PurposeThe study aims to comment upon the state of property education in Australia.Design/methodology/approachStatement of opinionFindingsProperty education in Australia is heading down a one-way dead-end roadResearch limitations/implicationsThis article is a statement of opinionPractical implicationsHighlights alternative forms of delivery for property education in AustraliaSocial implicationsConsiders property education delivery in context of current social environmentOriginality/valueStatement of opinion based in experience in academia and practice
PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to analyze chapters from the recently publishedRoutledge REITs Research Handbookto identify five major future directions for international equity REITs.Design/methodology/approachLiterature review and critical analysis of chapters from the recently publishedRoutledge REITs Research Handbook.FindingsThe five major future directions for international equity REITs are proposed to comprise an increasing focus on people and on cash flow rather than on property (with the cognitive risk attaching thereto), the changing nature of REITs as they respond to changes in society globally, the evolution of the global flagship REIT and the emergence of global regulation of REITs (particularly in the spheres of debt and leverage).Research limitations/implicationsWhile five major future directions for international equity REITs are identified which may have an impact on the risk/return profile, further research is required to determine which directions may be significant and which trivial and which may be independent and which interactive.Practical implicationsIdentification of five major future directions for international equity REITs provides managers and promoters with guidance concerning potential areas of focus for future product development in the REIT sector.Originality/valueWhile quantitative research concerning international equity REITS abounds, qualitative research is limited with little academic research undertaken into possible future directions for the sector.
Purpose The purpose of this paper is to explore compensation for compulsorily acquired businesses in the pre-statutory value to the owner regime compared to the post-statutory cost and loss to the owner regime.
Design/methodology/approach The study involved researching decisions of the NSW Land and Environment Court and appellate courts in the pre- and post-statutory regimes. It also involved the identification of value to owner compensation in pre-statutory decisions and comparison with costs and loss to owner compensation in post-statutory decisions.
Findings The study found that the few post-statutory decisions on disturbance compensation for compulsorily acquired businesses appear inconsistent with the provisions of the statute; however, the value vs cost debate has not yet been fully tested in the courts.
Research limitations/implications The research is limited by the number and types of cases brought before the primary court and the number and types of cases then brought before the appellate courts.
Practical implications With recent decisions in the post-statutory regime adopting a more clinical interpretation of the Act concerning other heads of claim for disturbance, future cases before the courts may be expected to have a greater focus on the value vs cost issue for compensation claims for compulsorily acquired businesses.
Social implications Compensation based on a clinical interpretation of cost or loss arising from the compulsory acquisition of a business in the post-statutory regime may result in inequitable compensation to the acquired party, failing the primary provision of the Act to justly compensate for the acquisition.
Originality/value While conceptual differences between cost and value were considered and distinguished long ago in the valuation discipline in Australia and overseas, this is the first time they have emerged in the legal discipline in Australia through specific statutory wording.
Purpose– The purpose of this paper is to investigate property investment decision making by Australian REITs.Design/methodology/approach– Through an extensive literature review, a normative model of the property investment decision-making process is proposed. Based on semi-structured interviews with senior Australian REIT decision makers, a descriptive model of the property investment decision-making process by Australian REITs is developed. The normative model and descriptive model are compared and a prescriptive model of the Australian REIT property investment decision-making process proposed.Findings– With the four stage, 20-step process proposed in the normative model found to be generally supported by the descriptive model developed, this may potentially comprise an effective prescriptive model for the Australian REIT property investment decision-making process.Research limitations/implications– Further research is required to investigate if the prescriptive model is generalisable across other property investment decision-making groups or over time and whether it may lead to "good" decisions.Practical implications– The prescriptive model proposed may contribute consistency and transparency to the decision-making process, if adopted by Australian REITs, potentially leading to better decisions.Social implications– Greater consistency and transparency in property investment decision making by Australian REITs may lead to the optimal allocation of capital and greater investor confidence in the sector.Originality/value– The findings comprise the first prescriptive model of the Australian REIT property investment decision-making process, forming a basis for comparative investigation of that process adopted by other property investment decision-making groups.
AbstractThe Conservatives privatised most of the UK's state‐owned industries during the 1980s and 1990s, but the Royal Mail remained under public ownership. It was privatised through a public flotation in early October 2013 when around 70 per cent of the company's shares were sold by the government. This paper looks at the reasons why the enterprise was not sold earlier. It especially focuses on the failed attempt to privatise it in 1993/4, although other occasions when privatisation was contemplated are mentioned. The discussion draws on government papers that are closed to the public under the 30‐year rule but to which the author had access as the UK government's Official Historian of Privatisation. The study demonstrates that in the past a combination of lukewarm support for privatisation at the prime ministerial level, concerns about the political consequences (including a possible revolt in Parliament), and trade union opposition proved decisive in preventing privatisation of the Royal Mail.
AbstractHeide Gerstenberger's book offers a comparative view of the origins and emergence of the bourgeois state in England and France. Both, according to her, emerged out of ancien-régime type structures which were themselves distinct from feudalism. Whilst recognising the value of Gerstenberger's attempt to avoid economic reductionism when explaining changing power-structures, it is suggested that analytical tools such as 'class', 'mode of production' and the 'state', which she confines to capitalism, do have considerable utility for the analysis of precapitalist régimes. More importantly, it is suggested that her attempt to maintain that in England, as in France, an ancien-régime type society endured at least to the end of the eighteenth century obscures the fundamentally divergent paths taken by the two countries. This is compounded by her rejection of the idea of a French absolutism and an underestimation of the extent to which power-structures in England were modified by the precocious development of capitalism. Whilst suggesting that a bourgeois public space was able to develop in the interstices of structures of the ancien régime, Gersternberger fails to recognise the extent to which this had transformed the English polity by the mid-seventeenth century.
This short article shows that Heller's assertion that I have announced the death of the early modern French bourgeoisie is misplaced. At the same time, it defends the view that a prolonged period of economic stasis together with the low level of bourgeois classness make it impossible to sustain Engel's view that absolute monarchy rested on a supposed balance between it and the nobility. In conclusion, it is suggested that Marxist analysis cannot be reduced to a treatment of class-anatogonisms.
