One of the primary objectives of investment policies for retirement benefits funds especially DC schemes is to maximize the returns on investments within the risk constraints and levels acceptable to the board of trustees. Investments into the real estate sector by DC schemes has been growing over the last couple of years. This study addresses three critical questions. What is the growth rate of Real Estate Portfolios owned by DC Pension Schemes? What are the returns from Real Estate Porolios owned by DC Pension Schemes? Is the growth of Real Estate Portfolios based on return on investment?

Descriptive statistics will be performed on the data to summarize the variable data, therefore, facilitang its understanding. The descriptive statistics selected for this study include the mean, standard deviation, frequencies, maxima and minima. The analysis of trends in the composition of real estate portfolios in annual valuations of pension funds and annualized total returns of property portfolios will be conducted. The total annual returns consist of rental yield and capital appreciation (obtained from fair market value gain). An annualized total return is the geometric average of the amount of money earned by a portfolio each year over a given time period. The Weighted Average Annualized Property Porolio Returns from 2012 to 2021 will then be computed in order to answer the three research questions.

The results will redefine the future trends in property investments by DC pension schemes and consequently the larger real estate industry given the significant role of pension schemes in the economy. This study will provide information to trustees and fund managers to guide the real estate portfolio selection and allocation in order to optimize the returns on investments in DC pension funds.

Finance Linked Individual Subsidy Scheme Programme (FLISP) assists households who earn between R3 501 to R22 000 to get additional funds from National Housing Finance Corporation of R130 505 to the lowest income band and R30 001 to the highest income band in South Africa. This money can be used to pay for deposit or legal fees. The problem is that there has emerged a 'sandwich' class of households who earn just above the R22 000 threshold and still cannot afford entry-level mortgages. Adapted from Netherlands starterslening model, the paper conceptualized a hybrid FLISP that can absorb the sandwich class termed FLISP-plus. To this class, the National Housing Finance Corporation would give 70% of the R30 001 (R21 001) while FI offer a 30% additional loan (R9 000) which can be paid after 3 years. The applicability of the proposed FLISP-plus to the South African market was evaluated by analysing responses from interview data, purposefully sampled respondents from the Department of Human Settlements (DHS) and the financial institutions. Results showed that 'education' and 'credit score' for the FLISP-plus in affordable mortgages were common themes. Further, the results showed that the proposed FLISP-plus can be adopted for the proportion of the sandwich class segment whose credit scores are low but whose incomes are high. Households can work towards improving their credit scores in order to access FLISP- plus. The study concluded that DHS can train the sandwich class to educate them on how to manage their finances well for FLISP plus to be successful in increasing homeownership. On the other hand, financial institutions can train them on different products that can support savings towards consistent mortgage payments, making homeownership affordable.

REITS are increasingly expected to adopt on ESG interventions and to report on sustainability activities. There is a growing emphasis on the determination of non-financial reporting standards which are presently being adopted by entities such GRI and IFRS. The research shows what aspects of ESG South African REITS are reporting on and whether this is being undertaken in a consistent manner and based on specific standards.

The Nigerian Government invest so much in sports facility and the development of infrastructure but lack good maintenance culture to preserve the lives and fabrics of these infrastructure. In many sport facilities across the nation, there has been little or no adoption of a proactive facility maintenance culture. In such situations there is a risk that the facility deteriorates more rapidly than expected, leading to expensive maintenance and repair charges. Some of the reasons adduced to poor maintenance culture in sports facility in Nigeria are lack of fund and total negligence. So much emphasis is placed on aesthetics and infrastructures such that the maintenance takes the back seat. This study examines maintenance culture adopted for Moshood Abiola Stadium in Abuja, Nigeria from the perspective of facility management. The study further assesses the economic values loss as a result of poor maintenance culture on this facility. The study adopts the use of a structured questionnaire that explains the significance of good maintenance culture in sport-related facility. Findings were validated and supported by case study projects. This research equally recommended ways of improving the maintenance culture in Moshood Abiola Stadium with the view of maximizing return on investment in sport facility in Nigeria.
 

“Financialisation of rental housing” is a process to transform rental housing into a financial asset. A number of explanations assert that this process includes the linking of housing to financial markets. Because real estate (including houses) is often financed from borrowed funds, this creates a close relationship between rent, construction costs and bank lending rates. Experiences from a number of African countries, though, shows that this process of “financialising” rental housing has been sluggish. Many still suffer from a pre-1990 state where public housing was the major form of accommodating its citizens. Evidence across Africa shows that financing of housing is unsustainable without private sector involvement, resulting in high deficits. Zambia's housing deficit is currently estimated at 2.8 million units, thus investing the challenges of moving housing from simply being a public good to a financial asset becomes paramount. It thus examines the question: what are the key challenges preventing the transformation of housing into a financial asset? Amongst many challenges, the study finds that there is a financing gap, between rental income and mortgage repayments, in the Zambian housing market. This is preventing the private sector from getting fully involved in the production of houses. This paper used cross-sectional data, collected from financial insertions and real estate firms. The paper points to the need for the reduction of the cost of borrowing and an increase in deposable incomes as the twin measures to propel the transformation of housing into a financial asset.

This paper examines the relationship between student housing attributes and the pricing of student accommodation. The paper further explores the asymmetries in pricing for Purpose- built Student Accommodation (PBSA) and Private Student Accommodation Providers (PSAP). We utilise a web scraping procedure to access online-listed property information and prices from 25 major student destination cities in Europe on student.com and Study Abroad Apartments. Using machine learning methodology, we analyse some key tangible and non-tangible features of the properties and explore their relationships with the listed price. We also examine the potential effects of economies of scale through variations in the pricing mechanism for PBSAs and PSAPs.

The results show that the non-tangible property attributes have a stronger relationship with student accommodation prices in comparison to the tangible attributes. We also observe that the influence of these non-tangible property features on student accommodation prices is significantly stronger for PSAP properties in comparison to PBSA properties. The results suggest that through the economies of scale mechanism, institutional investors may be able to provide some facilities in their PBSAs at lower costs than PSAP investors and this may result in lower premiums for these facilities as reflected in the pricing. From a methodological point of view, we show that the use of asset features and historic pricing trends can enable the training of various supervised machine learning algorithms which in turn can improve asset pricing, taking account of national and non-institutional investment types.

The environmental pollution contributed to by the building construction sub-sector in Tanzania is significantly soaring by the day, making it difficult for the country to align to the expectations of the Global Development Agenda, 2015. This article focuses on the establishment of environmental importance weightings for local green building standard elements in Tanzanian, to be able to match the pace at which the global green building sector is moving. Emanating from the use of a Relative Importance Index (RII) analysis, the study found that, similar to the global practice of green building cornichons, which assign more environmental weighing to energy efficiency in green buildings, the same way have the RIIs of the examined Tanzanian Green Building Assessment criteria identified energy efficiency (with the highest environmental importance weighing given by RII = 0.78039216) as the most important ingredient of green building. Although it is not the case in other global green building certifications, for the case of Tanzanian Green Building Standard elements, Water Efficiency and rainwater harvesting, as well as on-site waste management and environmental conservation emerged as the twin-second best elements (receiving the same environmental weighng given by RII = 0.76470588. On the other hand, the study revealed that Building Automation and the Internet of things (in other words referred to as innovation in buildings) as the least environmentally important element with the lowest environmental weight given by the RII = 0.61568627, which in some ways confirms and questions the environmental weighings allocated to 'innovation' green element by the most prominent global green building certifications such as LEED, BREEAM, Green Star Australia, Green Star SA, and Green Mark.

The paper investigates the main barriers and success factors to the adoption and implementation of Real Estate Investment Trusts (REITs) in African real estate markets. From their inception in the US more than half a century ago, REITs have seen steady growth across the globe as a distinct label in real estate investment markets Between 1990 and 2021, REITs have grown in both number and market capitalisation from 120 listed REITs in two countries to over 800 in more than 40 countries. Their continued growth has been buoyed by the manifold benefits associated with this investment option, including increased access to the real estate investment markets, improved stock liquidity, steady access to capital, greater opportunities for portfolio diversification and stability, strong record of performance, to name a few. Despite these benefits, the reality is that the REIT regime is predominantly limited to the developed countries, mainly the US and Europe while other countries are still trailing. Africa, in particular, is lagging behind other regions of the world with only a few countries - South Africa, Nigeria, Ghana, Rwanda, Morocco, Tanzania and Kenya - registering considerable success stories. To investigate the main barriers and success factors, the paper is informed by a thematic literature review on REITs in general, and those of African region in particular. The major obstacles revolve around the inertia in legislating REITs, inadequately developed capital markets, and the level of property market maturity. Lessons learnt, particularly from South Africa and Nigeria, offer some insights on overcoming these barriers including the providence of the enabling environment for increased market transparency.

A city can be termed smart when it is able to effectively apply ICT and other smart technologies in achieving intelligent solutions to everyday challenges posed by the city. In view of this, smart housing concept leverage on smart technologies and data to solve housing problems in smart city projects. In most African smart city projects, the problem lies with the numerous hindrances on techniques to the adopon of Smart housing solutions. The initiative of Nigeria Smart City Iniave (NSCI) is to transform Nigerian major urban centres from traditional dysfunctional cies to modern, efficient, responsive ones capable of satisfying the needs of present and future generations of Nigerians. Using Akwa Millennium City project in Nigeria, this study examines the barriers to the adoption of smart housing concepts in African smart city projects. Structured questionnaires were purposively administered to all the staff of Akwa Millennium City project while all retrieved questionnaires were found suitable for analysis. Descriptive stastics were employed to analyze the data collected from the respondents. Findings depicted that the major barriers could be classified as socio-economic, technical and policy hindrances in the delivery of smart housing in Akwa Millennium City project in Nigeria. It's noteworthy that smart housing concept could be unaffordable due to the most perceived barriers (such as limited consumer demand, retrofitting of existing homes and buildings, lack of financial and financing incentives, high cost of development, and smart technology as divisive, exclusive or irrelevant) in the development of African smart city projects. This study therefore recommends that developers should focus on socio-economic attributes in the adoption of smart housing concepts to achieve an effective planning of smart city projects in Nigeria and Africa at large.

In as much as there is a wealth of research on smart housing, there is limited literature based on empirical findings from Africa. The aim of this paper is to examine barriers to the adoption of smart housing concept in Africa using a case study of Akwa Millennium City Project in Nigeria. The case study was chosen because is a premium multi-nucleic smart city project that is slated to redefine the concept of urban living in Nigeria and Africa at large. Structured questionnaires were purposively administered to all the staff of Akwa Millennium City project while all retrieved questionnaires were found suitable for analysis. Descriptive statistics was employed to analyse the data collected from the respondents. Findings depicted that the major barriers could be classified as socio-economic, technical and policy hindrances. It is noteworthy that smart housing concept could be unaffordable due to the most perceived barriers (such as limited consumer demand, retrofitting of existing homes and buildings, lack of financial and financing incentives, high cost of development, and smart technology as divisive, exclusive or irrelevant). This study therefore recommends that developers should focus on socio-economic attributes in the adoption of smart housing concept to achieve an effective planning of smart city projects in Nigeria and Africa at large.

The government of Zimbabwe (GoZ) and former commercial farmers signed a highly celebrated historic Global Compensation Agreement in July 2020. This Global Compensation Agreement which is a product of the new administration was signed following adoption of a consensus-based compensation. Even though the Global Compensation Agreement document remains a guarded secret, parties to the agreement shared the process which resulted into the agreement and limited contents of the Global Compensation Agreement. Currently, no known study has been conducted to assess whether the process which was used to estimate the global compensation and the provisions of the Global Compensation Agreement comply with the provisions of the existing laws. As such, this study was carried out to close this gap and contribute to the existing debate on compensation expropriated for land reform in Zimbabwe. A desktop survey was used, and data were obtained mainly online. It was concluded that even though the Global Compensation Agreement was done as guided by the Land Acquisition Act (LAA) of 1992 and the Constitution of Zimbabwe (CoZ) of 2013, specially on the compensable heads of claim and the compensation period. However, an institutional framework which was used to arrive at the GCA seems to have deviated from the provisions of the same laws. This study was limited by unavailability of a copy of the Global Compensation Agreement document resulting in the researchers only using the little information which was published by parties to the Global Compensation Agreement. It is recommended that further research be done on the same area once the Global Compensation Agreement deed is published.

Over the years, Ghana's real estate industry has seen tremendous growth and expansion. The increased participation of locally based property developers and foreign real estate firms in core real estate development is impressive. However, real estate education and skills have not matched up to the growth and expectations of the industry. This paper is an inial study exploring the gaps between the industry's growth and real estate education in Ghana. It adopts a systematic literature review approach with informal discussions with key informants to juxtapose the real estate industry's growth and education gaps. It finds that few universities offer real estate courses at the undergraduate and postgraduate levels. Graduates seeking further studies tend to travel to advanced countries for such opportunities. Although foreign education builds global networks and provides broader perspectives, most graduates do not return to practice in Ghana after their studies. The paper concludes that the limited number of universities offering specialised real estate degree programs in Ghana constitutes a significant determinant of the skills gaps between industry growth and education and worsens the industry's brain drain challenge. Furthermore, the curricula of real estate courses must inculcate the trends in the industry, including blockchain technology, artificial intelligence, and building information modelling. It recommends that real estate education be prioritised for funding opportunities and offered at the top-er universities to help retain high-performing graduates in Ghana. The universities must also liaise with industry partners to promote productivity, problem-solving and organisational change. To bridge skills gaps, internship-based programs and experiential learning strategies must be restructured to improve hands-on training on property, valuation practice and employability.

Purpose: With a focus on the South African REIT market, this study examined the behavioural pattern of REIT dividend returns and establishes a causal linkage between informaon asymmetry indicators and REIT dividend return behaviour.

Design/Methodology/Approach: The daily returns on twelve (12) quoted SA REIT firms, and daily data on market information asymmetry indicators such as ask-bid price, trade volume, number of shares listed, volatility index, weighted value average price and market capitalization from the year 2007-2017, extracted from IRESS Expert database were used. The average of the data was calculated and used as a proxy for market data such as market REIT dividend return, market spread, market turnover market volatility index, market value- weighted average price and market capitalization. The study conducted a unit root and co- integration test, while the vector error correction model (VECM) was deployed to analyze the causal behaviour of REIT dividend returns under the asymmetric market information.

Finding: For the reviewed period (2007-2017), SA market REIT has a negative average return (-0.0312), skewed negatively (-6.2136) and exhibited gentle fluctuations, with higher degrees recorded in trading days of 2013, attributed to a transition period of the SA property stock to REIT regime. Also, the SA REIT dividend return behaves in a similar manner and responds sharply to shock in the market spread. Co-integration relationships exist among the exogenous variables, and market spread exhibited a significant causal effect (p<.05) with REIT dividend returns dynamics in both short and long-run relationships.

Practical implications: The study provides insight into the behaviour of REIT dividend return in an asymmetric information market condition of the South African property stock market.

Originality/Value: The study provides useful information on information asymmetry indicators that explains South Africa REIT dividend return behaviour. Additionally, this is the first study to investigate REIT dividend returns behaviour under the asymmetric market information using the South African REITs context.

The paper identifies knowledge gap on housing finance literature in Sub-Saharan Africa through the lens of Malawi to enhance ongoing discussions on housing crisis in the global south. The study distinctly focuses on affordable urban high-rise housing (AUHRH, henceforth), being a land efficient option to affordable housing as opposed to horizontal housing, and for the first time within the region. Desk study approach was adopted where peer-reviewed research works were studied to explore the housing issues and identify gaps in literature on the subject matter. Literary findings confirm qualification of finance as the crux of affordable housing supply challenges in the region, with traditional financing proving to be exclusionary to middle and lower-income earners. The other key gap is on crowdfunding. While being christened as the best option for AUHRH with largest market share through diaspora remittances in the region, crowdfunding has not been employed in housing finance this far. Instead, Micro Finance Institutions (MFIs, henceforth) are taking the lead by providing more flexible source of housing finance though not for AUHRH. The identified gaps point to a need for empirical study to understand critical issues with regards to adopting innovative financing options especially real estate crowdfunding (REC, henceforth) in Sub-Saharan region. Key areas under such an intervention include legislation, viability, and determination of critical mass for investor participation. The study, therefore, forms a basis for future studies in this subject and on the continent.

Botswana's housing finance sector has undergone substantial transformations and growth over the past two decades from a relatively small banking sector dominated by commercial banks to ten commercial banks, four investment banks, two state-owned development finance organisations and one building society. The main aim of this research is to investigate available options for raising housing finance for low-income earners in Botswana. The study of this nature is important for the housing finance sector which is mostly represented by the banking sector as the formal system of housing finance, mostly through mortgage finance (Tomlison, 2006). According to (Tomlison, 2006) those that cannot afford a mortgage loan will at least be able to house themselves incrementally through the construction of houses. The study target population constituted the formally registered SACCOS and a sample from Gaborone was drawn for the semi-structured questionnaire which was utilised. The quantitive research approach used descriptive statistics to analyse the findings of this study. The research findings supports the noon that non-bank and informal finance systems provide small loans and small savings for housing finance. The informal systems include group-based savings collections such as Savings and Credit Cooperative Society (SACCOS), Internal Savings and Lending Schemes (ISLES) and microfinance firms that cover a wide range of community needs. ISLES serve economic and social purposes.SACCOS are an extension of Rotang Savings and Credi tAssociaon (ROSCAS). In Botswana, ISLES exist in various names depending with the community they are commonly popular amongst all and are referred to as motshelo, mahodisano in Setswana, and stokvels - membership is by individual periodic payments which can be weekly or monthly payment with an arrangement of peer lending and is different from microcredit but operate almost in the same way. This arrangement provide a safe financial inclusion especially for those in informal employment.

Climate change and its associated impact on the environment has been a topical issue globally. Considering the “E” of the Environment, Social, Governance (ESG), building climate intelligence is central to value creation and strategic differenation in the real estate industry. This study therefore examines the perception of real estate professionals on the risks of climate change and its effect on real estate investment in Edo State, Nigeria. Structured questionnaires were purposively administered to 75 selected Estate Surveyors and Valuers in Benin Metropolis while all retrieved questionnaires were found suitable for analysis. Descriptive statistics was employed to analyze the data collected from the respondents. The results depicted that more frequent and intense extreme weather events, extreme rainfall, gradually changing climate (e.g., temperature, precipitation), flooding, and rising fuel prices were the most perceived risks of climate change in the study area. Furthermore, higher construction cost (due to adaptation), infrastructural damage, health hazard, loss of income, deterioration, reduction in property life span, increase in maintenance cost, and obsolescence were the perceived effects of climate change on real estate investment. It is therefore imperative for real estate players (such as investors, professionals, regulatory bodies etc.) to understand the climate risks (both physical and transition) in real estate market and adopt a mitigative strategies (such as green building initiave) to avert the effects on real estate investment in Nigeria.

There is evidence of gender imbalance in the real estate industry from available academic and industry studies. However, existing studies for this research were mainly conducted on justifying gender inequality in the built environment/real estate industry. Therefore, the research aims to investigate the factors that can lead to a more inclusive built environment, especially in the real estate industry.

The research study utilized primary and secondary sources of data collection. The data was collected from female practitioners in the built environment through interviews. Analyses of leading real estate organizations' organograms, annual reports, and 'male-to-female' ratio of employees formed the cornerstone of the quantitative aspect of the study to justify and demonstrate gender inequality. This completed the primary research methodology of the study. The secondary research included observing annual reports of the firms being studied.

The actual results and findings determined how to achieve a gender-inclusive built environment. The study showed that there is a lack of diversity and inclusivity in the real estate industry. Females also undertake more non-technical roles such as estate agents, while males prefer more technical positions such as property valuers. The gender composition, especially, favours males the higher one goes up the corporate ladder. In conclusion, the study recommended achieving a gender-inclusive built environment based on the results gathered from the data collected. In addition, the theoretical applications concluded from the research findings allow for future research on the 'cause and effect' of an exclusive real estate sector and how it can be rectified.

Corporate real estate's contribution towards company's wealth and business operations cannot be overemphasized. Therefore, it requires proper management. Two main approaches exist in managing corporate real estate namely: in-house and outsourcing. Most corporations have had their property assets management services contracted out to external service providers. This study sought to assess the effectiveness of outsourcing corporate real estate management services in the Malawian corporate organisation through a case study in Blantyre Central Business District. A quantitive approach was used in which a review of various literature was done and a survey questionnaire was distributed to 20 corporations. The study revealed that corporations prefer outsourcing individual corporate real estate management services rather than the whole real estate department. Amongst the individual CREM services, property management and repairs and maintenance are the most outsourced. The study further revealed that corporations outsource mainly to have access to skills, technology and best practices.

Despite being effective, there is need for further development of the process of outsourcing as it lacks some elements. Therefore, the study recommends benchmarking of performance for individual CREM services that are being outsourced and development of performance measurement tools and enhancing communication through the adoption of effective communication tools.

Purpose – The purpose of the paper was to provide an empirical examination of earnings management among internally and externally managed REITs. The empirical accounting literature claims that internal management of a firm does not constrain earnings management, while others argue in favour of internal management for firms.

Design/methodology/approach – Using a sample of listed South African REITs for the 2013 - 2021 time period, we examine the relationship between management structures and earnings management.

Findings – We do not find any aggressive practice in internally managed REITs during the study period.

Practical implications – The study's findings imply that good corporate governance is a critical safeguard for stakeholders in exceptional circumstances when REITs have special incentives to manage earnings; as a result, it is suggested that REITs' corporate governance is important, despite being overlooked in some circumstances. Specific to South African REITs, policymakers as well as nominating committees of the board of directors may wish to take note that financial competence is an important quality of external directors in order to effectively curb earnings management.

Originality/value – This is the first study to investigate financial sheet manipulation among REITs management structures in an emerging market.

This paper examines the performance of domestic-bias and foreign-bias REITs in South Africa. For instance, in South Africa, recently, REITs management has made investment decisions to invest outside the shores of South Africa to optimize returns. We, therefore, examine the monthly returns of South African REITs from 2013 to 2021 and construct equal-weighted and value-weighted indexes for domestic domiciled REITs and REITs that invest in properties outside of South Africa. We compared the indexes of these portfolios to determine the impact of foreign investment by South African REITs. Our findings would assist investors and fund managers make beer-informed decisions in the area of portfolio selection and management.

The valuation of plant and equipment often involves valuers deducting physical, functional and economic depreciation from replacement cost estimates. These calculations have faced accuracy and consistency problems in the aspect of determining how much physical deterioration should be deducted. This study attempted to develop cubic regression models to resolve these accuracy and consistency problems in one industrial sector (the basic metal, iron and steel and fabricated metal product sectors) in the two main industrial cities of the western industrial zone of Nigeria (Sango Ota and Agbara). Questionnaire surveys were administered on senior operators of plant and equipment in these sectors to draw information on the degree of physical deterioration of plant and equipment over service life, using expenditure on repairs as a proxy for physical deterioration. The questionnaire sought information on the service lives of plants and equipment, the movement of transition of physical depreciation over the service lives, and the degree to which the movement of transition is influenced by various operational factors. Data were analysed using means, standard deviations, multiple linear regressions and cubic regressions, to produce what could be the first potentially accurate and consistent valuation model of physical deterioration in Africa. The service lives of various plant and equipment in selected sectors were found to range at various time points between 8 to 60 years. Cubic regression analyses showed that the pattern of the movement of transitions of expenditure on repairs (proxy for physical deterioration) over useful life of plant and equipment were not linear but cubic, and generally followed S-shaped patterns. Multiple regression analyses showed that the S-shaped patterns were in turn influenced by operational factors (such as intensity of use and power outages). The study concluded that valuers' interests in accuracy and consistency in plant and equipment valuation were not served by any of the accounting methods hitherto used by valuers; accuracy in physical deterioration modelling follows an S-shaped transition over me. This S shape is exuberated where there is inappropriate operational use of the plant and equipment.

Property valuation is a capstone course for real estate professionals and an essenal component of core knowledge in real estate education. The prominence of real estate in the investment market and information asymmetries have created a demand for property valuation all around the world. However, anecdotal evidence suggests that real estate students rarely have positive attitudes toward property valuation. This condition can hinder understanding the contents and acquiring the requisite valuation skills as attitudes are critical for learning. It has been contended that developing positive attitudes should be the desired course goal. This study employs quantitive research designs to evaluate the attitudes of real estate students toward property valuation to determine whether the desired goal has been achieved. A self-administered questionnaire containing a modified SATS-36 studies assessment scale was distributed to all 87 Higher National Diploma (HND) I students after the first semester's valuation course. The findings suggested that the sampled students' attitudes toward property valuation were not negative. The students recognise the importance of property valuation for their careers, are ready to put up the effort to understand and acquire valuation skills, and believe they can learn property valuation. This study recommends that the pilot instrument used in this study be expanded to other polytechnics, universities, and nations in order to gather general data that may be used to guide the development of positive attitudes.

The study determined the factor influencing the performance of CREM in listed organisation in Nigeria with a view to providing information that could enhance the productivity of the listed organisation. Quantitative and qualitative data was used for the study and was sourced from the listed business organisation in the Nigeria Stock Exchange Market which comprises of 171 companies in the Financial, Industrial, Oil and gas, Consumer, Technology, Basic Material, and Health sectors respectively. Total enumeration was done on the 171 companies through questionnaire administration and for the qualitative data, seven (7) organizations purposively selected was interviewed, representing one organization from each of the seven sectors. Both Factor and Content analysis were used in analysing the responses gotten from the survey. The study revealed that the five major factors influencing the performance of CREM in the listed organisations were Economic/Organisational, Strategic Planning/Management, CRE unit efficiency, User's Satisfaction and Political/Institutional Factors; which altogether explained 64.89% of the variance determining the CREM performance. The study therefore established that the most important factor influencing the performance of CREM in the sectors were the Economic/Organisational Factors. The findings of this study will therefore aid the organisations listed in the Nigeria Stock Exchange market to obtain information that could be used to improve the level of CREM performance in order to enhance productivity.

A career decision is a crucial task, often impacted by events and circumstances rather than the training the students receive in school. Female graduates in the built environment are frequently conservative in their career choices in the real estate industry; as a result, women are underrepresented. This study employs quantitative and quantitative research designs to explore how graduating female real estate students' experiences influence their long-term career choices and how their choices affect women's participation in Nigeria's real estate profession. A survey of graduating female real estate students from two universities and two polytechnics in South-west Nigeria was used to collect quantitive data for the study. Qualitative data was gathered through interviews with recent female real estate graduates. The analysis presents the study's findings on students' motivation for pursuing a real estate degree, challenges encountered in real estate education, perceptions of the real estate practice environment, and how these experiences influence their long-term career choices. The study concludes that the real estate practice environment is unappealing to female graduates. Hence, there is a need for concerted efforts toward attracting and retaining female graduates in the real estate profession to support the industry's business development and growth.

Globalization and technological advancements have brought unprecedented changes in the business environment. To remain relevant and gain competitive advantage, many real estate firms are shifting to unusual ways of doing business and adoption of new business models. Recruiting highly skilled real estate graduates is one of the fundamental requirements for the success of many real estate firms. This has resulted in increased levels of unemployment and layoffs among real estate professionals due to skills mismatch. Possessing academic qualifications alone is therefore no longer sufficient enough to guarantee employment for real estate graduates. This study used a mixed-method design to investigate generic competence required of real estate graduates in Malawi.
Primary data was collected using questionnaires. 19 heads of sections from various real estate firms completed and returned the questionnaires. Data was analyzed using Microsoft excel and content analysis. The study found that all the thirteen generic competencies used in the study were essential to real estate firms in Malawi and that professionalism and ethics, property inspection skills, data management, team work among others are the key competencies required by Malawian real estate employers. However, the study revealed that Malawian real estate graduates are deficient in four out of thirteen generic competencies. It is therefore recommended that these deficient skill sets should be incorporated in the real estate curriculum.

Green buildings are part of the global strategy to achieve sustainable development. Efforts towards this goal are however hampered by the lack of awareness and high illiteracy about green building. Focusing on the youth, this paper measures the level of green building literacy among Ghanaian tertiary education students, how it differs according to their demographics, and its relationship with their housing choice. Following a comprehensive literature review, we used a structured online questionnaire survey to gather data from 763 Ghanaian tertiary education students. Following statical tests, the study analysed the dataset principally using mean scoring, Chi-square test and regression techniques. The results suggest that most university students have no or basic knowledge in green buildings. This low level of green building literacy is attributable in part to their demographic features including age, gender, level of education, level of study, employment status, income level of respondents, and whether the person had previously lived in a house with green features. Further analyses show that male students and built environment students have higher knowledge about green buildings and are more likely to have lived in or are currently living in a building with green features, and also more likely to choose a house with green features in the future. Policy-wise, the study shows that educating the youth about green buildings could alter their housing outcomes and preferences in favour of sustainable ones and hence, contribute to achieving Sustainable development goal 11 – Sustainable Cities and Communities.

The gains of green buildings are replete in literature. However, the role of the property valuer in the valuation of green buildings still remains unclear. The study aims to assess the barriers and factors influencing the implementation of green building valuation in the residential property sector of South Africa. The research employs a quantitative methodology. The study utilised a closed-ended questionnaire to collect data from professionally registered Valuers at the South African Council for the Property Valuers Profession, in the Gauteng province. Statistical techniques such as frequency count, percentages and mean item score were employed in analysing the data. The result showed that the majority of the respondents agreed that the initial cost of green buildings is higher than conventional buildings. Though, the operational costs often tend to offset this initial cost in the long run. Furthermore, the study found that water and energy efficiency features and materials used for construction are key inputs in the valuation of green buildings. Also, the major challenges to green building valuation are the few numbers of the residential green building stock and the lack of cost data on green buildings. The study concludes on the need for collaboration among various stakeholders such as developers, valuers and green-certifying organizations to make cost data available to property valuers and create a sharing platform where such information can be accessed and used by valuers to arrive at credible value opinions on green buildings. Also, the role of property valuers is germane towards ensuring that the value of properties reflects the green building element, therefore their knowledge of sustainability becomes critical.

Purpose - Although the largest proportion of the household budget is spent on housing and transportation (H+T), housing affordability estimates in Ghana have over the years treated housing as a mutually exclusive expenditure, thereby excluding the effects of transportation costs. This can result in under-reporting of the household burden, which ultimately affects planning and policymaking. To curtail under-reporting, the H+T affordability index incorporates transportation costs into the assessment of housing affordability. However, the H+T affordability index is yet to be explored in the real estate literature from Ghana. This study contributes a novel discussion of the H+T affordability index and how it can be applied in Ghana.

Approach - Based on a systematic review of 9 peer-reviewed papers on the H+T affordability index, the main variables employed, the lessons, and policy implications have been discussed towards having a modified H+T affordability index that is suitable for Ghana.

Findings - Generally, the addition of transportation costs to the housing burden significantly changes the dynamics of the housing burden. Besides, the H+T Affordability Index relies on accessible secondary H+T economic data. In cities where there is a low proportion of renters, the owners' equivalent rent is used as the rental value. The main variables and methodologies employed in past studies have been discussed.

Research implications - Our research calls for researchers and real estate professionals in Ghana to consider developing robust housing, trip, spatial, and neighborhood databases to foster future H+T studies.

Practical implications - This study contributes insights that can enhance debates on the H+T 21ST affordability index toward improved measurement tools for the household burden in Ghana.
Originality/Value of work - This study is the first attempt to discuss how the H+T affordability index can be applied in Ghana's housing market.

Universally, It is acknowledged that land together with its resources form the bedrock of the development of a country. It is a key factor in the fight against poverty alleviation. Our land is our heritage. It is the embodiment of our physicality and spirituality. It is our essence, and a veritable source of our livelihood and wealth creation. The land mass of Ghana with a total area of 238,553sq.kms contributes our political sovereignty,, the foundation of our socio-cultural values and economic power. Indeed, the centrality of our land to our socio-economic development is ed to our natural resources endowment. These resources which include mineral, forests wetlands, water bodies underpin our existence as a people. Their sustainable and responsible management and administration and equitable distribution of the benefits are essential for sustainable livelihoods.

With a strong natural resource base, our economy is basically a land-based economy which supports a population of about 31,732,129 (UN estimate 2021). It is estimated that about 136,000km2 of land covering 57% of the country's is classified as ''agricultural land area'' Approximately 52% of the labour force is engaged in agriculture. This sector, it is estimated contributes about 54% of the country's GDP, accounts for over 40% of our export earnings. The Forestry sector contributes about 6% of the GDP, 11% of export earnings and contributes about 100,000 for the labour force employment (FAO 2010). The Mining sector contributes 2% of GDP and 28.3% of Government revenue (GSGDA 2014-2017).

In spite of the importance of land in our national economy, the administration and management of land and land resources have been confronted with numerous challenges among which lack of consultation with key stakeholders in the area of compulsory land acquisition and delay in compensation payments, legal pluralism, indeterminate customary land boundaries, lack of accountability, probity and transparency on the part of some traditional authorities in the management of land and its resources, fragmented institutional arrangements with weak capacity.

In the natural resources arena, it has been estimated that environmental degradation costs between 5-10% of the GDP and with this the Forestry sector accounts for 63% (USD$ 500 million of the cost-Forestry Commission 2010). Since the 1990s the country lost more than 33.7% of its Forests (FAO). The rate of deforestation between 2005 to 2010 was estimated at 2.19%- the 6th highest rate globally for the period (FAO).

Illegal mining also results in huge sums of lost revenue. In 2016 alone, an estimated $2.3 billion worth of gold le the shores of Ghana through galamsey. The illicit trade avoids taxation and the prevalence of foreign actors means that profits typically flow out of the country. Despite its importance in the country's socio-economic development, its negative impact on the country's environment is evidenced in water pollution, destruction of flora and fauna, land degradation and metal contamination of our soils.

Good governance occupies the central stage in the discussion in land administration and management. Failings in good governance have adverse consequences for society as a whole, Good governance can help achieve economic development and poverty alleviaon. Any Instuonal reform involves changing the status quo and in this resistance cannot be ruled out Successful institutional reform can be achieved through the appreciation and application of Organizational Change Management tools, techniques and resistant management.

Land banking practices can fail in efficiently controlling the value of land. These failures stem from the difficulty in reducing speculative holdings to levels exceeding the size of the banked lands. Such underlining traits of the practice have been drawn from public land banking practices in formal land market settings. Public practices are markedly different to private and quasi-public land banking practices in an indigenous informal land market. Consequently, this paper explores how indigenous informal land markets are influenced by private land banking practices and land values under new land tenure regimes post-Ghana's land reforms. Semi-structured interviews with thirty-three participants made up of experts and stakeholders were drawn from four case studies within the Ghanaian indigenous informal land market. We find that land bankers are banking large tracts of indigenous informal lands as capital investments for profits through land dispositions. This is different from the possession of land banks as a production factor for their housing development moves suggested to indigenous heads. The paper recommends a revisit of discussions on the enforcement and monitoring of the processes required under the lands commission guidelines for large-scale land transactions.
 

Purpose: The paper examined the level of transparency of information and the pricing strategies adopted by investors of commercial real estate market in Lagos Property Market.

Design/Method/Approach: The study is a quantitative research, administering 191 copies of questionnaire to estate surveying firms in Lagos Metropolis. A total of 147 (77%) were collected, simple frequency distribution, percentage (%) weighted mean score on 5 point-Likert scale measurement and correlation analysis were used to analyze responses.

Findings: The study revealed that the level of information transparency is between semi-transparent and low transparency, while lack of central information database with a mean (4.95) ranked first among the challenges of securing information transparency. The study also indicated that there is a weak but positive correlation with a significance value .102 between the level of information transparency and the adoption of pricing strategy the commercial property market.

Practical Implications: A market with reasonable level of information will enhance effective pricing strategy adopted by investors which will go a long way in guiding their investment decisions. Originality: The study contributes to the increasing body of research on the need to demystify information secrecy in the commercial property markets and the for centralized market information with ease of access.

Housing is one of the most important basic needs for people. However, in Sub-Saharan Africa, the housing shortage is still increasing. The affordable housing sector, in particular, is reliant on alternatives to conventional house building to address the housing shortage. One approach is to implement innovative building materials and technologies (IBMT) for faster construction at lower cost. There are already a large number of IBMT in Africa, which could reduce the housing shortage. However, uptake in African countries is still low and conventional materials are still used to a large extent. Various causes can play a role here. For instance, developers will not exert efforts to implement IBMT without potential buyers. Thus, it is crucial whether the consumer accepts the materials used in construction. Therefore, the aim of this thesis is to identify which IBMT already exist in Africa as well as to understand the desires and requirements that the consumers and stakeholders have towards new materials, and thereby identify on which acceptance criteria their decision depends.

We conducted a qualitative study examining the experiences of experts regarding IBMT in Africa. Based on interviews with highly established multipliers from the field of construction, project development and financing, we contrast findings from existing studies to current insights of the experts. The result of the work shows that obstacles such as developers and banks must be overcome first, i.e. to convince them of the innovative construction method, before the acceptance criteria of the population can be met. As soon as this challenge is met, the price of the house plays the most important role for the end user. According to the experts, the quality of the building material as well as social aspects and cultural influences rank very highly behind the cost aspect. Next important factors are aesthetics and flexibility, and then comfort. Only the sustainability aspect has so far not been important for the population within the affordable housing sector.

For a successful introduction of IBMT, the experts advocate show houses: exclusively theoretical information about technical conditions or advertising via flyers seem less effecve. Community concepts including a homeowner association and a community manager are considered a very good option. Solutions to the challenge should account for social structures of the population and should simulate the local by creating jobs. For the respective IBMT to gain high market acceptance, image creation is essential. This is possible, among other things, by building flagship projects.

South Africa experiences fiscal constraints and economic contraction as a major hindrance to delivering the much-needed infrastructure development to meet the needs of a growing population and rapid urbanisation. The traditional method of funding infrastructure development by the government is overwhelmed and there is an urgent need to use alternative funding models such as Land Value Capture. Currently, this process is disintegrated in South Africa, therefore the aim of this study is to draw up guidelines towards the successful implementation of Land Value Capture using planning gain and investment theories. To do this the study analyses key relevant documents such as South African legislation and policy documents to make a comparison between conceptual guidelines developed and the findings of the document analysis. The study adopted a qualitative method in which five key relevant documents were randomly selected based on conceptual framework and research questions and analysed using content analysis and the conceptual guidelines are used as themes. Findings from document analysis are discussed how they compare, support and conflict with conceptual guidelines to draw up a more refined and evidence-based guidelines towards successful implementation of Land Value Capture. The relevance of this study lies in the fact that the South African government need to expedite infrastructure developments previously curtailed by apartheid systems. As urbanisation rises rapidly, the South African government is required to find effective ways to drive economic growth that is anchored in the imperatives of inclusive cities. The paper finds that there is significant inconsistencies on how LVC is currently being implemented (according to the document analysis) and how the conceptual framework in this study appraise it to be implemented, it further recommends a guideline towards successful implementation.

Purpose: This study examined the investment performance and level of integration between indirect real estate and other listed investment assets in the Nigerian property market. This is to determine the assets' performance and the long-run relationship between the assets thereby establishing the diversification benefits of combining these assets in a mixed-asset portfolio in an emerging African market.

Design/Methodology/Approach: The data collected comprised quarterly returns on the indirect real estate asset and the other listed investments for the period of January 2009 to December 2020. The other listed investment assets were the five major sectorial indexes in the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) market which are NSE Banking, NSE Oil and Gas, NSE Industrial, NSE Insurance and NSE Consumer. The indices of these sectors were obtained from the daily list of the NSE. While the investment performance of the assets was analysed using holding period return, standard deviation, return-risk ratio and correlation analysis, the Augmented Dickey-Fuller (ADF) and Johansson integration tests were employed in analyzing the level of integration between the assets.

Findings: The results revealed that while indirect real estate outperformed other listed assets in terms of returns, it only outperformed three of the listed assets in terms of risk. The return- risk ratio showed that indirect real estate outperformed other listed assets. The study established a high level of integration between indirect real estate assets and other listed investment assets. This indicates that the assets have long-run convergence and have similar reactions to market fundamentals. This study concluded that given the high level of integration of indirect real estate assets and other listed investment assets, investors should not consider the combination of these assets in an investment portfolio as they will bring little or no diversification benefit in the long run.

Practical Implications: The paper implied that the inclusion of indirect real estate assets and other listed investment assets in a domestic portfolio could be expected to yield little or no diversification benefit.

Originality/value: The paper represents one of the few attempts to determine the long-run relationship between indirect real estate assets and other listed assets from an emerging market perspective.

While some pioneering works have reported the significant influence that clients have to sway the behavioural perspectives and value opinions of property valuers, others have examined the increasing trends of client sophistication in their demands on valuers and advised valuers to work towards client satisfaction. Several studies have also examined issues of client influence, client sophistication and client satisfaction in valuations but none of the available studies have endeavoured to establish the nexus between the concepts so as to report the very significant implications. Hence, this study determines the nexus between client satisfaction and client sophistication and how the two concepts amount to client influence in valuations.

As a hybrid of systematic literature review and content analysis, this study undertook a critical exploration and a systematic appraisal of literature to fulfil the aim of the study. A database search for 20-year (2001-2021) extant studies was conducted using Google Scholar, Science Direct and Primo. The framework of Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analysis (PRISMA) was adopted in the study and a mapping process based on content analysis was undertaken to establish the links among the concepts of study.

Clients' demand for improved accuracy and consistency in valuations; clients' demand for transparency, rationality, and reliability in valuations; and the paucity of relevant market data as well as other market imperfections (among others) constitute issues of client satisfaction to valuers. However, the increasing emergence of more sophisticated, growth-explicit, and cross-disciplinary investment valuation (and statistical) models; the valuers' incapacity to adapt and adopt “difficult” computational models; as well as clients' subject expertise, experience, and information power (among others) reflect the level of client sophistication. Resulting from the above, valuers are surreptitiously subjected to client influence and compromise through client sophistication in their quest to obtain client satisfaction while undertaking valuations.

Purpose – The purpose relationship between the level of education, gender diversity and Real Estate Investment Trust (REIT) financial performance.

Design/methodology/approach – The authors employ ordinary least square regressions on an unbalanced panel of South African REITs for the time period from 2013 to 2021. The paper adopted returns on asset (ROA) as the measure of performance; this was regressed alongside control variables that indicates that REIT promotes diversity in management.

Findings – The results indicate that REITs that promote the appointment this paper is to examine the ent of board directors with higher educational qualifications have higher financial performance than comparable counterparts. We also find evidence of an insignificant relationship between gender diversity and REITs financial performance; meanwhile, we found a significant relationship between female directors' level of education and REITs performance.

Practical implications – The analysis indicates that while gender diversity may be insignificant, higher educational qualifications among male and female directors has to be more attractive among REITs for their positive financial results.

Originality/value – This paper contributes to the literature by investing whether the level of education and gender diversity have an impact on REIT financial performance.

Whereas the income approach (investment method) to valuation represents the most applicable method of valuing income-generating properties, limitations arising from the dearth of market data for market comparisons and determination of yields, among others, sometimes question the reliability of most opinion of values. Meanwhile, valuation reliability is a worldwide issue in the property industry. With the emerging trends of hedonic pricing, big data analytics, growth-explicit valuation methods, and cross-country investment comparisons (for FDIs), dependable and readily available sources of researched data are indispensable, and the African real estate market cannot be left behind.

Drawing on the author's practical experience in property valuations over the years, this paper sheds light on the prevailing means and ways of data sourcing and usage by which the menace of lack of data for property valuations is being overcome. The paper recommends measures such as company/individual practitioner's data collection and processing, vetting and peer-reviewing of procedures, having institutional property databank, as well as the development of country-wide and continent-wide property databanks as ways to aid cross-country investment property appraisals.

Historically, the mortgage market in Ghana has been bedevilled by notoriously long delays in foreclosure proceedings. The delays have largely been attributed to the inefficiencies in the judicial system as the country primarily operated under the lien theory, which requires lenders to enforce their rights over the collateral under the supervision of the courts. However, the passage of two key legislations (Borrowers and Lenders Act and Home Mortgage Finance Act) in 2008 has sought to fundamentally alter the mortgage foreclosure procedure in Ghana. In particular, both legislations allow lenders to foreclose without resorting to court processes so long as they are able to obtain possession in a peaceful manner. Notwithstanding these provisions, anecdotal evidence suggests that the use of court proceedings remains the predominant means of foreclosure. In this paper, I examine the provisions in the Home Mortgage Finance Act and Borrowers and Lenders Act relating to mortgage foreclosures and investigate the effectiveness of the provisions in affording lenders an expeditious foreclosure process.

The objective of the study was to analyse the performance of the Faculty of Engineering and Technology (FET) building and to find out if the users of the building are satisfied with the services provided by the building. Post occupancy evaluation (POE) was used to analyse the performance of FET building. A quantitative research approach was chosen for this study. Primary and secondary data sources were used for data collection. Primary data was collected using a questionnaire and an interview guide. Questionnaires were administered to students, lecturers, cleaners and security guards who regularly utilise FET building. Interviews were held with facility managers who are responsible for maintenance of FET building. A simple random sample from a population of 1453 users was used to sample the study. A sample of 96 respondents was selected, comprising 76 students, 12 Lecturers, 1 facilities manager, 5 security guards and 3 members of cleaning staff. Microsoft Excel was used to analyse and present the data. The findings reveal that the building occupants are moderately satisfied with FET building. Many complaints are reported in the FET building on few defects such as broken elevators, leaking pipes, and faulty air conditioners, leaking water closets and burnt bulbs etc. to the Faculty's Facility Manager every year. These building defects results in students and lecturers not being satisfied with the building as they have a negative impact on learning and teaching. It was also revealed that climate affects the performance of FET building. The study recommends that there should be proper maintenance requests or reports on building defects should be fixed timeously. This will encourage users to report any defects that need to be addressed in the future to facility managers. This study has created a context in which a building performance evaluation can be conducted and used to improve building satisfaction among occupants. It is also of utmost importance to facility managers, architects, contractors and other professionals will be involved in future college projects. Professionals and stakeholders are among those who will benefit from this study as it adds to the body of knowledge in Botswana.

Ten years after the introduction of formal real estate programmes by local universities, Botswana is yet to introduce postgraduate qualifications in real estate. This current situation is compounded by the dearth of research on postgraduate real estate education in Botswana. This paper aims to bridge this gap by seeking the views of key real estate stakeholders on the prospects of introducing competitive real estate qualifications in Botswana. Results and findings will bring value contribution to the to the wealth, social and economic development of the country. The recommendations will add on the human resource development policy in the employment creation point of view. Findings will contribute to insertions of higher education who tend to develop curricula that are similar to other peer institutions to consider the context of their programme curricula. Society is facing numerous new challenges that require professionals to intervene with the objective of developing solutions to improve peoples' lives based on industry requirements.

The main long-term challenges for the housing sector in Tanzania have been high costs of finance and a limited supply of decent and affordable housing. Following rapid urbanization and increased demand for affordable housing and housing finance, the government has been intervening in the provision of housing, although there is limited success. Many families especially lower and lower-middle-income live in poor or unfinished houses or rent houses with little possibility of raising funds for building or buying decent homes of their own. The purpose of this study is first, to investigate the extent of affordable housing provision in Tanzania, second, to assess the existing efforts in place of providing affordable housing, and lastly, to assess innovative techniques that would be used to deliver affordable housing that best fit the construction sector. The preliminary findings indicate that apart from institutional investors and a few private developers, the majority of developers do not engage themselves in the provision of affordable housing. One of the reasons is the lack of cheap construction materials. However, it was noted that while some institutional developers have started testing different building technologies that would enable the offering of affordable housing, some few private developers have started using technologies that enabled the offering of affordable housing. On the other hand, institutions of higher learning have started testing different affordable construction materials. However, the efforts in place have yielded insignificant achievements so far. Lack of incentives/subsidies was also mentioned to pose challenges in the provision of affordable housing. This study provides a contribution to the recent discussion on affordable housing, especially in developing countries on the technologies that best fit the construction industry in Tanzania. It is also significant to the policymakers who can influence innovations in the construction industry that will assist in provision of affordable construction materials.

The quest for affordable housing in Africa has never been an easy task nor successful one. Some of the strategies have addressed social justice marginally while some have not. It was intriguing therefore to reflect on these strategies with a view of determining viable mechanisms for a just and sustainable housing delivery in Africa. The paper discusses the significance of land governance and institutional framework for the delivery of housing in the context of the scarce land resources on an equitable basis and abiding with the principles of social justice and livelihood rights. The paper posits just access to land is a difficult concept to decode in urban contexts.

The key arguments pursued in the paper are based on the concept of 'just city' with special focus on land and housing. The ideal just city is where there is social justice which seeks equal distribution of opportunities, rights, and responsibility irrespective of physical characteristics of the urban area, nature and job locations, and social behaviour of the city's dwellers. The three central principles of Just City, 'Equality', 'Democracy' and 'Diversity' as espoused by several scholars in city planning, housing, employment, urban economy, and poverty are examined. Reflections are made on the several initiatives to promote a just city where the right to access land and quality housing has been the prerequisite such as the 'Social Justice Coalition in South Africa, 'Know Your City' and 'smart urbanism'.

This paper is based on desk-top reviews, to explain how households and communities obtain access to land for housing both in the formal and informal arrangements, the extent to which their rights and dignity are addressed, and whether they are fairly treated in the process.

Customary Land Secretariats in Ghana have been in operation for close to two decades. They were introduced as part of the implementation of the Ghana Land Administration Project to help improve upon customary land management and administration at the customary level, bearing in mind their potential to aid the public land sector agencies particularly the Lands Commission, the Office of the Administrator of Stool Lands and the Land Use and Spatial Planning Authority achieve their respective mandates. This work reviewed the operations of existing Customary Land Secretariats vis-a-vis their mandates as prescribed and outlined in the Land Act 2020 (Act 1036) in terms of dispute resolution, recording of customary land grants, coordination and collaboration with stakeholders. The work assessed their overall impact on customary land management. The work lays out the implementation successes and challenges and makes recommendations towards improving their effectiveness. Overall, the work concludes that Customary land Secretariats if well-resourced have the potential to install discipline in the local land market by regulating abuse of authority by some customary land authorises particularly chiefs, clan and family heads and tendons. The work also reviewed progress on the resolution of land-related disputes via Alternative Dispute Resolution. Finally, the work makes recommendations with far-reaching implications for the existing, new and yet-to-be-established Customary land Secretariats.

Purpose: The paper examined the presence of day-of-the-week effect on returns of different classification of South African REITs.

Methodology: The ordinary least square regression (OLS), generalized autoregressive conditional heteroskedasticity (GARCH) (1,1) (2,1) and Kruskal-Wallis (KW) test were ulized on data obtained from the IRESS Expert database from 2013 ll 2021.

Findings: The best day to invest in office, diversified and industrial REITs was Friday, Thursday and Friday respectively. Wednesday was found to be the least profitable day as it had the least average daily return while Tuesday was the most profitable day with the highest average daily return. REITs were traded the most on Friday while REITs were least traded on Monday. Returns were most volatile on Monday while volume was least volatile on Thursday. The KW test revealed a statically significant difference between the median returns across the days of the week. Based on findings, the best day to invest in office REITs is Friday, diversified REITs (Thursday), and industrial REITs, Friday.

Practical Implications: By recognizing the day-of-the-week effect, investors can buy/sell South African REITs more effectively.

Originality: This paper apart from being the first in the context of South African REITs, brings updated evidence of the contested calendar anomalies issues.

The nature of work has changed over the century, and office designers have to create environments that support how people work. As a result, office designers came up with different office space layouts ranging from traditional, private offices to open-plan offices. The type of office layout can substantially influence variables such as communication, social interaction and performance. The purpose of this study is to explore ways in which open-plan offices affect employees' physical, social and mental well-being. The research was carried out within the geographical area of Johannesburg Metropolitan Municipality in South Africa. The research focused on five government departments: the Department of Public Works and Infrastructure, the Department of Infrastructure; the Department of Social Development; the South African Police Service Head Office as well as the Department of Human settlements. The purposive sampling technique was used to identify employees who work in open-plan offices and continue to work in open-plan offices amidst the Covid-19 pandemic. The data collection period occurred between May and September 2021. A survey with open-ended questions was distributed to all the selected employees, and 54 responses were received. Thematic content analysis was used to analyse data received from the survey. The study's findings indicate that open-plan office design has contributed to the deterioration of employees' physical, social and mental well-being in the work environment. The move towards an open plan has contributed to employees' inability to work to their maximum. Employees have experienced reduced concentration span, constant distractions from conversations and movement around the office and decreased overall productivity in the work environment. The findings of this study is relevant to Human Resource Managers, Facilities Managers and office space designers. However, further studies are needed to examine the private and public sectors to understand if the dynamics are the same.

The severity and extent of the challenges bedevilling the informal settlements are dissimilar because of the different geographical and contextual settings. Thus, using a common solution to the menace might not work in all contexts, without first, understudying the peculiar challenges of informal settlements within an area. Additionally, since the cause(s) of informal settlements varied considerably within a country and across countries, understanding the triggers relative to specific locations is necessary; to know what went wrong and how this could be remediated. Therefore, this study aims to, not only, evaluate the environmental challenges, but evaluate the triggers of the Msholozi informal settlement in South Africa. Accordingly, data for the study was collected from the residents, municipal officials, Departments of Human Settlements and Public Works officials. Whilst the results of this study have some commonalities with previous works, including, (1) an insalubrious living environment (2) overstretch of existing poor facilities (3) water and air pollution, and (4) block drainages and erosions among others; the triggers are fundamental. Findings imply that both the government and the dwellers are complicit in the development and challenges being faced thereof, in Msholozi. Thus, it is recommended that urgent and honest steps should be taken by concerned parties, toward remediating the menace. The steps should among others include (1) assemblage of stakeholders for a meeting to understand the genesis of the problem; (2) educating all parties on the consequences of their actions to the environment and the inhabitants; (3) promoting agreement among the stakeholders on their roles and responsibilities towards tackling the challenges; (4) taken the census of the residents to aid the government in decision making.

Zambia is endowed with approximately 12 million hectares of water in form of rivers, lakes, and swamps and 8 million hectares of wetlands (IAPRI, 2015; Haller & Merten, 2008; Musumali et. al., 2009). According to the SADC fact sheet of 2016, Zambia produces 106,798 tons of fish annually and employs about 325,000 people. The contribution of the fisheries sector to rural economic growth and commerce provide significant economic opportunities for the rural poor (Musumali et. al., 2009). Despite such natural endowments, Zambia remains one of the poorest countries in Africa. This socio-economic situation in the country is worse in rural areas of the country. There is increasing evidence that secure access to land-based resources is a prerequisite for livelihood security and development (FAO, 2013; Bugri, 2008).

This study investigates the state of marine and property rights within three fishing camps under customary jurisdiction of Muwezwa (Namunyona and Musozya) and Shakumbila (Namucheche) chiefdoms. The study further investigated the extent to which customary laws is recognised as an integral part of the legal framework. The fishing camps are occupied by local communities that have lived in the area based on customary norms and traditions without any documentation. This is despite the area becoming a hive of economic activities supporting both the local economy and nationally. The Kafue floodplains also attract private companies who acquire land for tourism purposes.

The study involved quantitative and qualitative methods. We collected information using a household survey in the selected villages. The survey was structured to collect detailed information on household main activities, socio-economic characteristics. The survey included questions regarding the property and marine rights of permanent and seasonal residents in the sampled villages.

It is a crystal clear fact that Nigeria is plagued with so many investment challenges and has a long way to go in the application of Information Technology in the real estate sector. Some of these challenges include and are not limited to inadequate land titling and cadastral survey, ineffective real estate financing, insurgency, widespread corruption and a collapsing economy. Nevertheless, there has been an increased investment appetite in the Nigerian Real Estate Market in recent years. Also, it is a well-known fact that technology is an integral part of life that has changed various traditional business models and industries. Hence, the Real estate industry is no exception, as Information Technology is changing the way the industry and the market operate. In this regard, one of the aspects of technology that one cannot overlook is the Metaverse. The concept of the Metaverse is gaining acceptance in the developed world, and every real estate investor should be introduced to what this is all about, why it is gaining popularity, and how it operates. Hence, this paper aims to provide an introduction to property investment and the Metaverse with the objective of evaluating the readiness of the Nigerian Real estate investment market to operate in the Metaverse.

This paper provides a critical examination into the functioning of a housing waiting list document, a critical instrument for the delivery of affordable housing in Zimbabwe's local municipalities. It argues that the housing waiting list document is opaque and has on one hand, made it difficult for poor families to access public housing, while on the other hand, has also accelerated the delivery of public housing to a certain segment of the society that has political capital. Affordable housing is part of the process of getting poorer households on the first step of the ownership ladder and into the property market. If there are prejudices in the process, it leads to unequal entry into the property market for the poorer segment of the population, hindering their economic progress.

The research brings into the conversation the concept of ungovernability popularised by Roy (2009 and Bénit-Gbaffou (2018) to mean the inability to govern. It makes a case that the way in which the housing waiting list is promulgated, used and stored is one of the reasons why access to affordable housing has remained a challenge in cities of the South. The ungovernability of public housing is a deliberate attempt by local governments to achieve certain ends which include but not limited to build support base for political parties, wealth accumulation and maintain cliental relationships by facilitating their entry into the property market. Thus, the failure to deliver public housing has seen local governments 'meddling through' (Bénit-Gbaffou, 2018), rather than governing the housing sector and providing for the poorer segment of the population.

Urban Housing in Africa is dominated by the private rental sector. The sector delivers over 90 percent of housing units in urban Ghana. In spite of this, the urban rental housing sector appears unstructured, complex and informal. Using Kumasi as the primary case, this paper sought to answer the following questions: How is Ghana's urban rental housing market structured? Who are the main actors in the market and what are their roles? How do the relationships and activities of these actors shape rental housing? Rooted in the theory of market economy, the study adopted multiple qualitative methods, including observation, focus group discussions; key informant interviews, institutional consultations and document reviews to gather evidences. The paper reveals the non-existence of a comprehensive institutional and policy framework for the delivery and management of rental housing; thus, giving rise to informal operations of the sector. In the face of rapid urbanisation and rising costs of housing materials, the supply of rental housing lags behind demand leading to high costs of rent and exploitation by prospective tenants.

Global discourse on sustainable construction has aroused great interest in the need for green building proliferation as a strategic means to reduce the environmental harms of conventional buildings. However, green building adoption remains laggard in Ghana as individuals are unwilling to pay extra for green buildings. Researchers have made many recommendations to enhance willingness to pay, recurrent amongst which is benefit sensitisation. However, the impact of benefit sensitisation, especially in the Ghanaian market, remained unproven and unquantified. This study provides clarity to the issue by investigating and quantifying the impact of an undertaken green building benefit sensitisation on the willingness to pay of 630 participants who were unaware of the individual-level benefits of green buildings. The study confirmed a significant impact of benefit sensitisation on willingness to pay for green buildings. After benefit sensitisation, respondents who were initially only willing to pay up to a 5% premium became willing to pay an average of 6 - 10% premium; with only 14.8% of respondents maintaining an unwillingness to pay extra for green buildings.

Although green buildings have been found to be more life-cycle cost-effective than conventional buildings, the capital cost of building green remains greater than that of traditional alternatives, especially in the Ghanaian market. As such, for green buildings to gain proliferation in Ghana, adopters must be willing to bear a cost premium. This study tests Ghana's green building proliferation readiness by investigating Ghanaians' willingness to pay a green building cost premium. An online survey was administered and responded to by 1,227 participants, upon which statistical analysis, including ANOVA and correlation analyses, were conducted. 70.1% of respondents showed a willingness to pay a cost premium for green buildings, with 33.4% of respondents indicating a willingness to pay a premium of up to 5% of the cost of a conventional alternative. Further analyses revealed statistically significant differences in willingness to pay for green buildings across Education levels, Income levels, Environmental Concern levels, and Green Building Awareness levels. However, no significant differences were found between different ages and genders.