Understanding the Barriers to Real Estate Investment in Developing Economies

Abstract

In this paper we undertake a literature review to identify the barriers which inhibit international real estate investment.  We test our initial findings by questioning property investment professionals through semi-structured interviews.  By doing this we were able to verify our list of barriers, identify those barriers which are most likely to affect real estate investors, and to indicate whether there are any real estate-specific variables that create barriers which have not received any academic attention.  We show that distortions in international capital flows may be explained by a combination of these formal and informal barriers