Purpose -This paper seeks to shed light on the question whether German real estate investment vehicles provide an effective hedge against inflation. To do so it aims to investigate open-end real estate funds, special funds and real estate stocks. Design/methodology/approach -Traditional approaches as well as cointegration and causality tests are applied to monthly and quarterly index data from 1992:04 to 2009:12 for the subject investment vehicles. Findings -There is strong evidence that real estate returns are almost independent from inflation in the short run. None of the investigated investment vehicles provide a hedge against expected and unexpected inflation at different lags. In contrast, cointegration tests show that real estate stocks, open-end funds and special funds do provide a hedge against inflation in the long term. Likewise, causality tests suggest that real estate performance is influenced by inflation in the long term.Research limitations/implications -The study still could not investigate closed-end funds and G-REITs. Yet, it does capture the most and comprehensive part of the indirect German real estate investment market. Practical implications -Inflation-hedging capabilities are of particular interest in periods of economic instability. Especially institutional investors with large asset portfolios seek to adjust their asset allocation to changing conditions. Originality/value -To date, research papers on the subject of inflation-hedging capabilities of real estate almost exclusively focus on REITs in the USA and in the UK. Research about the German real estate market and alternative investment vehicles is rare -partly due to a lack of transparency over the past -although international investors more and more adhere to the German real estate investment market.

Zusammenfassung Publikationen zu realisierten Projekten mit monolithischen Bauweisen haben in den vergangenen Jahren zugenommen und werden in der Architektur als innovative Alternative zu mehrschichtigen Konstruktionen diskutiert. Mit zum Teil deutlich höheren Bauteildicken sollen nicht nur signifikante Einsparungen an Energieträgern und somit Emissionen erreicht, sondern auch der Umfang der Technischen Gebäudeausrüstung reduziert werden. Vor diesem Hintergrund gilt es zu bewerten, ob monolithische Bauweisen gegenüber Sandwichbauweisen zu einer größeren Ressourceneffizienz von Gebäuden führen können. Ökonomische und ökologische Eigenschaften zeitgemäßer, monolithischer Wandaufbauten wurden im Rahmen der Forschungsinitiative Zukunft Bau des BBSR (Förderkennziffer SWD-10.08.18.7-15.34) untersucht und die jeweiligen Bilanzen für ein dreigeschossiges Referenzgebäude (basierend auf DIN EN ISO 13791, KG 320 bis 350 DIN 276-1) erhoben. Hierbei zeigt sich, dass unter Berücksichtigung des Bodenwertes monolithische Bauweisen aus Ziegel und Porenbeton minimal geringere Lebenszykluskosten aufweisen als die Referenzvariante. Die erhobenen Kosten fallen bei allen Varianten mit rd. 60 % hauptsächlich während der Herstellung an. In Bezug auf die ökologischen Indikatoren zeigt sich Infraleichtbeton bei drei der fünf untersuchten Indikatoren als ungünstigste Variante. Dies kann zum Teil auf den hohen Energieeinsatz in der Herstellung zurückgeführt werden. Die ökologisch beste Variante hängt von den jeweils zu Grunde gelegten Indikatoren ab.

Purpose Data centres (DC) serve as critical infrastructure and require a sustainable and uninterrupted building operation. Effective risk management (RM), as a component of enterprise RM (ERM), is the basis for secure DC operations. The purpose of this paper is to determine, whether holistic and integrated RM solutions already exist or what they might look like. Design/methodology/approach A literature review of laws, norms, standards, methods and certifications combined with transcribed paper and pencil expert interviews with DC, facility service companies and consulting firms has been conducted. The study also investigates RM practices of 23 large international DC and facility service companies. Findings Results of literature research and intensive interviews with experienced DC experts, covering the entire life cycle of buildings, indicate that there are no holistic and integrated RM practice applications for DC on a sound academic basis. Practical implications Findings suggest that there is a need for developing a holistic and integrated RM framework for DC. This paper is a contribution to the expansion of ERM research and can be very valuable for builders and operators. The results of this research form the basis for the development of a structured RM framework for DC that improves performance. Originality/value The study allows professionals to understand the operational state-of-the-art of RM in critical environments and shed light on the wide spectrum of conceptualities and definitions.

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Real estate represents a major share of economic activities and wealth in all economies. Due to the lack of widely acknowledged standards, however, the structuring, providing and managing of a life cycle-comprehensive building documentation yet remain challenging. Based on the empirical analysis of 8965 digital documents from 14 properties of 8 different owners, the article presents a model that will unify existing approaches and lead to the development of a document classification standard. This provides the basis for software systems to process relevant data and create timely information over the entire life cycle of a building. Further, it is shown that automated information extraction through artificial intelligence will become instrumental for enhanced and innovative business models and products in real estate such as automated data validation and data evaluation, documentation review, benchmarking and other analytical applications.