Volume 23 (2015): Issue 3 (September 2015)

The economic theory argues that the value of assets, including the value of real property, is influenced by many factors which determine the behavior of operators engaged in market transactions. The knowledge of basic principles and assumptions which underpin the development of value is essential to understanding the methods and procedures of valuation. The thesis, upon which the authors of this article based their theoretical and practical considerations, is formulated as follows: “The knowledge of economic principles of valuation improves the accuracy of valuation and allows for more appropriate interpretation of its results”. Therefore, these factors should be taken into account by appraisers estimating the value of property. Over a dozen so-called key principles of valuation have been formulated in literature. Among them are the principles of anticipation, change, substitution, supply and demand, competition, balance, highest and best use, conformity, and externalities. It is assumed that the most important principle in the valuation of property is the principle of anticipation. Some of the principles are relevant to all the traditional approaches to determining value, while others apply only to selected approaches e.g., the principle of opportunity cost, which is mainly used in valuations using the income approach. The thesis is supported by research results and an analysis of practical examples.

There are several acknowledged methods for determining residential property price indices. However, all of them have their drawbacks and advantages and reflect the averaged real movements of prices with varying accuracy. The paper attempts to answer the question: How faithfully do indices based on asking prices reflect the movements of traded prices? As a result we will find out whether, in the situation when property price indices cannot be determined, asking price based indices can be used instead. The paper specifies theoretical and practical aspects of constructing residential property price indices on the basis of asking and traded prices. It also contains an empirical analysis of these two index types.

The enterprise's market value is one of the main parameters characterizing the condition of the business entity, its development prospects and market position. It is an important criterion considered by managers and investors. Among the wide group of business valuation methods, multiple-based methods of valuation can be distinguished. Their undeniable advantage is the relative simplicity and speed of carrying out the process of valuation. An important condition for their application is a sufficiently developed and mature capital market.

The aim of the paper is to present the potential of the application of multiple-based methods in the valuation of real estate development companies. The analysis will be conducted on the basis of the experience of the Polish market.

Referring to the developed and presented in previous publications (e.g. Barańska 2011) two-stage algorithm for real estate valuation, this article addresses the problem of the relationship between the two stages of the algorithm. An essential part of the first stage is the multi-dimensional function modelling of the real estate market. As a result of selecting the model best fitted to the market data, in which the dependent variable is always the price of a real property, a set of market attributes is obtained, which in this model are considered to be price-determining. In the second stage, from the collection of real estate which served as a database in the process of estimating model parameters, the selected objects are those which are most similar to the one subject to valuation and form the basis for predicting the final value of the property being valued. Assessing the degree of similarity between real properties can be carried out based on the full spectrum of real estate attributes that potentially affect their value and which it is possible to gather information about, or only on the basis of those attributes which were considered to be price-determining in function modelling. It can also be performed by various methods. This article has examined the effect of various approaches on the final value of the property obtained using the two-stage prediction. In order fulfill the study aim precisely as possible, the results of each calculation step of the algorithm have been investigated in detail. Each of them points to the independence of the two procedures.

The aim of this paper is to present the concept, classification and significance of the involvement of tenants in the processes of managing council flats. Tenant participation is becoming an increasingly popular subject of research owing to numerous benefits in the field of social housing stock management, such as better adjustment of property managers’ services to tenants’ needs and preferences, or an increase in the efficiency and economics of management. However, the mobilization of tenants will be successful only if they can participate in the decision-making process in a relatively high degree. Our discussion focuses on social housing stock in Poland.

This article concerns the problem of formulating assumptions in scenario analysis for investments which consist of the renting out of an apartment. The article attempts to indicate the foundations for the formulation of assumptions on the basis of observed retrospective regularities. It includes theoretical considerations regarding scenario design, as well as the results of studies on the formulation, in the past, of quantities which determined or were likely to bring closer estimate the value of the individual explanatory variables for a chosen measure of investment profitability (MIRR_FCFE). The dynamics of and correlation between the variables were studied. The research was based on quarterly data from local residential real estate markets in Poland (in the six largest cities) in the years 2006 – 2014, as well as on data from the financial market.

The similarity between premises, statutorily defined as the comparability of the compiled objects, is, in practice, identified by the statement of identity or the proximity of evaluation of the selected features describing the complied objects. Independent of the nature of these features (qualitative or quantitative), as well as of the method of identifying the proximity of their prices, the quest process for similar premises ends in the compilation of these premises into a group, which continues to remain inconsistent to some extent. The inevitable heterogeneity of the prices of premises summarized in this way leads to the suspicion that other features which had not been taken into account during the current stages of analysis exist. The identification of these features can significantly improve the quality of the valuation process based on the selected premises.

The presented article discusses a method of identifying the plausible number of indiscernible factors influencing the differentiation of unitary prices in an analyzed set of premises, in the event when the collected information on these premises does not provide sufficient knowledge on the reasons behind such a differentiation. The result of the performed research can, in practice, be applied to program the procedures for the data search, and hence reduce the costs related to the acquisition of information on the premises (e.g. from the real estate market).

Development activity in Poland began to increase in the 1990's as a result of market-oriented reforms, with the process continuing to this day. The beginnings were, however, not easy due to, among others, the absence of many important legal regulations and the lack of commercial financing. The situation changed in the second half of the 1990's, positively affecting residential development activity. The years 2008 - 2009 were particularly relevant in the course of the studied trend as a sharp increase in the number of completed developer-built residential dwelling units was recorded at this time. After this period, a decline in the number of dwelling units completed by developers was recorded, which indicates its strong dependence on changes in the economic environment. Fluctuations in the number of dwelling units completed by developers were also visible before Poland's accession to the European Union. This means that the diversity of development activity is influenced by many factors.

The available literature generally states that the growth of the real estate market depends on demand. Effective demand for real estate is understood as the number of people who are willing and financially able to buy or rent a particular kind of property at different prices, at a given time and in a given market. Therefore, it can be assumed that local factors have a particular impact on the growth of development activity. However, the question arises as to which of the many local factors are important to the growth of development activity and what factors can be used by local authorities to more effectively stimulate the growth of residential housing in their area.

The aim of the paper is to determine by means of econometric instruments the significance of the impact of individual local factors on development activity in the residential housing market in the largest cities of Poland.

In recent years, real estate bubbles have been commonplace in housing markets all over the world. That’s why we examine the relation between housing prices during bubbles in 101 cities located in ten different countries, aiming to explain the housing market cycle during a housing bubble, using economic and housing indicators. We obtained data on eight variables used in market cycle analysis which may be able to explain the existence of speculation and the ideal market cycle. The obtained resultsshow that many of economic and housing indicators begin to decrease while housing prices peak. Only the quantity of transactions peaks during the following year. We also observed that a housing bubble can follow three different scenarios, i.e.: the bubble does not burst, or can burst with a slow decline or sudden and rapid collapse. Finally, it is possible to determine that the same variables can provide clear insight into a bubble in the real estate cycle.

This study covers the issue of activities of the Agricultural Property Agency in terms of state aid in the form of non-repayable financial aid, with the following specific objectives: determining the scale and diversity of state aid granted by the APA (including the local branch in Olsztyn), evaluating the current technical condition of some of the assets and their condition upon being handed over by the APA, determining their importance, main problems associated with resources which are taken over, identifying and assessing the importance of actions which encourage communes to take over property still held by the APA, assessing the scale and procedure of aid granted in the opinion of representatives of APA units. The article makes use of information obtained from the local branch of the APA in Olsztyn in the years 2003-2014. A direct survey among the entities was taken. The survey questionnaire was sent in 2014 to all communes (gminas) of the Province (Voivodeship) of Warmia and Mazury (116 units). Completed questionnaires were returned by 73 representatives of the communes. A total of PLN 327.1 million was allotted in the Agency’s financial plans for the program of non-repayable financial aid during the period from 2009 to 2014. Approximately 81.6% of PLN 164.4 million granted by the local branch of the APA in Olsztyn, was granted to units of the public finance sector. As was shown in the survey conducted among representatives of local governments, the interest of communes in taking over assets still held by² the local branch of the APA in Olsztyn could be increased by limiting the number of tenants who do not pay the rent regularly and by increasing the amount of non-repayable financial aid. It is possible to carry out the latter action, but the former could prove to be extremely difficult.

It can be argued that sustainable urban land development depends on the long-term viability and management success of local economic development. It can be further argued that here, economic sustainability is the key. This would furthermore signify a paradigm change to long-term administrative behavior (via an institutional approach), long-term market behavior (heterodox economics approach), and human behavior in actors’ consumption and location choices (behavioral approach). This article examines two criteria within this discourse: innovativeness and social cohesion. In doing so, it proposes a framework for empirical analysis where it is suggested that western, post-socialist and low developed cases choose different strategies due to their different starting points.