Purpose - The role of list price is often discussed in a narrative describing sellers’ preferences or sellers’ price expectations. This paper investigates a set of list price strategies that real estate brokers have available to influence the outcome of the sale, which may be many times self-serving.

Design/methodology/approach - By analyzing real estate brokers’ arguments on the choice of list price level, a couple of hypotheses are formulated with regard to different expected outcomes that depend on list price. We empirically test two hypotheses for the underlying incentives in the choice of list price from the real estate broker’s perspective: (1) lower list price compared to market value leads to higher sales price, (2) lower list price compared to market value leads to a quicker sale. In order to investigate the two hypotheses, we adopt different methodological frameworks: hypothesis 1 is tested by running a classical hedonic model, while hypothesis 2 is tested through a duration model. We further test the hypotheses splitting the full sample into two different price segments: above and below median list price.

Findings – The results show that hypothesis 1 is rejected for the full sample as well as for the two sub-samples. That is, contrary to the common narrative among brokers that underpricing leads to a higher sales price, underpricing lower sales price. Hypothesis 2, however, receives support for the full sample as well as for the two sub-samples. The latter result points to that brokers may be tempted to recommend a list price significantly below the expected selling price in order to minimize their effort while showing a high turnover of apartments.

Originality/value – Although there are a large number of previous studies analyzing list price strategies in the housing market, this paper is one of the few empirical studies that addresses the effect of list price choice level on auction outcomes of non-distressed housing sales.

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to present defects reported by cooperative owners, and to determine the relationship between building characteristics, developer's/contractor's company size and defect type. Design/methodology/approach The analysis is based on defects reported by board members of cooperatives in Sweden through a survey questionnaire. The 1,563 questionnaires were posted by regular mail to the boards of cooperatives for buildings. The current research presents results from analysis of responses from 394 regular residential projects constructed between 2006 and 2013. The responses represent owners' experience from a total 1,107 buildings. Findings Findings presented in this study indicate that building quality might be one of the factors contributing to the energy gap. The analysis indicates that the most severe problems reported by cooperatives are issues related to building envelope, particularly shortcomings in the function of windows, issues related to the function of the balcony and cracks in the facade and leakage caused by rain water. The results show that the building quality differs depending on developers' size, measured by number of employees. The authors have also found a significant relationship between reported defects and location expressed by size of the city/municipality. Originality/value The discussion on newly constructed residential buildings has been dominated by the perspective of professionals (inspectors) and contractors (or developers) rather than of the owners/users themselves. This study presents findings from the owners' perspective, thus contributing the owners' viewpoint to the debate on building quality.

Purpose This paper aims to empirically test the effect of list price and bidding strategies in ascending auctions of residential real estate. Design/methodology/approach Three regression models are estimated, using a unique data set from 629 condominium apartments in the inner-city of Stockholm, Sweden, sold between January 2010 and December 2011. Findings The results show that jump bidding has the predicted effect of reducing competition by scaring off bidders. However, a higher average bid increment leads to a higher selling price. Furthermore, results show that a fast auction in terms of average time between bids acts to increase the probability of so-called auction fever as both the number of bidders and the selling price are positively correlated with the speed of the auction. While the average behavior of all auction participants, in terms of jump bidding and time between bids, significantly affects auction outcomes, differences in strategies applied by winners and losers show mixed results. The results of this study with respect to sellers' list price strategy show that underpricing is an ineffective strategy in terms of enticing more bidders to participate in the auction. Furthermore, underpricing is not sufficient to have a positive effect on the selling price. Originality/value This paper is one of the first papers to empirically analyze how different bidding strategies affect the outcome of residential real estate auctions in terms of competition and the final selling price.

This paper empirically tests the effect of the number of bidders on the sale price of condominium apartments in Stockholm by using data gathered during 2010. The results show that the number of participants in a real estate auction plays a significant role in the final auctioned price. The average price per square meter paid by every extra bidder has an increasing but decelerating growth, starting with an approximate 4 percent increase when going from one to two bidders.

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to demonstrate the use of assessment to manage some of the challenges diversity brings into the teaching and learning in international real estate degree programs. Design/methodology/approach: The paper is a multi-year case study of a course in real estate valuation in a Swedish University. The impact of assessment on student experience and performance was analyzed. Findings: Changes in the timing and rules of assessment have an appreciable impact on differences in student performance. However, some diversity problems must be addressed also at the program level. Practical implications: Real estate departments must exercise pedagogical leadership if they are to continue to effectively provide globally relevant education. Originality/value: This paper analyses one of the consequences of the expansion of international real estate education into a non-traditional destination for foreign students.

Under senare år har s.k. ”lockpriser” inför försäljning av främst bostadsrätter diskuterats flitigt i media. Syftet med denna studie är att analysera orsaker till uppkomsten av lockpriser och hur mäklare och säljare resonerar beträffande prissättning på bostadsrätter samt att föreslå tänkbara åtgärder till problemet. Studien omfattar dels en empirisk analys av utgångspriser och försäljningspriser i Västerås och Stockholms innerstad för att kvantifiera förekomsten av lockpriser och dels intervjuer av mäklare verksamma i dessa geografiska områden för att få deras syn på prissättningsmekanismer och problematiken med lockpriser. Studien bygger på: Matchning av utgångspriser på Hemnets internetsida och Mäklarsamfundets databasinnehållande slutliga försäljningspriser. Intervjuer med mäklare från Stockholm och Västerås Genomgång av tidigare forskning Huvudresultaten från denna studie kan sammanfattas i följande punkter: Det har varit betydligt större skillnad mellan slutpris och utgångspris i Stockholm jämfört med Västerås. I Stockholms innerstad var den genomsnittliga skillnaden, under tidsperioden januari 2007 – oktober 2007, 28 % - 35 % beroende på stadsdel. I Västerås var skillnaden i genomsnitt ca 10 %. Skillnaden mellan slutpris och utgångspris sjönk i Stockholms innerstad from september i takt med att marknadsläget försämrades. I november var skillnaden ca 10 %. I Västerås däremot låg skillnaden på en konstant låg nivå under hela undersökningsperioden. En majoritet av de tillfrågade mäklarna i Stockholm ansåg att nedkylningen under senaste del av året var en självreglering av marknaden. Aktörer på marknaden (köpare och säljare) lär sig ganska snabbt förhållandet mellan utgångs- och slutpris så att ett lågt utgångspris troligen har lite betydelse om man vet var slutpriset kommer att hamna i. Ett sätt minska riskerna med för låga utgångspriser är att mäklarna åläggs att publicera mer information om noterade priser. Lockpriserna behöver inte vara en medveten strategi från mäklarens sida utan det kan uppstå som en följd av en spelsituation där det är riskfyllt för den mäklare som ändrar sitt utgångspris först - både när marknaden går upp och när den går ner. Utgångspriserna kommer du att svänga betydligt mindre än priserna på marknaden.

This project was started in order to get an overview of conceptual problems, measurement problems, theories of determinants of yields, the use of yields in different contexts and how the actors on the Swedish market looked upon yields. Important issues discussed in the report is the need for:

- Conceptual clarity: A number of different yield terms exist on the market and it is very important to be clear about how the specific terms are defined.

- Operational clarity: There are measurement problems both concerning rental incomes, operating and maintenance costs and property values. This means that reported yields can be “manipulated” by choosing suitable operationalisations and pushing estimations of uncertain factors in directions that are favourable to the actor in question.

- Specify the purpose for which the yield should be used. The most important distinction is between using yields/income returns for valuation purposes and using yields as benchmarks or bubble indicators. In the first case various types of normalization of the net operating income can be rational. In the second case it is important that the figure reflects “actual” incomes and costs, and that the concept is standardized and in such a way that the room for manipulation is small.

- A clear view about how yields/income returns should develop according to different theories, e.g how the relate to the real return on other investments, inflation levels, risks and expectations about the development of the net operating income. Theories can always be questioned but they give a framework that are helpful in getting a perspective on what is happening on a specific market, and evaluate e.g. if property prices develop in a way that could be a bubble on the market.