Property rights are constructs in the field of law and economics for determining how a resource or economic good is owned, employed or controlled in some other dimension. Property-rights theory can then be said to be an exploration or analysis of how the creation and allocation of property rights to some resource (including land) may increase the efficiency of an economy, as the gains from providing the property rights exceeds the costs. Property rights theory is a powerful method of analysis within the field of Real Estate and Construction Management/Land Development.

The text is primarily intended for educational purposes, specifically for a doctoral course in Real Estate Theory, but should also be of interest to a wider circle of students and researchers.

The material covers property rights theory, and different property rights regimes. A number of different types of property rights applications are also presented, i.a. the legal relationships between subject, right and object, the content of ownership and other rights (bundle-of-rights approach), benefits and costs of property rights, public interference with property rights, and alternatives to property rights.