Real estate capital flows and transitional economies

reign real estate capital was a major source of financing domestic property market office construction in Central Europe after the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989. During the 1990s, over 800 office buildings were either newly constructed or refurbished in Budapest, Prague and Warsaw. The primary focus of this analysis is explaining the spatial construction and redevelopment patterns of the post-1989 office buildings in these cities. Secondarily, we analyze the correlation of foreign direct investment flows to annual construction of office buildings. We seek to explain the location of new or refurbished office buildings in the central business district (CBD) or in non-CBD locations in terms of the effect of time, size of property and other variables, and test whether there is a positive correlation relationship of foreign direct investment flows and new office construction or refurbishment. Integrating relevant foreign direct investment (FDI), economic geography and property theories in the research, the authors attempt to bridge existing gaps in the literature

High quality indoor environments for sustainable office buildings

The quality of office indoor environments is considered to consist of those factors that impact occupants according to their health and well-being and (by consequence) their productivity. Indoor Environment Quality (IEQ) can be characterized by four indicators: • Indoor air quality indicators • Thermal comfort indicators • Lighting indicators • Noise indicators. Within each indicator, there are specific metrics that can be utilized in determining an acceptable quality of an indoor environment based on existing knowledge and best practice. Examples of these metrics are: indoor air levels of pollutants or odorants; operative temperature and its control; radiant asymmetry; task lighting; glare; ambient noise. The way in which these metrics impact occupants is not fully understood, especially when multiple metrics may interact in their impacts. While the potential cost of lost productivity from poor IEQ has been estimated to exceed building operation costs, the level of impact and the relative significance of the above four indicators are largely unknown. However, they are key factors in the sustainable operation or refurbishment of office buildings. This paper presents a methodology for assessing indoor environment quality (IEQ) in office buildings, and indicators with related metrics for high performance and occupant comfort. These are intended for integration into the specification of sustainable office buildings as key factors to ensure a high degree of occupant habitability, without this being impaired by other sustainability factors. The assessment methodology was applied in a case study on IEQ in Australia’s first ‘six star’ sustainable office building, Council House 2 (CH2), located in the centre of Melbourne. The CH2 building was designed and built with specific focus on sustainability and the provision of a high quality indoor environment for occupants. Actual IEQ performance was assessed in this study by field assessment after construction and occupancy. For comparison, the methodology was applied to a 30 year old conventional building adjacent to CH2 which housed the same or similar occupants and activities. The impact of IEQ on occupant productivity will be reported in a separate future pape

Real Estate Capital Flows and Transitional Economies

Foreign real estate capital was a major source of financing domestic property market office construction in Central Europe after the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989.  During the 1990s, over 800 office buildings were either newly constructed or refurbished in Budapest, Prague and Warsaw.  The primary focus of this analysis is explaining the spatial construction and redevelopment patterns of the post-1989 office buildings in these cities.  Secondarily, we analyze the correlation of foreign direct investment flows to annual construction of office buildings.  We seek to explain the location of new or refurbished office buildings in the central business district (CBD) or in non-CBD locations in terms of the effect of time, size of property and other variables, and test whether there is a positive correlation relationship of foreign direct investment flows and new office construction or refurbishment. Integrating relevant foreign direct investment (FDI), economic geography and property theories in the research, the authors attempt to bridge existing gaps in the literature.Transitional Economies, Office Construction, Foreign Direct Investment, Capital Flows

Empty spaces: are Texas office markets on the road to recovery?

Real property ; Office buildings

Office building boom and bust

Office buildings ; Real property ; Property tax

Repositioning Manhattan office buildings

Thesis (M.S.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Urban Studies and Planning, 1989.Includes bibliographical references (leaves 129-131).by Lesley D. Cummin and Andrew H. Popik.M.S

The relevance of lean thinking to sustainable improvement of public office buildings in Nigeria

This study looked into the relevance of lean thinking, particularly the application of muda as a supplement to the sustainable improvement diagnosis technique of existing office buildings, for a fuller assessment of user's requirement in Nigeria. The impact of muda as related to the triple bottom line of sustainable development on perceived job productivity and design features was estimated from end-user's perspective, using diagnostic POE as data acquiring tool while the confirmatory analysis was done through AMOS, SPSS and MS Excel to explain the relationship between the different variables. The findings showed that muda is inherent in public office buildings and it has highly significant causal effects of 0.66 and 0.76, respectively on perceived job productivity and design features; it also has strong effect sizes of 44 and 58% in explaining both their variances, respectively. The result revealed that users require more improvement in facilities as against spatial plan and structures while there is a medium and positive correlation of 0.48 between perceived job productivity and design features implying that the improvement of one will consequently lead to the improvement of the other. The study concludes that lean thinking is relevant to building improvement and could serve as good supplement to the current improvement diagnosis of existing public office buildings but not as a substitute since data were only collected from users who are not able to provide the required technical data that would otherwise warrant use of equipment

Structural Systems for Office Buildings.

There are many ways to construct a building. The designing team, structural engineers and architects, works together to find the best possible solution that will fulfill the owner’s whishes. In this process a structural system needs to be chosen. There are many factors that affect the selection of the structural system, but generally the most economical system is chosen. The factors that need to be considered are related to the cost and the requirements for the building, respectively. The objective of this thesis is to study the structural systems for office buildings that are available on the market and how well they fit the factors that need to be considered. Different structural members are combined to form the structural system. Structural systems are divided to sub-systems; vertical force resisting elements, floor systems, horizontal force resisting elements. Structural members vary in many different ways such as material, dimensions, and behavior. In conclusion, the selection of a structural system depends on availability, economics, experience, and tradition. The market is different in many countries and therefore there is a tradition for using a certain type of structural system. However, it is important to be open for trying new solutions and learn from other countries in the field of construction. Concrete, steel and composite systems can all be designed to meet the requirements. The designer needs to know the structural members that are available and make a comparison after studying the layout of the building. Then the structural system can be chosen