The world is changing – how can research react?

Citation

Kaleva, H. (2009), "The world is changing – how can research react?", Journal of European Real Estate Research, Vol. 2 No. 2. https://doi.org/10.1108/jerer.2009.35902baa.001

The world is changing – how can research react?

Article Type: Editorial From: Journal of European Real Estate Research, Volume 2, Issue 2

It is my great pleasure to welcome you to the latest issue of the Journal of European Real Estate Research (JERER). Now into its second year of production, JERER has already established a strong position in the European real estate research community’s agenda.

The current economic turmoil has changed our perceptions on the world profoundly. The crisis, which started in a seemingly niche part of the residential lending market has turned out to be one of the most severe economic shocks experienced in decades from which no economies in Europe or indeed the world have been immune.

One of the most fundamental tasks of research is to increase understanding of current and past events in order to be better prepared and make well-informed decisions for the future. During the past year, we have heard numerous celebrated economists talking about the impossibility of predicting the future in current market circumstances. Indeed, existing forecasting methods and techniques have not been able to shed light on the increasingly opaque future. This has raised discussions on the role and importance of research in a wider context. From a differing perspective, researchers have been criticised for their inability to foresee the current turbulence.

It is the research community’s challenge to adapt to the changing circumstances, respond to the increasing needs of the practitioners, and to learn the lessons of the changing market dynamics, the new types of relationships and interactions between economies, businesses and asset classes. During crises, it is often easier to make true and deep changes in the ways we behave, as there is an economic motivation and justification to question all past practices. Both property investment and occupation are probably currently undergoing a development, which may have a profound and long-term impact on how we own, manage, develop and use our buildings. “What”, “where” and “when” are the questions increasingly asked by decision makers, and the ones that researchers are expected to support answering.

In this issue of JERER, we are delighted to publish three of the prize winning papers from the 2008 European Real Estate Society Conference that was held in Krakow, Poland, in June 2008.

These papers are:

1. 1.

   Gerald Brown Memorial Prize for the Best Paper on Indirect Investment, sponsored by Emerald: “Performance of open-ended real estate funds in Germany: are institutional investors better off than retail investors” by Björn-Martin Kurzrock, Sebastian Gläsner and Elaine Wilke.

2. 2.

   IPD Prize for the Best Paper on Real Estate Portfolio Analysis: “How to evaluate risk for Italian real estate funds” by Claudio Giannotti and Gianluca Mattarocci.

3. 3.

   RICS Award for the Best Paper on Housing: “Housing supply and planning delay in the South of England” by Michael Ball, Phil Allmendinger and Cathy Hughes.

Looking at the topics of the research papers to be presented at the 17th European Real Estate Society Annual Conference in Stockholm in June 2009, there is appropriately a heavy emphasis on the current economic circumstances. Clearly, the research community is reacting to current events in its analysis of the reasons, drivers and potential outcomes of the turbulence.

Finally, I am happy and proud to inform our readers that Emerald has awarded European Real Estate Society (ERES) with their Publishing Partnership Award for 2009. From ERES’s point of view, this award is a great and highly appreciated recognition of the work done in order to increase the reach and quality of real estate research. The partnership between Emerald and ERES has been very rewarding and the ERES Board is happy to be engaged in this process which brings extensive benefits to our membership. Furthermore, it strengthens our belief that in launching the Journal, ERES will build upon the significant advances already made in European real research and provide a platform for on-going development with the wider community of real estate researchers and practitioners.

Hanna KalevaExecutive Director, Europeon Real Estate Society