The real estate market of EU countries has undergone a severe global financial crisis 2008–2009, recovered successfully later, and now experiencing significant uncertainty due to the COVID-19 pandemic event. Significant volatility of the real estate business is once again evident, just as it was following the global financial crisis. The paper aims to provide a case study of a real estate project by giving insight into the Latvian real estate project that had been experiencing similar economic uncertainty, to demonstrate hybrid real options valuation (ROV) method to adapt real estate investments to changing circumstances and to develop the decision-making solution to similar EU real estate problems during the pandemic. The paper provides the “step-by-step” ROV application’s methodology in real estate development projects. The presented methodology is a powerful managerial risk management tool for the executives of similar real estate development projects in the EU countries struggling to make investment decisions in the pandemic and post-pandemic period. Since any estimation includes assumptions, ROV results should be interpreted and perceived as approximations only. The future works can provide robust ROV analyses and interpretations regarding the demand for real estate, showing quantitatively how competition can impact strategic investment decisions. Full article

This paper explores the effects of home-sharing platforms in general and Airbnb in particular on rental rates at a neighbourhood level. Using consumer-facing Airbnb data from ten neighbourhoods located within large metropolitan areas in the U.S. between 2013–2017, as well as rental data from the American online real estate database company, Zillow, this paper examines the relationship between Airbnb penetration and rental rates. The results indicate that the relationship is not as unanimous as once thought. Viewing the relationship at an aggregate level, an approach used by many researchers in the past, hides the complexities of the underlying effects. Instead, Airbnb’s impact on rental rates depends on a neighbourhood’s individual characteristics. This study also urges policy makers to create tailor-made solutions that help curb the negative impacts associated with the platform whilst still harnessing its economic benefits. Full article

Presently, one of the most critical challenges for e-government and e-banking is the accurate and correct realization of factors that have a significant impact on customer behavior. Without appropriate knowledge of these factors, it would be impossible to predict the level of welcoming toward new services, acquire a competitive advantage, and coordinate marketing programs with the needs of customers. On the other hand, in today’s competitive world, banks are obliged to implement new services to retain current customers and attract new ones. This research has been conducted with the goal of identifying influential factors that have an impact on the development of user intentions. The theoretical research model has been designed based on the technology acceptance model (TAM), as well as technology adoption theory, technology dissemination theory, and planned behavior theory. This study adopted an empirical approach to investigate key acceptance factors in a case organization. The statistical population of this research consists of customers and employees in different branches of a financial institution called Mehr bank in Iran. The data was collected by means of questionnaires that were completed by 200 customers and employees who work at Mehr bank or have business relationships with it. Data analysis in descriptive and inferential statistics domains had been done in SPSS and AMOS software, respectively. This paper presents first-hand data analysis of a case study on technology adoption in banking systems in Iran. In addition, structural equations have been used for inferential analysis. The findings of this study confirm the direct impact of “perceived usefulness” and “perceived ease of use” towards user attitudes. In addition, results show that “attitude” and “perceived usefulness” have a direct impact on the development of usage intention in customers. However, the results do not confirm the role of subjective norms on the development of user intent. This study is limited to a selected organization, and the proposed model should be examined by applying it in different contexts. Full article

The main objective is to answer the question: What role does the housing market play for the transmission mechanism and (in particular) is the impact constant over time? The research question also includes analyzing the importance of the housing market for the transmission mechanism. We estimate an eight-variable structural vector autoregression (SVAR) model of the Swedish economy over the period 1993 and 2018 using quarterly data, covering both the internet bubble in 2000 and the financial crises in 2008. The results indicate that interest rates have both a direct effect on housing prices and an indirect impact through the bank lending channel. Over time, the traditional interest rate channel importance has been stable. On the other hand, the role of the bank lending channel has increased over time. Household debt has increased substantially in Sweden and elsewhere. That means that the interest rate sensitivity in society has increased. Based on the results, it is possible to evaluate and forecast potential house price effects (both direct and indirect) when the interest rate changes. Full article

The relative bargaining power of the buyer and seller is a key feature of real estate pricing models. Classic real estate studies have sought to address bargaining effects in hedonic regression models. Prior research proposes a procedure to estimate bargaining effects in hedonic regression models that depends critically on a substitution to eliminate omitted variables bias. This study shows that the proposed solution that is often cited in the real estate economics literature does not solve the omitted variables problem given that both models are merely different parameterizations of the same model, and thus produces biased estimates of bargaining power when certain property characteristics are omitted. A classic hedonic regression model of real estate prices using Corsican apartment data supports our contention, even when the assumption of bargaining power symmetry is relaxed. Full article

Our paper forecasts the expected recovery rates of defaulted Italian mortgage loans backed by either residential or commercial real estate. We apply an exponential Ornstein–Uhlenbeck process to model the price dynamics at the provincial and regional level, and two haircut models to estimate the liquidation value. Compared to our findings, rating agencies such as Moody’s, which use geometric Brownian motion to model the price dynamics, paint a rosier picture with higher recovery rates. As a consequence, non-performing mortgage loans held by Italian banks might be overvalued. Full article