You are
a member of a team of real estate consultants who have been contracted by a
Dutch investment company ‘Uberreste Management’, to provide a comparative
assessment of potential direct investment opportunities in the non-residential
property markets of two British cities: Glasgow and Manchester.
This assessment should be based
on an analysis of the following information for the past decade:
1.
Economic trends in both cities, which provide a profile
of the urban economy.
2.
The impact of regional and urban policies on the
property market in both cities;
3.
Indicators of property market activity in both cities
with particular reference to user and investor characteristics, the performance
of user and investment markets and key development projects/trends;
4.
Based on the results of the above and other relevant
sources, and considering the sustainability agenda put forward by each city,
regenerative design principles and the role that real estate can play in
addressing SDGs:
SDG’S STAND FOR SUSTAINABLE
DEVELOPMENT GOALS
Provide the client with a detailed recommendation (investment strategy)
based on any investment opportunities you have identified and how they can
deliver the regenerative principles objectives (beyond the sustainable
development goals) in the local real estate market. (1800 words)
About
the UN SDGs:
Although
the real estate sector has already made significant progress towards including
and addressing sustainable development issues, there is a view that there is
much further scope to address the UN sustainable development goals (SDGs),
which were published in 2015. These goals have been set at a global level and
the aim is for governments, businesses and civil society to meet them by 2030. https://sdgs.un.org/goals
In
April 2018, the RICS released a report that outlines the role that global real
estate can play in addressing SDGs:
https://www.rics.org/globalassets/rics–website/media/about/advancing–responsible–business–unsustainable–development–rics.pdf
https://www.rics.org/about–rics/responsible–business/un–sustainable–development
The
main objective of the report is to advise your client on investment
opportunities for enhancing existing services and providing new services to
help their clients address SDGs in the future. To do so, you need to develop an
understanding of opportunities and threats associated with SDGs.
The Executive Summary
should outline both the main findings and recommendations. Busy senior
staff will read only this section. However, the rest of the report lends
authority to the summary.
Readers who query a particular finding or recommendation
can delve into the appropriate section in more depth, to reassure themselves
that you have done your homework, and that your conclusions i.e. valuations
rest on solid evidence.
The Introduction should
explain who commissioned the report i.e. name of client, the purpose of the
report, client objectives,
The Main content will
cover the expected performance of the property sector over the next five years;
the strategy in terms of composition of the property fund by type, tenure,
location, management etc, how you will manage any acquisitions requiring
specialist management skills and explain any risks associated with the strategy
you propose.
The Findings/
Conclusions and recommendations should. take due consideration of any
management strategy which might affect your choice of suitable properties,
provide commentary on its compliance with the strategy and hence suitability
for inclusion in the portfolio; provide analysis of the portfolio with the new
acquisitions with recommendations for the future property investment and both
proposals for purchase should be supported by Agents’ particulars submitted in
an appendix.
The Appendices should
contain supporting material which supports your valuation, but which does not
belong logically in the main body of the report. These include the property
marketing specification, schedule of comparables, analysis of comparables and
valuation or cash flow to justify purchase price and compliance with strategy.
The
References is
a list of main sources cited in your text – books, reports, newspaper articles,
journal articles or official statements. This reassures readers that your
methods, findings and recommendations rest on a solid body of research and
experience. It also enables anyone who wishes to explore in more detail a
particular issue you have raised to do so by following up some of the sources
you have cited. If they do, this is also likely to reinforce their interest and
hence commitment to the issues raised in your report.
Guidelines:
▪
Any assumptions on rents, yields and multipliers
must be clearly stated where they support your answers, including source and
rationale.
▪
Any sources for the above shall be included in
your appendix to allow your 1800 wordcount to focus on your task.
▪
Any supporting calculations to be place in the
appendix and additional excel file.
▪
For guidance on report writing please see
Appendix 1 below.
▪
Wordcount of this assignment: 1800 words and the
primary focus is the recommendation to your client.
▪
You should note that your report should contain
a 400 words executive summary (not included in the word count).
▪
You must include a bibliography using Harvard
and OSCOLA referencing (this is not in the word count).
Format of your work: MS Word (.doc or .docx) OR Adobe Acrobat (.pdf) ▪ Spreadsheet format: MS Excel (.xls or .xlsx)