The value of rental deposits

PurposeThis paper has two aims: to consider the negotiating strength of landlords and tenants in lease negotiations; and to calculate the level of deposit which is necessary to mitigate income risk.Design/methodology/approachThe paper reviews the existing literature on the negotiation strength between landlords and tenants in different stages of the property cycle; investigates the well established deposit system in South Korea for lessons that might be applied in the UK; estimates the appropriate level of deposit using simulation methodology, given different states of the market; and places the contractual arrangement in a legal framework.FindingsEvidence from the Seoul office market suggests that deposits can be very effective in protecting income return. In the UK during the down phase of the cycle, when supply of space exceeds demand and business conditions are uncertain, tenants are unwilling to pay deposits and landlords are more inclined to offer incentives in a bid to get the property let, even though the down phase is exactly the time when a deposit system is needed most. Landlords should be looking through the cycle and insisting that deposits are paid at the height of the market when their bargaining strength is stronger. The deposit should be sufficient to cover the probability of income loss in the down phase of the cycle. Based on market evidence in 2009, the amount of the deposit should be equal to at least 15 months rent.Practical implicationsThe stability of the income return is one of the key features of real estate both as an investment and as security. The use of rental deposits is a practical and straightforward way of hedging the risk. The paper estimates the amount of deposit required and provides guidance on the key heads of terms, which should be included in a deposit agreement.Originality/valueThe estimation of rental deposits has very little coverage in the literature. At a time when income return is under pressure landlords need to be fully aware of the benefits of the deposit system and the key factors that need to be considered when estimating the amount of deposit necessary to offset tenant default risk.</jats:sec

Does the Development Discourse Learn from History?

What is the nature and extent of historical awareness in the development discourse? Does the development discourse learn from history, including its own? Set in the contexts of aging development institutions and a changing geopolitical climate, this paper provides one account through a historiographical survey of 136 journal articles across 10 leading development journals. It uncovers a substantial body of works, which offer descriptive histories, derivative lessons, and historiographical critiques. Altogether, they evidence two modes in which the development discourse attempts to learn from history. The first lies in the proactive use of external histories as empirical evidence for a variety of development issues. This is the predominant mode exhibited in the survey. A second mode lies in the use of internal histories of the development discourse, itself. Here, the survey finds a number of noteworthy but largely disparate efforts. This suggests a relative dearth in historiographical self-consciousness for a narrow but influential segment of the development discourse. A number of consequences are considered, ultimately responding to the legitimacy, efficacy, and sustainability of development action. In sum, our survey finds that the mainstream development journal discourse is adept at learning from external histories, but not necessarily from its own. Evidence, however, suggests that it can. A case is made for why it must

The challenges of providing eye care for adults with intellectual disabilities

This review is intended to raise awareness of the importance of providing high-quality eye care for people with intellectual disabilities and the increasing need for this eye care to be community-based. We describe the challenges to the provision of high-quality community-based eye care for people with intellectual disabilities and ideas, evidence and methods for overcoming them. The prevalence of visual impairment in people with intellectual disabilities has been reported to be at least 40 per cent, rising to as high as 100 per cent in those with profound and severe disabilities. A progressive move toward deinstitutionalisation has shifted the provision of care for people with intellectual disabilities. Individuals can have the freedom to access health-care services of their choice. This has posed challenges to the health-care system, including how to deliver high-quality community-based eye care, creating a current significant unmet need for eye-care services. Undiagnosed refractive error and under-prescription of spectacles are major reasons for avoidable visual impairment among people with disabilities. There is an apparent reluctance of optometrists to engage in this work due to the perceived difficulties of working with people with intellectual and multiple disabilities. There are challenges associated with diagnosis and management of ocular conditions in people with intellectual disabilities and the demand is clear. Small shifts in training, knowledge and awareness would place optometry well to meet the challenges of this specialised area of eye care

Adiposity and carotid-intima media thickness in children and adolescents: a systematic review.

BACKGROUND: Adiposity in childhood is associated with later cardiovascular disease (CVD), but it is unclear whether this relationship is independent of other risk factors experienced in later life, such as smoking and hypertension. Carotid-intima media thickness (cIMT) is a measure of subclinical atherosclerosis that may be used to assess CVD risk in young people. The aim of this study was to examine the relationship between adiposity and cIMT in children and adolescents. METHODS: We searched Medline, Embase, Global Health, and CINAHL Plus electronic databases (1980–2014). Population-based observational studies that reported a measure of association between objectively-measured adiposity and cIMT in childhood were included in this review. RESULTS: Twenty-two cross-sectional studies were included (n = 7,366 children and adolescents). Thirteen of nineteen studies conducted in adolescent populations (mean age ≥12 years, n = 5,986) reported positive associations between cIMT and adiposity measures (correlation coefficients 0.13 to 0.59). Three studies of pre-adolescent populations (n = 1,380) reported mixed evidence, two studies finding no evidence of a correlation, and one an inverse relationship between skinfolds and cIMT. Included studies did not report an adiposity threshold for subclinical atherosclerosis. CONCLUSIONS: Based on studies conducted mostly in Western Europe and the US, adiposity does not appear to be associated with cIMT in pre-adolescents, but may be associated in adolescents. If further studies confirm these findings, a focus on cardiovascular disease prevention efforts in pre-adolescence, before arterial changes have emerged, may be justified

Towards the “ultimate earthquake-proof” building: Development of an integrated low-damage system

The 2010–2011 Canterbury earthquake sequence has highlighted the severe mismatch between societal expectations over the reality of seismic performance of modern buildings. A paradigm shift in performance-based design criteria and objectives towards damage-control or low-damage design philosophy and technologies is urgently required. The increased awareness by the general public, tenants, building owners, territorial authorities as well as (re)insurers, of the severe socio-economic impacts of moderate-strong earthquakes in terms of damage/dollars/ downtime, has indeed stimulated and facilitated the wider acceptance and implementation of cost-efficient damage-control (or low-damage) technologies. The ‘bar’ has been raised significantly with the request to fast-track the development of what the wider general public would hope, and somehow expect, to live in, i.e. an “earthquake-proof” building system, capable of sustaining the shaking of a severe earthquake basically unscathed. The paper provides an overview of recent advances through extensive research, carried out at the University of Canterbury in the past decade towards the development of a low-damage building system as a whole, within an integrated performance-based framework, including the skeleton of the superstructure, the non-structural components and the interaction with the soil/foundation system. Examples of real on site-applications of such technology in New Zealand, using concrete, timber (engineered wood), steel or a combination of these materials, and featuring some of the latest innovative technical solutions developed in the laboratory are presented as examples of successful transfer of performance-based seismic design approach and advanced technology from theory to practice