Purpose-The purpose of this paper is to explore the evolutionary path to market maturity that China property market has taken over the last few decades. The focus is on the commercial real estate markets in Beijing and Shanghai. It will help international investors understand the market environment, risk and market activity process. Design/methodology/approach-In this research, the authors apply the market maturity framework and its key determinants based on previous work undertaken by Keogh and D'Arcy (1994) and Chin et al. (2006) for the analysis of Chinese commercial property market. Particular focus is on Beijing and Shanghai. The questionnaire is designed to obtain fair and objective views from international property consultancy firms active in Beijing and Shanghai markets. There are not many of these international property consultancies. The reason why this type of business was selected was to insure that the business had an understanding of China's place in the global commercial real estate market as this market matures from its emerging market status. Findings-The findings reveal that the respondents felt the commercial property markets in Shanghai and Beijing were now moderately mature. However, issues such as poorer level of standard market information, development instability, low transparency of the legal system, high taxes and high government invention still existed in China's commercial property market, therefore hindering its progress towards greater market maturity. Research limitations/implications-The small same size of the survey is the major limitation of the research. Practical implications-International investors and analysts can benefit from the research findings through a better understanding of the behaviour and trends in this unique market which will be reflected in their decision-making process. Originality/value-An explorative approach was used due to the lack of data to examine the perception of China's commercial property market's evolution and maturity. The findings can then be placed in the context of other Southeast Asian cities. The evolutionary process of China's property market is rarely examined in previous studies of China property market due to the lack of data and transparency.

Property investment vehicles are reviewed from a literature perspective drawing upon the experience of real estate investment trusts in the USA and contrasting this with European examples. The primary focus of the paper is upon German funds, using survey evidence to evaluate their structural characteristics. The paper forwards from a theoretical perspective an assessment framework indicating how different types of fund can be matched to product opportunities on the basis of risk, appreciation potential, nature of contract, location and use.

The paper investigates the sentiment-driven trading behaviour of the four types of investors in the London office market, i.e. UK institutional investors, UK private investors, UK listed real estate companies/REITs and overseas investors. In addition, we examine the relationship between investor sentiment and property performance. Related indices are first calculated to examine whether sentiment change of one investor type leads to changes in the sentiments of other types of investors. We find that herding exists in the London office market. UK private investors follow a contrarian strategy to UK institutional investors and UK listed real estate companies/REITs and enter/exit the market at different points of time. UK institutional investors tend to follow the sentiment of UK listed real estate companies/REITs and overseas investors with lags. There is no evidence that overseas investors rely upon the sentiment of UK specialized property investors in their decision-making. We also find the sentiment-driven trading behaviour of different types of investors is influenced differently by market fundamentals. Property market returns such as yield and rental growth rate has significant impact on trading activity of overseas investors, but not on other investors. The stock market return and securitized real estate return has significant impact on the trading activity of UK institutional investor and overseas investor. Market fundamentals have no significant influence on the trading behaviour of UK private investor and listed real estate company/REIT.

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Measurement and drivers of transaction times: UK commercial real estate• There is a lack of data and analysis on: -How long it takes to buy and sell commercial real estate -How asset, market or counterparty characteristics affect the amount of time that is taken• This is in stark contrast to residential real estate where such questions have been studied since the 1970s• This is despite the fact that uncertainty and variability in the time to transact impact on real estate investment risk