Governance and International Investment: Evidence from Real Estate Holdings

Significance After three difficult years, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) real estate market appears to be finding a floor, with several property consultancies and management firms cautiously optimistic over the prospects of a turnaround. New regulatory measures and a delay in some planned real-estate projects aim to support prices. Impacts The importance of the real-estate sector to Emirati non-oil GDP will rise further, magnifying its impact on growth. Dependence on international investment and public-sector spending will expose the sector to volatility in case of regional conflict. The UAE will increasingly look towards Asian countries as property buyers, especially India, China and Pakistan.

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Financial geography II: Financial geographies of housing and real estate

Progress in Human Geography ◽

10.1177/0309132518819503 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 43 (2) ◽

pp. 376-387 ◽

Cited By ~ 28

Author(s):

Manuel B. Aalbers

Keyword(s):

Real Estate ◽

Hedge Funds ◽

Private Equity ◽

Rental Housing ◽

International Investment ◽

Commercial Real Estate ◽

Housing Associations ◽

Residential Housing ◽

Mortgage Securitization ◽

Financial Geography

Geographers have started studying residential (housing) and commercial real estate (offices, retail, leisure) at the intersection of financial and urban geographies to understand how the built environment – chunky and spatially fixed – has been turned into a (quasi-)financial asset – ‘unitized’ and liquid – through a range of regulatory and socio-technical changes and constructions. The financialization of real estate is not limited to the rise in household debt, mortgage securitization and international investment in office markets, but increasingly also affects rental housing: private equity, hedge funds and REITs buy up large portfolios of social and private rented housing, while housing associations use derivatives and other financial instruments. This report surveys the most recent research on finance, real estate and housing.

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