Preface

<abstract xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"> Real estate market development and its sustainability are closely associated with history and development. Numerous problems have existed in society in the course of the years, including socio-economic problems. Real estate market development is also closely related to economic development, philosophical issues, and the analysis of these issues over the course of time makes it possible to explore both the historical development of these issues and the problems. The objective of the study is to analyze the main economic and real estate market development problems in the course of history by placing special emphasis on the economic development cycle and sustainability issues. Analysis, induction, deduction, historical and logical access methods were used in the research. Economic problems affect also the real estate market development, so the analysis of these problems is necessary in order to find possible solution opportunities.</abstract>

Economic and Social Sustainability of Real Estate Market and Problems of Economic Development – a Historical Overview

<abstract xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"> The analysis of the results of long-term air quality monitoring in Riga is presented, which shows that in city centre throughout the measurement time (2004-2014) according to the guidelines defined by the European Union directives and Latvian laws the limits of small particles PM10 and nitrogen dioxide (NO2) are exceeded. From the nature of appearance of pollution and from the research of morphology and composition of fine dust particles it was concluded that in the city centre where the monitoring was performed the main air pollutants are caused by internal combustion engine vehicles. The measures to reduce air pollution performed by two Action Programs (2004-2009; 2011-2015) of the City Council showed that there were only two possible ways to improve air quality in urban environment ‒ to decrease the number of traffic units and/or to decrease exhaust emissions from vehicles. From the analysis of energy consumption and resources used for it the conclusion was drawn that Latvia is dependent on fossil fuel import, especially in traffic sector (99 %). A new trend has been observed in Latvia ‒ the type of cars is changing: the number of gasoline cars rapidly decreases and number of diesel cars is growing. Both fuels in exhaust gases of second-hand cars are giving high emissions of fine particles (soot) and nitrogen oxides as compared with new cars; 72 % of cars on the roads of Latvia are more than 13 years old. The switch to bio-diesel can improve Latvian statistics according to CO2 reduction target for 2020 but not the concentration of PM10 and NO2 on streets with dense traffic. Therefore, to improve air quality in urban environment and simultaneously reduce the dependence of Latvia from fossil fuel import, a scenario is proposed for the changeover to zero-carbon technologies in transport and energy production. Hydrogen is analyzed from the point of view of availability of resources and commercialized technologies. The research of the public opinion was done because there is little awareness in society about hydrogen as energy carrier and simultaneously as fuel.</abstract>

Solution to Urban Air Pollution – Carbon Free Transport

<abstract xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"> Presently the conditions for the commercial property development in Lithuania are favourable. The market indicators are demonstrating positive tendencies. Many international companies are entering the Lithuanian markets because of the supportive governmental instruments of competitive policy for these international companies. There is high demand for the commercial premises, and the respective governmental authorities are regularly improving the construction procedures. These are the factors, which are affecting the commercial property development activities in Lithuania. The aim of this paper is to highlight the factors, which are positively affecting the commercial property development in Lithuania. The key market indicators, supportive instruments for international companies and improvements of the construction procedures in Lithuania are reviewed by the authors, with prime focus on the capital of Lithuania − Vilnius. This paper is intended as guidance to the developers, who are entering the Lithuanian commercial property market.</abstract>

Positive Influencing Factors of Commercial Property Development: Case of Lithuania

<abstract xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"> Islamic banking is one of the alternative financial models of the modern world, which is currently gaining more and more international recognition and reliability both in the East and West. The article reveals separate historical aspects of the genesis of Islamic banking in order to better demonstrate the potential of this financial system now and in the future. The purpose of the research is to highlight the ability of Islamic banking to integrate into the western-dominated economy and society.</abstract>

Insight into Prospects of Islamic Banking: from Past to Present

<abstract xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"> The article analyses impact investment of project financing. Companies’ own funds, own funds of the consortium members, the company’s own resources and budget funding, own funds of the company on the basis of a production sharing agreement, borrowed funds; the funds raised by the bond issue are all considered as the project financing sources in the natural resource field. The purpose of this article is to consider various opportunities to support environmentally oriented projects in the framework of project financing, including through attracting funds of banks for the development of “green” economy. The role of banks and the banking sector in supporting environmentally and socially oriented projects is analysed. The experience of banks in Asia, Europe and the United States in terms of “green” economy projects is shown. Moreover, environmental and social risks, and impact of a project, the project compliance with the norms and standards of responsible finance are all considered in this article. Classification of environmental projects with the purpose of project financing is proposed, and also the scheme of interaction between stakeholders is shown, including banks, in the implementation of projects reducing greenhouse gas emissions. Furthermore, impact investment in financing projects with the participation of banking sector is analysed and justified on the example of such countries as Mongolia, Russia, Japan, the United States and others. Evaluation procedures and the selection of projects for social investment purposes are shown in the article, including the measures of supporting banks for the project implementation in the field of “green” economy. The following research methods are considered: systematic analysis, environmental economic analysis environmental auditing, statistical methods for evaluating the costs and benefits from implementing environmentally oriented projects, methods of assessment of damage from environmental pollution, etc.</abstract>

Plekhanov Russian University of Economics,

Impact Investment of Project Financing: Opportunity for Banks to Participate in Supporting Green Economy

<abstract xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"> The research provides an insight into village development planning, as well as considers village planning from the perspective of the national planning framework. Local settings of village development have also been taken into account. The research provides information about possible approaches for local community involvement in development decision-making. The article aims at considering the current situation of the involvement of local communities in the advancement of local territories and at presenting the proposals for public involvement models. Analysis, logical and historical data access methods, induction and deduction have been used in the present research.</abstract>

Community Participiation in Village Development: the Scale of Latvia

<abstract xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"> The issue of residential housing management, depending on the chosen form of the residential housing administration, is topical both from the perspective of residential building apartment owners, if apartment owners have chosen to manage the building themselves, and from the residential house manager’s point of view, if the management of the residential building has been entrusted to a professional manager. This is justified by the fact that the process of residential housing maintenance and management is based on knowledge, experience and financial resources; besides, it should be carried out by meeting the existing legislative requirements of the European Union and the Republic of Latvia, as well as the interests of the apartment owners. In Latvia, in order to manage a residential building, the administrator is required to have appropriate professional education, which, according to the Law of Residential Housing Management, should be at least the 4th level of Professional Qualification accepted in Latvia (the 5th level of European Qualifications Framework, EQK, and Latvian Qualifications Framework, LQK). The topicality of the study is related to the fact that in Latvia the law stipulates that a residential housing manager should have vocational education, which can be obtained at a number of public educational institutions. In the management process owners can choose their preferred management model, but right now the Register of the Ministry of Economics does not provide full information about the professionalism of an administrator. The goal of the study is determined by the topicality of the theme - to explore the existing models of residential housing management in the Latvian market and professional capacity of specialists involved in management. Within the framework of the study, statistical, qualitative and analytical methods have been used. As at present in Latvia there is no unified system for the accounting of housing management education in the market, the research results will contribute to its development and creation.</abstract>

Capacity of Professional Specialists in Residential Housing Management in Latvia

<abstract xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"> One of the most important parameters that is currently used in public and private procurement in building process is the lowest price. The legislation of Latvia permits that an estimate forming process does not include criterions of quality, durability, and the potential high cost of maintaining the building during the exploitation time. That allows the constructor to reduce the cost estimate by using cheaper construction product or technology and does not let to provide the highest possible quality and the basic principle of sustainable construction. One of possible construction cost reduction solutions is the replacement of building material with equal building material, at the same time assessing the quality and replacement impact on the direct costs of estimate. The tasks of the research are: (1) to do literature review on what is an estimate, what an estimate includes and the basis of estimate; (2) to analyse the existing construction estimate, to evaluate the used construction materials and to study technical characteristics of materials, to explore a specific construction junction; (3) to replace the selected construction materials with analogous, thus reducing the direct costs of estimate; (4) to evaluate the affect of the price of the construction material on quality; (5) to compare the obtained cost estimate with the current cost estimate; (6) to implement laboratory research and to compare technical characteristics of the construction materials and analogue materials in order to check if they are the performing parameters that are defined in the declaration of performance. After comparing of the obtained direct costs of construction and analysing the quality of construction materials it is possible to provide the most appropriate offer of the direct costs of estimate to satisfy the customer’s interests.</abstract>

Cost Estimate Reduction Using Analogue Building Materials

<abstract xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"> Investment tendencies in a country and particular region in general have a crucial role in the creation of the sustainable environment of the city, spatial planning and land use management. Green construction has great potential for investing and can provide variety of benefits for sustainable longterm development of the country. The aim of the research is to analyse the environmental and economical substantiation of investments in green buildings, with particular focus on the experience of Germany. The researchers used logical, inductive, quantitative and statistical analysis logical methods, analysis of scientific literature as well as comparative analysis. Lack of information is a peculiarity of real estate market, and especially affects the activities in green building construction, that also shows the necessity of developing economic and environmental criteria for substantiation of the decision-making process. Future research directions have been identified as well.</abstract>

The Environmental and Economic Substantiation of Investments in Green Buildings

<abstract xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"> With increasing global competitiveness, countries must have instruments to attract and keep businesses. One way involves attracting a core of foreign investors with the help of special economic zones (SEZs) and integrating them in local economy, causing industrial clustering. The aim of this research is to lay the groundwork for a comprehensive analysis of clustering potential in Latvia via its special economic zones. The empirical research relied on survey results conducted among 27 business associations with the combined member count of over one thousand businesses, operating in 12 broad fields. Initial results gathered from the 24 organizations that responded to the interview questions show that there is a very low degree of involvement in the SEZ by various social partners. This shows that something has gone awry in the way SEZ operate in Latvia and has led to a lot of missed opportunities from both sides.</abstract>

Social Partner Involvement in Latvia Special Economic Zones

<abstract xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"> One of the main factors that constrains using of venture investment in innovative projects in the field of construction is high risk of this type of investment. Thus, the problem of risk assessment is relevant in the venture investment of innovative projects. First of all, it should be noted that the risks in the construction industry have considerable specificity and heterogeneity. Real options approach is an important tool with venture investment at all stages. It can be widely used in innovative projects in construction for accurate risk assessment.</abstract>

Analysis of Quantitative Methods of Risk Assessment and Selection of Optimal Method Using Venture Investment in Innovative Projects in Construction

<abstract xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"> Housing is one of the most important life components giving shelter, safety and warmth, as well as providing a place to rest. There is a lack of unified definition for housing concept in Latvia. The aim of the study is to define the housing concept in general in Latvia and develop proposals for the classification of housing. Principal objectives are to describe and analyse the concept of “housing” and to develop the definition of housing concept in general that could be used in housing policy in Latvia for developing housing classification and analysing the aims of the housing policy. Analytical research method and comparative research method was used. The results and principal conclusions are: The developed definition of the term “housing” and the housing classification could be used in developing and implementing the housing policy as well as for statistics in Latvia and in other EU countries.</abstract>

Housing Concept and Analysis of Housing Classification

AHEAD OF PRINT

Volume 12 (2024): Issue 1 (January 2024)

Volume 11 (2023): Issue 1 (January 2023)

Volume 10 (2022): Issue 1 (January 2022)

Volume 9 (2021): Issue 1 (January 2021)

Volume 8 (2020): Issue 1 (January 2020)

Volume 7 (2019): Issue 1 (January 2019)

Volume 6 (2018): Issue 1 (January 2018)

Volume 5 (2017): Issue 1 (November 2017)

Volume 4 (2016): Issue 1 (November 2016)

Volume 3 (2015): Issue 1 (December 2015)

Baltic Journal of Real Estate Economics and Construction Management

The journal is published by RTU in collaboration with two partner universities in the Baltic Region - Tallinn University of Technology (Estonia) and Vilnius Gediminas Technical University (Lithuania).  The objectives of the journal are to extend the fundamental knowledge of real estate market and civil construction and to provide information that would help the industry practitioners and entrepreneurs, as well as academic staff to increase the efficiency, productivity and competitiveness of real estate and construction market. We invite authors publish their articles in the journal, reflecting the topical research that would be useful for making business decisions in such areas as sustainable development and management of sound environment, devoting special attention to real estate and construction market analyses and assessment.  Peer review process  All manuscripts are subject to double-blind peer review by two internationally recognised experts. Article undergoes the double-blind peer review process after the evaluation of article according to the general requirements of the BJREECM Journal and after passing the CrossCheck plagiarism test procedures.  Peer review process may take up to one month (average). The average term, given to the reviewer, are two weeks, but, some delays are possible. In case the topic of the article is very specific, and delay in the review process may happen, but the aim is to provide the review results to authors as soon as possible – in one month, or earlier. Fees for reviewers are not practiced.  Reviewers should make reviews objectively. Personal criticism of author(s) should be avoided. Information received in the review process is confidential from scientific, legal and ethical points of view.  Corrections to the article can be suggested to the author also before the peer review stage by the Editorial Team. Resulting evaluation of the article can be as follows: accept, accept with minor corrections, accept only after corrections and repeated review, refuse. If not sufficient corrections have been done by authors after receiving the review, where some corrections to the article were asked, the Editor-in-Chief has the right to reject the article.  The Editor-in-Chief makes a decision on the article publication based on minimum two referee reviews. Documents, such as a preface etc., should not be peer-reviewed.  The confidentiality of authors and reviewers is ensured in the double-blind peer review process.  Post-publication discussions and corrections  Post-publication discussions and correction opportunities are in the process of development and discussion. Technical corrections in affiliations, ORCID iD numbers and some other information (spelling mistakes etc.) are possible. Post-publication discussion can be done by contacting the corresponding author directly or the Journal editors by bjreecm@rtu.lv. The opportunity to add supplementary files after online publication of an article (e.g., publication of additional files with data), is not practiced yet in the Journal.  Why subscribe and read  The journal articles reflect diverse research results concerning real estate sector, related sectors and interacting branches of science in the context of contemporary market development, which allows classifying the journal in the category of interdisciplinary scientific journals. The Baltic Journal of Real Estate Economics and Construction Management covers the following research directions:   built environment;  real estate valuation and development;  real estate policy, investments and management methodology;  legal framework of real estate and construction industries;  trends in residential management;  energy efficiency and performance of buildings;  renewable energy sources, engineering systems and novel indoor climate solutions;  sustainability and circular economy in real estate and building industry;  information and smart technologies in real estate and building industry;  urban engineering and economy;  urban landscape and smart built environment;  development and cost estimation in civil construction;  social, economic and political aspects of built environment;  innovative building designs and materials;  land use management;  other related fields.   Why submit  All manuscripts are subject to double blind peer review by two internationally recognised experts. The journal has neither article processing charges (APCs) nor article submission charges.  Archiving  Sciendo archives the contents of this journal in Portico - digital long-term preservation service of scholarly books, journals and collections.  Plagiarism Policy  The editorial board is participating in a growing community of Similarity Check System's users in order to ensure that the content published is original and trustworthy. Similarity Check is a medium that allows for comprehensive manuscripts screening, aimed to eliminate plagiarism and provide a high standard and quality peer-review process.  Journal history  Currently known as: Baltic Journal of Real Estate Economics and Construction Management (2013 - current).Vol. 2019 (7), Vol. 2018 (6), Vol. 2017 (5), Vol. 2016. (4), Vol. 2015 (3) are available at content.sciendo.com/view/journals/bjreecm/bjreecm-overview.xml?tab_body=toc-68871 (Issues)Vol. 2014 (2) is available at bjreecm-journals.rtu.lv/issue/view/60/showTocVol. 2013 (1) is available at bjreecm-journals.rtu.lv/issue/view/32Formerly known as: Building Entrepreneurship and Real Estate Development, ISSN 2243-6030 (2011 - 2012) 