Publications and themes

The University of Reading has a searchable electronic archive showcasing research publications and other outputs. The database is publically available and includes the bibliographic details of our publications. In many cases the full text versions are available free of charge for personal research or study.

The Department for Real Estate and Planning has a long-standing research interest in sustainability, community engagement, economic change and resilience, healthy urban living, urban density and the environment. This includes research and publications in real estate, economic and spatial planning, governance, regulation, community planning, smart sustainable cities, and the connectivity of city regions in global financial and linked business services, including real estate services.

Our work is international in nature and studies in planning and governance systems span both the global north and the global south.

This broad research theme comprises research which is international in nature and relevant to industry, policy and practice audiences. It includes work on the changing dynamics of the housing market, the housing industry, the delivery of affordable housing and the implications of financial market linkages. Work on the impacts on the vulnerable in society continues, for example homelessness, supported housing, shared ownership and the impact of the growing private rented sector in the UK. Thus, there are ongoing and related research interests in housing supply/demand, the regulatory environment, planning, and government policies.

Work on house prices has included the development of the first house price index in Latin America (Panama). Innovative methods, such as computational linguistics to determine sentiment analysis, have also been developed in assessing the economic impact of transport infrastructure within the urban context.

Research in this theme comprises asset pricing, portfolio management, forecasting demand and supply activities, property derivative pricing, real option pricing, cross border financing and investment, capital structure, risk preferences and initial public offerings. It also includes liquidity in real estate markets, applied and spatial econometrics of real estate markets, behavioural finance and behavioural economics.

Research continues on the mortgage market including mortgage products and commercial mortgage-backed securities. Furthermore, there are ongoing research interests in both private fund and listed real estate sectors, as well as Real Estate Investment Trusts.

Since the 1970s, the Department has a strong track record in research on commercial property investment appraisal and valuation, commercial property management, and development appraisal techniques; it has played a leading role in the development of real estate appraisal standards, property investment valuation methods, and the impact of the code of practice for commercial leases on the leasing market. This body of work has shaped government policy and industry practices. The Department’s development of alternative long-term valuation methods for use within Government policy, and banking and real estate industries practices, is significant; previous collapses of the banking system have stemmed from over-lending on real estate in boom markets.

Other research activities within this theme includes the impact of sustainability and energy conservation on house price, energy efficient mortgages, land value tax and the valuation of land tenure rights.