Real Estate Ownership Research Articles

The REIT Conversion Puzzle

Real Estate Investment Trusts (REITs) are a globally recognized form of real estate ownership that offer tax benefits at a corporate level. Despite their clear advantages, however, a significant share of potentially eligible Real Estate Operating Companies (REOCs) do not opt for conversion to a REIT structure. This paper examines 80 REOC-to-REIT conversions across 13 countries. We find REIT conversions are generally driven by the extent of country-specific tax benefits. They are also more likely following prior conversions by other REOCs, and in countries with a larger share of extant REITs. REIT conversions may be motivated by Net Asset Value (NAV) discounts, especially if management’s compensation is highly equity-based. This illustrates the importance of aligning the interests of management and shareholders. On the other hand, relatively restrictive REIT criteria, such as the disclosure and taxation of hidden values during the conversion process, are associated with significantly lower conversion probabilities. Countries that have eased REIT criteria have subsequently seen significantly more conversions.

Can Housing Assets Affect the Chinese Residents' Willingness to Pay for Green Housing?

As the development trend of the future housing field, green housing is an effective way to reduce pollution, save energy, and promote industrial upgrading. At the same time, the green house is of great significance to change the development mode of the construction industry and promote the sustainable development of the social economy. This study proposes a comprehensive research model to examine the influencing mechanism of residents’ intention to purchase green buildings. The proposed model is empirically tested using data collected from 1,338 urban residents in China. Based on logit, probit, and ivprobit models, factors such as personal characteristics, housing price, and the number of real estate ownership are selected to conduct empirical analysis and mechanism analysis on willingness that affects consumers’ purchase of green houses. The results show that housing assets significantly affect the willingness of householders to pay for green houses. The more houses they own, the higher their willingness to pay for a green house will be. Similarly, if the housing prices are higher, householders are more willing to buy a green house. The amount of housing assets will affect the willingness of householders to pay for green housing through the way of individual happiness. In terms of the characteristics of the householder, if the householder is more educated, unmarried, his willingness to buy a green house will be stronger, and owning housing assets may affect the individual happiness due to the housing wealth effect brought by rising housing prices. People with more housing assets are more likely to have the happiness brought by higher wealth, which may affect the purchase intention of householders.

Smart Contract Application for Managing Land Administration System Transactions

Land administration systems are of great importance for a large number of stakeholders. One of the key problems related to land administration systems is the problem of the correctness of their state, meaning that data stored in land administration systems are not in concordance with the actual legal, spatial and topographic situation. The main causes of land administration systems’ incorrect state are data collection and compilation, data processing, and data misuse. In this paper, we discuss the problems of data tampering, the long time needed for registering land administration system’s transactions, and the possibility of double spending, which all can add incorrectness in a land administration system. Our research is based on the hypothesis that these problems may be addressed by means of distributed ledger technology, or to be more precise, by means of blockchain technology. The solution is presented in a form of a smart contract written in Solidity programing language that can cover even those more specific use cases in land administration systems such as sharing of ownership, transferring part of ownership, splitting or merging of real estate, and limiting the possibility of trading a real estate. The proposed smart contract represents an implementation of a programming interface that was created based on both ERC-20 and ERC-721 token standards, to satisfy the specific needs of land administration systems.

Homes Incorporated: Offshore Ownership of Real Estate in the U.K

Homes Incorporated: Offshore Ownership of Real Estate in the U.K

Who Owns Urban America? A Methodology for Identifying Real Estate Owners

Who Owns Urban America? A Methodology for Identifying Real Estate Owners

THE SIGNIFICANCE OF INTENT ON ZAKATABLE REAL ESTATE: A JURISTIC ANALYSIS

Real estate remains one of the most significant properties for personal use and investment purposes. Individual institutions and corporate bodies operate on real estate properties. In recent times, there have been several concerns among zakatable individuals and organizations on the shariah criteria for identifying zakatable real estate properties because of the difference between assets for personal use and commercial purposes. There is 'arūd tijārah (commodities for sale) such as real estate, land, car, and goods in real estate investment. On the other hand, 'arūd quniyyah, (durable properties) are intended for personal use such as a private house, private car, private vacation home. This study aims to conceptually analyze the concept of intention in Islam and its juristic interpretations to distinguish between zakatable and non- zakatable real estate properties. This study relies on the inductive approach in gathering and arranging data from classical and modern literature. It also uses the descriptive method in explaining the basic terms in the research. The study found that real estate owners' intent influences the asset's zakat status. First, 'arūd quniyyah (real estate) are durable assets, meant for personal use, are Zakat free, while the real 'arūd tijārah (estate commercial assets) are subject to Zakat. The commercial assets can also be for sale and rental. The study finally suggests that zakat calculations of zakatable real estate should be subjected to supervision and validation of competent contemporary Shariah scholars to ascertain juristic position on the distinctions between zakatable and non-zakatable assets.

A Comparative Study between China's Real Estate Ownership Tax System and Hong Kong and Taiwan

1949년 10월 1일, 중국은 성립 초기부터 부동산보유세에 대한 입법을 시작하였으며 1986년 국무원에서 「방산세임시조례」(房産稅暫行條例)를 통과하였다. 또한 1988년에는 「도시토지사용세임시조례」(城鎭土地使用稅暫行條例)를 통과하였다. 이는 개혁개방 이후 중국에서 새로운 부동산보유세에 대한 법률제도가 건립되기 시작하였음을 의미한다. 또한 개혁개방이후 빈부격차가 날로 심화되고 부의 비중에서도 부동산이 차지하는 비중이 상당히 높아지고 있다. 이에 반면 현재 중국에서 재산세의 한 종류인 부동산보유세의 제도설계가 제대로 돼 있지 않았다. 중국의 현행 세목 중 재산세는 방산세(房産稅), 취득세(契稅), 차선세(車船稅) 정도여서 중국의 빈부격차를 조절하는 데 한계가 있다. 부동산세제의 설계는 주민들의 중국 부동산보유에 따른 빈부격차를 조절하는데 의미가 있다. 2003년부터 제출되기 시작한 물업세(物業稅)로부터 2011년 1월 28일 상하이와 충칭 두 시에서 실시된 방산세(房産稅)는 2015년에 이르러 방지산세(房地産稅)라고 이름을 바뀌었다. 하지만 이러한 부동산보유세의 본질은 모두 개인주택 보유에 대해 부과하는 보유세이다. 또한 중국에는 아직 개인소유의 비사업용 주택에 대한 보유세를 전면적으로 징수하지 않았다. 이는 또한 사회의 불공정을 초래하였으며 이로서 부동산 조세제도로 부의 재분배 기능을 요구하고 있다. 그리하여 2011년부터 상하이와 충칭에서는 부동산보유세를 도입하였다. 이번 개혁의 핵심은 주민의 개인주택 보유단계에 대한 부동산보유세의 부과이다. 또한 현재는 오직 상하이와 충칭에서만 소규모적으로 시범이 있을 뿐 다른 지역에는 아직 부과되지 않았다. 하지만 2021년 10월, 전국인민대표대회상무위원회에서는 국무원에 부분 지역에 대한 방지산세(房地産稅)개혁에 대한 시범을 수권하였다. 이로써 향후 중국에서는 점차적으로 더 많은 도시에 부동산보유세를 도입할 것이다. 따라서 이 글은 실시된 현 시범 도시의 부동산보유세와 대만과 홍콩의 부동산보유세제에 대한 비교･분석을 통하여 차후 시범 도시의 부동산보유세제에 대한 시사점을 제시하여 부동산 시장을 더 잘 지원하고 감독하는 기능을 담당하게 하고자 한다.

MEASUREMENT OF THE LEVEL OF ECONOMIC SECURITY OF ENTERPRISES BY THE INDICATOR OF THE ATTRACTIVENESS FOR HOSTILE TAKEOVERS

The article deals with the assessment of economic security by a number of factors that reflect the probability of proxy battle. In recent decades, the number of such acquisitions in Ukraine has increased significantly, which seriously reduces the level of economic security of economic entities both at the microeconomic level, and at the level of sectors of the economy, as well as the entire economic system of the country. The purpose of the study was to determine the possible impact on the economic security of the enterprise (which is proposed to be determined by a multifactor indicator of the attractiveness of enterprises for raiders) factors of financial stability, reputation, business model efficiency and attractiveness to potential buyers. The methods used in the study are as follows: generalization, grouping, systematization, and content analysis (to identify factors that could potentially signal the threat of a hostile acquisition); correlation and regression analysis (to determine from the totality of factors that have the greatest impact on economic security), the method of theoretical generalization (to identify the approaches of various scholars and scientific schools to issues of economic security and raiding); comparative (to determine the state of economic security of the enterprises under study in different years). As a result, the authors propose an integral indicator of the economic security of the enterprise, which makes it possible to identify the potential attractiveness of the enterprise for raiders. It consists of the following components: profitability (determines the effectiveness of the business model), autonomy ratio (determines the financial stability), ownership of real estate in the city center (resale), reputation (delays in fulfilling contractual obligations). Content analysis of economic security factors of enterprises was conducted according to the data on the raiding seizures of Ukrainian enterprises of all industries and activities, and the Economic Security Indicator was created on the basis of materials of Ukrainian construction companies. However, the methodological approach proposed in the article can be used to identify threats to the loss of economic security by enterprises of any sector of the economy, subject to the adaptation of the model to industry specifics. The use of the created indicator cannot replace the full-fledged system of monitoring the economic security of the enterprise and identifying threats to further activities, but it can be used as an indicator of express-diagnostics of economic security of the enterprise and making decisions on in-depth study of economic security to identify adverse factors delight.

Legal nature of spontaneous construction as a complex category: questions of theory and practice

The article is devoted to the problems of spontaneous construction in comparing the public interest in ensuring the sustainability of civil turnover, the introduction of as much property as possible through the elimination of certain defective legal regimes, as well as private interests of landowners, developers and some other participants in civil turnover (customers, contractors, equity investors, etc.). The approach to defining the essence of unauthorized construction as a way to acquire ownership of certain real estate, which has certain defects in the identification process, as well as in terms of behavioral and object perception of this legal phenomenon is determined. It is established that in the legislation of the European Union there is a perception of the property law (Germany, Austria) and the binding legal law (France) model of the legal nature of spontaneous construction. Ukrainian legislation reproduces the features of both models within the Civil Code of Ukraine and special regulations. It is emphasized that the law-making legal fact for the recognition of the relevant real right to unauthorized construction is a court decision or a decision of an administrative body. At the same time, in order for the emergence of property rights, the case law does not in any way level the existence of the procedure for putting immovable property into civil circulation. The judicial practice and the development of the science of civil law are analyzed, on the basis of which it is concluded that the current approach, which differentiates construction activities, endowed with signs of unauthorized construction, where the determinants are the place of its holding, the volume and quality characteristics associated with the lawful or illegal use of land. Given the behavioral or objective perception of the legal nature of unauthorized construction, an analysis of the case law of courts of various instances, resulting in the own vision of resolving legal situations to regulate public relations for unauthorized construction depending on the legal status of entities claiming to legitimize it, or the legal regime of such property. According to the results of the study of the content of the draft Concept of renewal of the Civil Code of Ukraine, attention was drawn to the prospects for further improvements in the legal regulation of civil relations in relation to unauthorized construction.

From the Napoleonic domination until Italian Unity: legal restrictions and innovations for the Jewish Community of Mondovì

The documents conserved in the Terracini Jewish Archive of Turin allow the reader to examine the application of the legislation concerning Jewish communities during the period of time starting from the Napoleonic domination until the Italian unity. My research focuses in particular on the notarial deeds and judicial documents relating to the property of the synagogue and the cemetery of the Jewish community of Mondovì. Under the rule of France the Jewish people living in Piedmont were allowed to become real estate owners and the plots of land where the Jewish cemetery was located and the house that hosted the synagogue in Mondovì were allotted to the Jewish community. During the Restoration, the ban to become real estate property was introduced again. Even if the Jewish people of Mondovì had bought from its owner the house of the synagogue and they had obtained from the French administration the property of the plots of land of the cemetery, they were not anymore recognized as owners. After the emancipation of the Jewish population and the Italian unity, the Jewish community of Mondovì claimed its rights on those real estate properties: my essay would focus on the exam of the archive documents that show how the legislation concerning real estate property for Jewish people was applied over time.

Legal-comparative aspects of expropriations on the example of legal regulations in Georgia and Poland

In both the countries, i.e. Poland and Georgia, administrative bodies carry out expropriations not only on the basis of individual administrative acts, in accordance with the classic concept of expropriation, but also through planning acts. Derogation from this right in whole or in part is therefore a consequence of legal action of the administration. In the case of expropriation, deprivation of property may in fact “result from actions by the state which, although not directly aimed at depriving the owner of its property rights (in other words, as a result of which the owner does not lose their legal title to the property), yet they have the same effect, not only in fact, but also in law, as expropriation in the formal sense” . However, such significant public interference is not considered expropriation and is therefore not accompanied by any adequate compensation. In its jurisprudence, the European Court of Human Rights regularly emphasises that in order to assess whether an expropriation has taken place, one should rely not only on formal but also material considerations, and the limitation on the possibility of exercising this right by the local spatial development plan meets the conditions for interference with the ownership of real estate within the meaning of Article 1 of Protocol No. 1 to the European Convention on Human Rights.

Real estate ownership law instrumentalization in polish financial law

Instrumentalization is an interdisciplinary issue, both in terms of normative and sociological issues, as well as in terms of law making, including the rationality of the legislator. The concept of instrumentalisation was created based on the instrumentality of the law. This feature allows law to be used to achieve goals and perform tasks that are relevant to the person using it. The aim of the article is to present the particular importance of instrumentalisation for shaping the norms of financial (tax) law, when their subject matter is real estate ownership.

Selected legal issues related to agricultural real estate during the COVID-19 pandemic

The aim of the article was to determine whether, during the COVID-19 pandemic, the provisions on agricultural real estate, including those contained in the Act of April 11, 2003 on shaping the agricultural system (hereinafter UKUR), matched the socio-economic needs. Secondly, whether and to what extent agricultural producers running agricultural activity on agricultural real estate obtained additional aid due to the epidemic. First, the considerations focus on the acquisition of agricultural real estate with an area of up to 1 ha and often used for the construction of a house with a home garden. Reference is also made to the statistical data on the exercise of the pre-emption right and the acquisition by the National Center for Agricultural Support. Subsequently, the issue of ensuring food and food security in times of the pandemic is indicated to be of greater importance in the context of the obligations of the owners of agricultural real estate, including running a farm for 5 to 15 years after its acquisition. Next, the considerations focus on state support for agricultural producers during the COVID-19 pandemic, referring to lease tenders conducted by the National Center for Agricultural Support, the rules for paying tax, EU aid and benefits granted to agricultural producers in relation to the COVID-19 pandemic. Finally, the problem of making investments in renewable energy on agricultural land and concluded lease agreements is discussed.

Tokenisation of corporate real estate on the blockchain : New strategies for corporate ownership and financial management

Real estate tokenisation is the process of creating a digital asset that represents ownership rights in a physical or digital asset, such as a physical property or real estate fund, on a blockchain-based system. Features of a ‘token-based economy’ on the blockchain can quicken the transformation of corporate real estate (CRE) ownership by flipping the equity and liquidity paradigm that traditionally plagues investment. For example, by providing new financial infrastructure for private secondary markets, the token economy taps global capital markets to provide an important liquidity option that was not previously available for privately held CRE assets. Separately, security tokens used together with programmable algorithms, also known as ‘smart contracts’, bring about unprecedented levels of connectivity and programmability that enhance CRE financial management, thereby removing much of the costly inefficiencies found in traditional systems. Industry experts agree that the digitisation of CRE on the blockchain — comprising tokenised real estate assets and smart contracts working off digital ledger technology — will bring about unprecedented levels of benefit to the CRE industry and the wider general economy. The impact of CRE tokenisation must not be studied in isolation, however, but within a greater perspective of ongoing industry themes. The Fourth Industrial Revolution (Industry 4.0) is driving disruptive change across all industries by fundamentally changing the way business models operate. By extension, this influences corporate motivations for how much CRE ownership is needed in the future. Separately, the continued shift towards privatisation instead of public listings over the last two decades have implications for how companies access capital markets, and consequently, how working capital in CRE asset portfolios can be recycled. This paper explores the disruptive benefits that the tokenisation of real estate on the blockchain brings to the CRE industry, in linkage with these overarching industry themes, with the aim of adding cross-disciplinary insight to the literature.

Vindication of Real Estate: The Stage of Building a General Vindication Model for the Protection of Violated Absolute Rights

The article considers the legal structure of vindication of real estate developed in Russian science and practice. Protection of the rights of the owner of real estate who has lost possession and is not registered in the Unified State Register of Real Estate (EGRN) is carried out by filing two lawsuits in court: for recognition of the right of ownership and vindication. Due to the peculiarities of the statute of limitations, in Russian practice, the priority of actual ownership of real estate over the records of ownership in the Unified State Register of Legal Entities is established. The need to combine the two claims is caused by their possible competition in connection with the application to each claim of its own rules on the validity of the statute of limitations. The refusal to extend the limitation period to the vindication claim for the return of ownership should lead to the establishment of only one claim within the framework of the method of protecting the violated rights of the owner to real estate – vindication. An independent claim for recognition of the right in this situation seems redundant. Its necessity is caused by an attempt to apply the German model of protection of the violated rights of the owner of real estate, where the impossibility of vindication is due to the high level of public reliability of entries in the register. In modern Russia, the position of complete denial of vindication of real estate is not supported by the consistent implementation of the principle of irrevocability of rights registered in state registers. At the same time, the construction of a claim for the protection of the rights of the owner of real estate allows us to take the first step towards the development of a vindication model for the protection of any absolute right, the elements of which are the requirement to recognize the right and the requirement to restore the legitimation of the right holder.

Ключевые стейкхолдеры рынка градостроительного проектирования и их предпочтения при выборе проектной организации

The article examines the interests and concerns of various groups of stakeholders in the urban planning design market influencing the choice of a contractor. The selected market is characterized by a significant decision magnitude, usually involves many groups of stakeholders, and often determines the long-term development of cities. The aim of the article is to identify the interests of key stakeholders in urban planning design market, factors that are significant for the selected groups of stakeholders when choosing a contractor, and to provide recommendations for promotional strategy for the considered groups of customers. The theoretical review identifies more than 150 factors that influence the choice of a contractor on b2b market, they are further divided according to the underlying principles of choosing a partner from decision-maker’s viewpoint. Based on the interviews conducted, we determine the main groups of stakeholders who influence or are influenced by the urban planning design decisions. The field study revealed significant differences in preferences among various groups of stakeholders of project organizations: developers, authorities, other project bureaus, real estate owners, management companies. The preferences also differ based on the size of the company. As a result, we have developed recommendations for dealing with different groups of stakeholders based on the identified preferences, decision-makers, as well as possible directions of a company’s differentiation. The structure of the article consists of the theoretical overview of previously conducted research of factors influencing the contractor choice in the industrial markets and finding ways to harmonize the interests of different stakeholders, after that the field research has been done of experts and decision-makers of choosing a proper partner in the planning design market. Finally, the authors offer recommendations that can focus the marketing strategy of project design companies in the urban planning industry. The article would be of interest not only for companies in the urban planning design market but also for all companies in the industrial market that face the contradictory interests of various groups of stakeholders.

A New Wave of Urban Sprawl: Influence of Autonomous Vehicles in the Policy Toolkit of U.S. Local Governments

Relatively inexpensive vehicles and public policies that favored a vehicle-centric infrastructure facilitated the movement of families from the confines of urban centers to the periphery of cities in the twentieth century. This phenomenon became known as the first wave of urban sprawl. Its negative effects inspired local policymakers to develop a playbook to fight it, including measures such as zoning and pricing mechanisms directed at commuters, developers, and real estate owners. The advent of autonomous vehicles (AV’s) in the twenty-first century promises to benefit society in many ways, including reducing congestion and improved access to transportation. Alternatively, it may also instigate a new sprawl that jeopardizes the most important source of local government revenue, property taxes. Using scenario development, this article explores the consequences of a future where residents are willing to trade their AV-generated time savings for homes outside of their local government’s jurisdiction, depriving this entity of valuable property tax revenue. It examines how the U.S. policy playbook developed to curtail the first generation of urban sprawl fares in limiting the revenue repercussions of a theoretic AV-induced sprawl.

Association between livelihood capital and catastrophic health expenditure among patients with critical illness: a cross-sectional study in rural Shandong, China

ObjectiveThe objective of this study is to examine the association between livelihood capital and catastrophic health expenditure (CHE).DesignBetween July and August 2019, a cross-sectional study was conducted in critically ill...

THE ESTABLISHMENT AND DEVELOPMENT OF RIGHT REGULATION OF THE INSTITUTE REGISTRATION OF REAL PROPERTY RIGHTS ON THE UKRAINE’S LAND TILL TO FIRST PART XVII CENTURY

This article goes out to historical analysis of obtaining real property right and developing legal regulation of registration real property right from the time of Kyiv Rus till to middle of XVIII century on modern Ukraine’s territory. The mentioned historical legal analysis contains a chronological order of legal evolution of real property rights from its foundation by the legislation of Kyiv Rus, developing during the time of Galicia-Lithuanian domain, improving Rzeczpospolita by its lawyers, and implementing the communal forms of ownership of real estate during Cossacks. The author analyzed the historical way of develops of legal regulation of real property rights on Ukraine’s land by comparison of historic legal, systematic structural, and logical legal methods. Depending on the government’s system and political situation, it was changed social relationships above objects of real properties. The classification of the objects to movable and real property was pursued gradually, with the term “ownership” was disconnected from the term “possession”, it appeared an emergency of the modern conception of the composition of the property rights (the possession and the using). It is creating the concept of registration of real property rights, as the mechanism of recognition and confirmation of the fact of changing the property rights which remotely identify the mechanism such registration. Therefore, with help from this scientific research was established that the term “property rights” and its composition were formed during a long period of time and influence by a lot of factors. Depending on the government’s system the conception of registration of real property rights many times changed with a way of obtaining such rights. And if on the beginning the nidification of the property rights or changing this property rights regulated by customary law, then beginning from the acceptance the Statutes of Lithuania such regulation was made by written laws (laws).

Preface: Gerald Korngold and Paul Goldstein, Real Estate Transactions: Cases and Materials on Land Transfer, Development and Finance (7th Ed. 2021)

This new edition of Korngold and Goldstein, Real Estate Transactions: Cases and Materials on Land Transfer, Development and Finance examines both foundational doctrines and emerging trends in real estate lawyering. In particular, the book considers the effects of recent events on the practice of real estate law; such events include the financial and mortgage crisis, advances in technology, a growing focus on racial equity in real estate ownership and access to funding, the greening of real estate investing and operations, the major reshaping of the retail sector and its footprint, and the COVID-19 pandemic. The book also emphasizes a transactional approach. Successful real estate lawyers seek to represent their client's interests while working to align the interests of the various parties to the deal. In this way, people can come together and close a transaction that will serve all of their goals, at least well enough. Rather than focusing on litigating pathological transactions, students are asked to approach the materials in the book and accompanying supplement from a planning and forward-looking perspective. Using forms in the supplement and materials in the notes following the readings, the students are challenged to consider how deals would have come out differently if alternative documents had been used. They are also asked how they would have altered the presented documents to get a better result for clients. The book underscores that command of fundamental legal principles, an understanding of the influence of changes in the economic, business, social, and technological contexts, and a transactional mindset are essential for mastery of the field of real estate law.