Property Development Sector Research Articles

Strategic adaptation to environmental jolts: an analysis of corporate resilience in the property development sector in Dubai

Strategic adaptation to environmental jolts: an analysis of corporate resilience in the property development sector in Dubai

Strategic adaptation to environmental jolts: an analysis of corporate resilience in the property development sector in Dubai

This paper contributes to the literature on the contingent nature of strategic adaptation to environmental jolts in the context of the real estate industry in UAE. We selected the representative case of Emaar Properties to estimate how the evolving dynamics in the UAE real estate sector over the 2000-2015 period affect the exercise of managerial discretion and the development of corporate resilience. The emphasis was placed on two external discontinuities, namely the 2008-2009 financial crisis and the 2013 announcement of Dubai as the host city of World Expo 2020. By altering its portfolio of investments across countries and industry segments, the company mitigated the impact of the global recession and benefited from the market improvement triggered by the World Expo 2020 news. The strategic choices of the top management reflect how, in times of environmental turbulence, Emaar was geared toward achieving tighter external alignment to balance its risks and opportunities.

SunCity: Beyond the Green Marking

Sunway City Berhad (also known as SunCity) is a well-known Malaysian company focusing on premium property development and investment. It began operation in 1986, and had since continued to integrate various innovations in its property offerings. In mid-2008, the global economic crisis had affected the overall performance of the Malaysian property development sector. In the midst of the crisis, SunCity realized that it needed to take a preemptive action to face the crisis. At the end of the year, SunCity applied for the Green Mark certification by the Singapore’s Building and Construction Authority (BCA) for two of its most recently launched projects. Although SunCity had consistently integrated green features in its projects to meet customer’s demands for the last several years, it had yet to obtain a proper evaluation of such efforts. Obtaining the certification was a way of demonstrating SunCity’s commitments toward creating values for its customers. By April 2009, while SunCity had the BCA Green Mark certifications in hand, the company’s top management team was aware that the construction industry was not doing well, and that getting the certification was expensive. As such, proper strategies were urgently needed to help avoid further decline in the company’s profitability. This case study aimed to analyze SunCity’s green initiatives and to stimulate discussion on the appropriate ‘green’ strategies that the company can implement in the future.

Housing market and class formation in the Colombo Metropolitan Region: a sociological aspect

The main focus of the study is on understanding the emerging relationship between state, market and social classes in the Colombo Metropolitan Region (CMR) in the context of emerging housing market and citizens’ access to a livable house in the Colombo city and its suburbs. This main objective is achieved through the questions of enquiry, listed as: to identify the role of state on formulating various housing policies and their implementation; to describe emerging institutional mechanisms, public or private in facilitating, developing and implementing land and housing properties; to investigate the housing market and its socio-economic impacts on the residents of three communities under focus; to examine residential patterns and formation of social classes in the communities; and to enquire into the nature and forms of relationship among the state, the market and the social classes in regard to urban housing. The main research question addressed in this study is to investigate the impact of recent neoliberalisation policy on urban housing, more so in the context of CMR. The commercialization of housing as a commodity by the private builders, whom the state has found impossible to exclude, due to its dwindling resources and infra-structure, has successfully manipulated the consumerist zeal of consumers, both rich and poor alike, obsessed with status consciousness. Three housing units have been studied in detail;Shahaspura (a heterogeneous public sector condominium housing complex inhabited by lower class residents), Mattegoda (a public sector housing complex inhabited by lower middle class residents), and Millennium City (a private sector housing complex inhabited by middle & upper middle class residents). In all, 325 households were selected randomly for a primary household survey. The sample survey was supplemented by qualitative data collected from respondents by contacting them for detailed informal interviews and non-participant observation. Secondary data presented by the research paper relates to the changing housing policies under various political regimes in the country; constituted institutional bodies to implement land development; housing and policy interventions; emerging public and private financial institutions for facilitating property development sector; role of private developers and promoters in developing lands and housing properties; and finally numerous housing schemes implemented by the public and private sector, in the CMR. The analysis reveals significant variation among these three study areas in terms of neighbourhood relationships and status enhancement. Shifting into these housing complexes signifies for the residents, not just an alternative residence, but more of a status enhancement. However, the study reveals that the rising demand especially among middle and upper income groups for private housing colonies, selling their products along with multiple amenities, has resulted into a steep rise in land prices, hence making the private housing out of reach for the low income groups, who then look for government housing schemes. Further, the study has shown the banking facilities for housing loans have further enhanced the interest of people in private housing societies, providing a big boost to the housing market. The whole process has led to the emergence of urban social classes very distinct from one another and drawing an identity from the housing structures. Sri Lanka Journal of Social Sciences 2015 38(1): 13-29

Irish Urban Planning Under a Neoliberal Agenda

Much academic attention and debate has been given to the use of and imposition of a Special Purpose Development Authority (SPDA) to Irish urban planning in the 1980s and 1990s to redevelop the Custom House Docks (later enlarged to encompass Dublin docklands). This newly-created agency marked a radical shift in the philosophy guiding urban planning in Ireland towards more overtly facilitative entrepreneurial systems of engagement with the property-development sector. Vested with planning powers to ´fast-track´ planning and development, the Irish SPDA expropriated planning powers entirely from the local authority marginalising planners´ functions in certain locations. Few studies have, however, attempted to document turn-of-the-century shifts in Irish planning by examining more recent changes in the planning code. This paper will attempt to demonstrate how recent changes in the Planning and Development Acts since 2000 only serve to illustrate the inherent bias of Irish urban planning towards favouring private capital over the interests of the ´common good´ by providing an exploration Irish urban planning under a neoliberal agenda.

Assessing Planned Industrial Location and Economic Development in Dubai, UAE: Spatial and Sector Impacts of Labour-Force Distribution among Industrial Establishments

This research applies a location quotient model to assess the impacts of Dubai's industrial location planning on labour-force distribution among industrial establishments. Dubai leads other UAE urban regions in terms of industrial development. Oil production peaked at 15.4 % of total UAE production and has dropped to 7 %; searching for alternative revenue sources, Dubai's government has focused on logistics, commerce, services, tourism, manufacturing, and a booming property-development sector. In 2002, Dubai had 854 industrial establishments (37 % of the UAE total) and investments worth more than AED13 billion (US$3.54 billion), employing some 64 000 industrial workers (34 % of the UAE total). But industrial development requires an externally recruited labour force, with increasing logistical and financial costs for transport and accommodation. The results of this study show a strong correlation between labour efficiencies, capital investment (FDI), and planned same-sector clusters (e.g., industrial campu...

Working with the property development sector—Integrating active living principles into the planning and design process

Introduction: Research and policy work around creating supportive environments for physical activity has been occurring for over a decade. The Heart Foundation has produced a number of guidelines and tools, including the widely used “Healthy By Design”; a planner's guide to environments for active living, to suggest practical ways to influence the built environment to become more supportive of physical activity and social connection. There is growing recognition of the influence and impact of the development industry on urban design and the potential for it to be an important agent of change in to the creation of active living environments.

Földtulajdon és tervezés

Already in the early 1980s it was recognisable in Hungary that a contradiction between the prevailing mechanisms of urban physical planning and the public perception of property rights was evolving. Lead by the fundamental changes of the ownership patterns after the political changes this contradiction continued to grow while the old planning mechanisms survived almost unchanged. Up to 1997 when the new Act on the Built Environment and the relevant bylaws were finally adopted cities and villages made and amended their plans according to the old planning legislation that goes back to as early as 1964. In the first part of the paper the three main functions: concept/strategy formulating, developmental and the regulatory of urban planning are analysed. It is stated, that in the developed industrial countries there is a decisive effort to get to a balance between the three functions of planning. After the political and economic changes Hungarian planning legislation focused mainly on the regulatory function, while the planning and developmental function of cities became relatively weak. The new urban planning law introduced some legal mechanisms in order to assist cities in the implementation of their physical plans but some innovations are yet missing, among others the introduction of a planning permission procedure. The next part of the paper focuses on the developmental function of planning. This function is viewed as an integral part of the planning process comprising those active measures of the communities that facilitate the implementation of urban projects in the interest of the general public. As public involvement in urban development is in most cases associated with negotiations with the private property development sector about financial settlements the paper first examines the dual source of betterment: It is stated that a clear distinction is to be made between betterment (and also worsenment) caused by the changes in the demand patterns and those changes in land values that result from public capital improvements, i.e. from infrastructure programs. A simple explanartory is presented here. It is arranged along two variables: the "strength" of the development function of the public sector ("pro-active" or "re-active" policies) and the "complexity" of the planned urban development projects. The latter variable refers both to physical complexity and to those characteristics of projects that are associated with the social/economic complexity of public interests to be met, e.g. avoidance of segregatory trends, facilitating local economic development, preserving local urban districts. Based on the survey of the legislation and practices of the countries mentioned above the model indicates that planning tools used in Anglo-Saxon and European planning practices differ according to the cities' measure of active involvement in the realisation of urban plans. In America, where most urban projects are initiated by the private sector, and where the "weak" development function of the communities is restricted to the implementation of the basic elements of the public infrastructure, various tools of dedication in land or in money and of impact (development) fees are used for partially financing the associated public developments. It is stated in the paper that these instruments – very similar to those proposed by the 1937 Act on Planning in Hungary – are inadequate to the influential private developments towards the complexity of public goals. In Europe, where the development function of the public authorities has traditionally been stronger, the use of a comprehensive urban land policy is more wide-spread. Cities are invested with wider powers for the usage of this tool if they officially declare their commitment to start and – partially – finance complex urban projects, e.g. urban renewal, development of agrarian land. By purchasing, temporarily taking over land communities are put in a better position to enforce public claims through private contracts with developers and also to recapture at least a part of the betterment. Finally, it is pointed out that the development function of planning has been diminished in Hungary after the changes and proposals are made for the introduction of some tools discussed.

Australian Capital City Property Development, Foreign Investment and Investor Attitudes

Recently there has been a substantial change in the role of foreign investment in urban property development in Australia. Now, about 50% of foreign investment each year is directed to urban property sectors, with Asian investors accounting for approaching 50% of this investment. This trend has coincided with the re‐emergence of the property development sector from the trough of a recession in the early 1970s to something approaching a boom in the last two to three years. While there are considerable variations in the performance and prospects of the various capital city property markets, Australia is seen in general terms as being a favourable place for foreign investment in urban property development, particularly as a destination for long term equity investment. This paper examines recent trends in capital city property markets in Australia, and in particular the increasing importance of foreign investors. It also discusses the results of a national survey of property developers, investors and intermediaries, and investors, both local and foreign, and reports on their attitudes towards the various capital city property markets, and their investment behaviours. Attitudes towards the Foreign Investment Review Board (FIRB) guidelines and controls are examined, and it is suggested that there is room for further substantial deregulation to encourage direct foreign investment in Australian urban property development.