The School of Architecture, Design and the Built Environment at Nottingham Trent University has an ambitious development strategy which allows us to offer an exciting opportunity for a PhD Studentship. The studentships will pay UK/EU fees and provide a maintenance stipend linked to the RCUK rate (£13,590 per annum for 2011/12) for up to three years. Real estate is a major asset class nationally and internationally and it has a major impact on the macroeconomy, having a significant role in the recent recession. Research in real estate economics and investment has advanced significantly over the last decade as longer time series databases have become available. In addition, there has been a significant growth in the scale of international real estate investment consequent upon the globalisation of production processes and financial deregulation (Tiwari and White, 2010). There is also strengthened interconnection between real estate markets, the financial sector and national economies that impact on the amplitude of fluctuation of economic cycles. These factors also raise the importance of obtaining good quality data upon which to build economic models that can show the operation of real estate markets across countries.

In this PhD study, the student would examine real estate market models that link occupation, investment and development sectors, considering how to effectively model the investment sector that has historically often been treated as exogenous to such models. As part of this, market adjustment processes in occupation and investment markets would be explicitly considered and different models of adjustment would be estimated. The empirical model estimated would be able to show the interaction between the real estate market and the macroeconomy and would also link to the theoretical issues of market adjustment towards trend growth paths. Econometric theory supporting model construction and inference would also be investigated to ensure model validity. Having constructed the market model, the study would then proceed to consider how this model could be applied to examine real estate markets internationally, nationally, and regionally. It would examine additional factors that have differing levels of importance at different spatial scales and the drivers of investment across national boundaries. Issues of market efficiency, liquidity, market size, and the wider capital market would be considered (see Dunse et al, 2007 and 2010). Real estate investment decision making would then be evaluated in light of the evidence from market models applied at different scales of analysis. The models would also be used as a basis for identification of the importance of key factors and to simulate and forecast market performance.

Scholarship Application Deadline: 15 April 2011

Further Scholarship Information and Application