income approach. However, data shows that during or near economic and commercial property cycle troughs, market data is rare and unreliable making it difficult to value commercial properties
Market solutions to the low-income housing challenge – a case study of Bulawayo, Zimbabwe
Get PDFThe provision of decent, affordable and well-located housing for low-income communities has been an intractable problem, especially for developing countries. The empirical puzzle that motivated this study is that, despite the adverse macro environment in Zimbabwe, there appears to be private-sector developers who are successfully developing housing benefiting the low-income group. This is so, despite numerous studies that claim that given the magnitude of the housing challenge, a neoliberal doxa in a developing country context as a solution is a fallacy. Working on the broad premise that these developments represent a successful adaptation to the structural environment, the main question guiding the study was - what accounts for the success of market provided low-income housing developments in Zimbabwe despite the environment not being conducive for it? The two sub-questions flowing from this main question were firstly, how does the structural environment enable and/or constrain private sector low-income developments in Zimbabwe? Secondly, what strategies do developers adopt in response to the structural enablers and/or constraints to develop low-income housing in Zimbabwe? From these questions, the study has two hypotheses – the first hypothesis is that despite the adverse environment there exists in Zimbabwe structural enablers that make market solutions to the low-income housing challenge possible. The second hypothesis states that developers have specific discernible strategies that they employ in response to the adverse operating environment to reduce development costs to levels that enable them to provide low-income housing successfully. Using the Structure-Agency model, which is a theoretical framework rooted in institutional economics, a conceptual model to study the development process was developed and used to theorise the impact of structure on agency in the development process. Empirical evidence was gathered using observation, household surveys, and semi-structured interviews. This evidence was obtained from five housing schemes, the local authority, central government, financiers and the developers of the housing schemes, and then processed using NVIVO and SPSS. The study finds that most challenges faced by developers emanate from the institutional environment and access to resources. These challenges are namely central-local government dynamics fuelled by political undertones, lack of access to land suitable for the target group, a bureaucratic and stiff regulatory framework as well as a lack of market provided developer and end-user finance. Enabling factors were mainly the withdrawal of the government in the provision of housing in line with World-Bank neoliberal orthodoxy and incapacitation of the local authority, which eliminated alternative sources of housing for the low income group other than market provided housing, thus widening the market base for the developers. Strategies used by the developers include developer provided finance to the target group, preselling developments, sidestepping the local authority through buying land at the periphery of the local authority boundary, sidestepping regulatory barriers through engaging in corruption, backward integration to promote efficient resource allocation, and an innovative approach to risk management that caters for the low-income group. The study concludes that all these strategies have one overriding objective of cost containment. The findings indicate that there is potential, appetite and scope for more private-sector engagement. On this basis, it is recommended that the key to unlocking this potential lies with the state, as there are several policy implications that flow from these findings if the highlighted constraints are to be addressed. The study makes a number of key contributions to knowledge on market solutions to the low-income housing challenge in the area of theory, methodology, policy and empirical data
Black entrepreneurship in the real estate sector in Namibia: Constraints and prospects.
No full textInternational Conference on Entrepreneurship (2003 Sep. 17-18 : Windhoek, Namibia)Real estate offers a number of opportunities for entrepreneurial activity, notably in the areas of esatate agency, real estate development and consultancy services such as valuation. The real estate sector is particularly attractive to entrepreneurs because of relatively low start up capital requirements and the potential for huge returns in relatively short times. The world over is replete with examples of real estate tycoons.
Thirteen years after independence, a cursory examination of the real estate sector shows that Black Namibians have not taken advantage of the opportunities available in this sector in any significant way. This is most evident in the estate agency business, where historically, White firms dominate, and in valuation services. In fact Namibia has not even a single private real estate valuation firm operating in the country and has to rely on external consultants.
This paper examines the constraints which militate against increased Black participation in the real estate sector in Namibia. Focussing on estate agency and property valuation services, it shows that there are institutional, regulatory and other factors which work against Black participation in the real estate sector. The paper concludes by suggesting ways in which this state of affairs can be improved
Determinants of foreign direct investment: Theory and evidence, with Zambia as case study.
No full textInternational Conference on Entrepreneurship (2003 Sep. 17-18 : Windhoek, Namibia)Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) constitutes a resource flow which is widely considered particularly useful for the economic development of developing countries. This resource has however, proved elusive for countries in Africa, despite widespread moves to liberalise investment regimes and offer attractive incentives. This paper reviews the determinants of FDI in the light of empirical evidence and using Zambia as a case study. Using Dunning's Eclectic Paradigm as an analytic framework, the paper shows that there are location specific variables which tend to constrain the inward flow of FDI into Zambi
Compensation Theories and Expropriation of Customary Property Rights: A Critical Review
Get PDFMarket value is the most common compensation basis for expropriation of both private and customary property rights. Private property rights are generally exchangeable while customary property rights are conceptually not as exchangeable. It is hence critical to analyse the applicability of current compensation theories, which are founded on private property rights, to different property rights and in different social settings. By using existing literature and empirical evidence from Africa and other countries where customary property rights dominate, this paper undertakes a theoretical analysis of the applicability of existing compensation theories and the methodologies used to achieve the desired compensation goals. The analysis concludes that whilst current compensation theories are broadly applicable to customary property rights as they aim to protect property rights and prevent expropriatees from impoverishment, various ontological and methodological factors limit the realisation of these goals in settings dominated by customary properties. Such factors include ontology and dominance of customary property rights, use of market value as a compensation basis, and capacity of compensation assessors. Broadly, these factors lead to inadequate compensation and impoverishment of affected people
Going Beyond Counting First Authors in Author Co-citation Analysis
Get PDFThe present study examines one of the fundamental aspects of author co-citation analysis (ACA) - the way co-citation
counts are defined. Co-citation counting provides the data on which all subsequent statistical analyses and mappings
are based, and we compare ACA results based on two different types of co-citation counting - the traditional type that
only counts the first one among a cited work's authors on the one hand and a non-traditional type that takes into
account the first 5 authors of a cited work on the other hand. Results indicate that the picture produced through this non-traditional author co-citation counting contains more coherent author groups and is therefore considerably clearer. However, this picture represents fewer specialties in the research field being studied than that produced through the traditional first-author co-citation counting when the same number of top-ranked authors is selected and analyzed. Reasons for these effects are discussed
Variations on the Author
Get PDF“Variations on the Author” discusses two of Eduardo Coutinho’s recent films (Um Dia na Vida, from 2010, and Últimas Conversas, posthumously released in 2015) and their contribution to the general question of documentary authorship. The director’s filmography is characterized by a consistent yet self-effacing form of authorial self-inscription: Coutinho often features as an interviewer that rather than express opinions propels discourses; an interviewer that is good at listening. This mode of self-inscription characterizes him as an author who is not expressive but who is nonetheless markedly present on the screen. In Um Dia na Vida, however, Coutinho is completely absent form the image, while Últimas Conversas, on the contrary, includes a confessional prologue that moves the director from the margins to the center of his films. This article examines the ways in which these works stand out in the filmography of a director who offers new insights into the notion of cinematic authorship
Appropriate Similarity Measures for Author Cocitation Analysis
Get PDFWe provide a number of new insights into the methodological discussion about author cocitation analysis. We first argue that the use of the Pearson correlation for measuring the similarity between authors’ cocitation profiles is not very satisfactory. We then discuss what kind of similarity measures may be used as an alternative to the Pearson correlation. We consider three similarity measures in particular. One is the well-known cosine. The other two similarity measures have not been used before in the bibliometric literature. Finally, we show by means of an example that our findings have a high practical relevance.information science;Pearson correlation;cosine;similarity measure;author cocitation analysis
Dispelling the Myths Behind First-author Citation Counts
Get PDFWe conducted a full-scale evaluative citation analysis study of scholars in the XML research field to explore just how different from each other author rankings resulting from different citation counting methods actually are, and to demonstrate the capability of emerging data and tools on the Web in supporting more realistic citation counting methods. Our results contest some common arguments for the continued
use of first-author citation counts in the evaluation of scholars, such as high correlations between author rankings by first-author citation counts and other citation
counting methods, and high costs of using more realistic citation counting methods that are not well-supported by the ISI databases. It is argued that increasingly available digital full text research papers make it possible for citation analysis studies to go beyond what the ISI databases have directly supported and to employ more
sophisticated methods
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