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The assertion that land registration guarantees landownership security is common knowledge. Thus, efforts at securing landownership in particularly, the developing world have concentrated on the formulation and implementation of land registration policies. However, over the years, whilst some studies claim that land registration assures security, a lot of other studies have established that security cannot be guaranteed by land registration. Also, there is evidence from research that has shown that land registration can be a source of ownership insecurity in some cases. The purpose of this paper is to critically analyse the underpinning principles of land registration and their application in order to establish whether or not land registration can actually guarantee ownership security.

It is a literature review paper that looks at the existing literature on landownership, security and land registration systems. The land registration principles that have been subjected to critical analysis are the publicity function of land registration, the legality of ownership emanating from land registration and the warranty provided by the State in land registration, specifically, under the Torrens system.

An analysis of the underpinning principles of land registration shows that land registration per se cannot guarantee ownership security and this helps to explain the findings of the numerous studies, which have established that landownership security cannot be assured by land registration. The paper concludes by identifying the right role of land registration as well as a mechanism that can effectively protect or secure landownership.

Land registration policies and programmes in the developing world are often funded by the international donor community and the findings provide useful insights regarding the actual role of land registration and for policy change in terms of what can secure landownership.

Even though there are two schools of thought regarding research on the link between land registration on one hand, and landownership security on the other, none of the studies has made an attempt to consider the nexus by critically examining the principles that underpin land registration to support their arguments.

The United Nations (UN) sustainable development goals (SDGs) that became effective at the commencement of January 2016 constitute a global community agreement calling for action to end poverty, protect the planet and ensure that all people enjoy peace and prosperity. This chapter looks at the nexus between real estate (RE) and SDGs by investigating the extent to which Ghana's RE sector incorporates, especially, environmental sustainability principles from the design and construction stages to occupation, operation and activities aimed at helping to solve the problem of climate change, thereby, contributing to achieving the SDGs. The chapter is theoretical and, therefore, heavily reliant on critical review of relevant extant literature. The chapter has shown that RE cuts across virtually all the sectors that contribute greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, which over the years have generally been increasing. Only a few buildings in both the private and public sectors (six located in three of the 16 administrative regions in the country) are officially classified as green based on three sustainability-rating systems currently used in the country, which suggests that the uptake of green building technologies (GBTs) is rather low leading to the conclusion that at the moment, the RE sector is not contributing much towards the attainment of the SDGs. However, it may be the case that there are buildings, which are sustainable in one form or the other, but because they have not been officially certified, they are not regarded as green – employing the services of the sustainability-rating agencies to certify buildings involve significant costs that might serve as a barrier in accessing their services. Thus, there is the need for country-wide, large-scale studies that systematically investigate the uptake of GBTs in the private and public RE sectors (not necessarily based on using the rating systems) as that may reveal the actual uptake of GBTs and what can be done policy-wise based on the outcomes of such studies.

Although a basic need, housing and its development activities impinge on the environment. As part of efforts to promote sustainability, there have been several initiatives since the Brundtland Commission's work in 1987 to minimise the adverse impact of housing development activities on the environment in the developing world such as sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). This chapter explores housing development activities in Ghana within the context of environmental sustainability based on the extant literature. The aim is to examine the state and promotion of environmental sustainability in the housing development sector. The chapter establishes that although there are some efforts to promote environmental sustainability within the housing development sector, uptake of environmental sustainability practices has been less satisfactory due to lack of incentives as stakeholders perceive that environmentally sustainable homes are more expensive than conventional ones. The chapter, therefore, recommends further investigations into the cost and benefit of environmentally sustainable homes as well as other drivers in Ghana to give additional insights to provide the appropriate doses of incentives both contrived and instinctive to drive uptake.

Progress under sustainability principles is now widely accepted as the goal that every society should pursue. Whilst the built environment has imbibed these sustainability principles just like many other sectors, scholarly works that bring together experiences of real estate and sustainability are limited. Contributors to this book in accordance with the aim of the book examine real estate and sustainability in the developing world drawing on experiences from several countries. This conclusion chapter summarises the discussions in the book highlighting implications and prospects. The chapter notes that the threat to the destruction of the environment in the developing world is real and the real estate and urban development sector is at the forefront of this threat. Furthermore, although adoption of sustainability principles is seen as very relevant to abate the threat, progress in uptake of the principles within the real estate and urban development sector has rather been slow due to lack of incentives, funding, technology and robust policies; inadequate knowledge and awareness; and poor planning among others. Changes in practices from business as usual to ones which promote effective planning, building knowledge and databases through research and increase in funding for sustainable projects and education among other things as ways to improve uptake are proposed with the recognition of huge prospect for developing countries to overcome the current situation given recent initiatives and available knowledge.

The world has been witnessing a new dreadful disease since the latter part of 2019. The disease known as the novel coronavirus disease often referred to as COVID-19 originated from the Chinese city of Wuhan in the Hubei province and has since spread across the world resulting in the World Health Organisation to declare it a global pandemic. Whilst it appears obvious that the pandemic continues to generate several impacts, knowledge of the true idea, nature and extent of the impacts is scanty, partly because the disease is novel, ongoing and an antidote is yet to be found for it as well as the fact that no or little systematic studies have been conducted into the impacts and the results codified. This study, therefore, explores the global overview of the environmental and socioeconomic impacts of COVID-19 based on evidence in the literature. The chapter found that several measures such as imposition of partial or total lockdowns, social distancing and stay-at-home policies, wearing of face masks and the use of gloves and hand sanitizers have been instituted to contain the pandemic since its outbreak. Apart from 4,766,468 infections with 318,201 deaths, which had occurred as at 19 May 2020 and are still counting, the measures instituted have resulted in increase in domestic energy consumption, generation of waste pollution, contraction in production, loss of income and jobs, disruption in market activities and depreciation in asset prices and values across the various sectors of the world's economy, increases in domestic violence and limited access to health services among others. Conversely, the pandemic has partly resulted in positive outcomes such as reduction in greenhouse gas emissions and boost in the operations of the ITC and other allied industries. However, in broad terms, it is a huge threat to sustainable development (SD) and gains made in that regard over the years are eroding. Furthermore, although there have been interventions from governments, United Nations and other international development organisations to ease the adverse impacts, more such interventions and efforts will be required to put the SD agenda on track.

In English valuation practice, when valuing small to medium size (StMS) shops, rental analysis is undertaken using zoning based on the argument that shop fronts including window displays attract customers to shops and that most trading takes place in the internal frontage area making it the most valuable part of shops. Albeit zoning has been critiqued, it remains the preferred method of rental analysis. The paper aims to answer two research questions: are shop fronts including window displays the only factor that attracts customers to shops? And is the frontage space within shops the area most trading takes place?

The exploratory qualitative research methodology was used, and primary data collected by observing 178 shops in selected five shopping areas. The observational data were complemented with the use of secondary data.

The study has shown that shop fronts are not the only factor attracting clientele to shops as there are other varied factors including location, availability of Internet and hoardings. There is no evidence to suggest most goods in shops are displayed at the frontage space that attract most customers to that area, thereby, making the area the most valuable part, which decreases backwards.

These findings coupled with extant research evidence implies zoning can lead to under or over valuation of StMS shops (which is not good for retail real estate (RE) management or market), and turnover generated from shops is the overarching determinant of rental values in valuation.

This is the first time the very foundation/underpinning principles of zoning have been subjected to scrutiny in England.

Real estate sustainability is of high importance around the globe, as effects of global warming are accelerating. Development cannot be denied to any country, irrespective of their status. The emerging economies around the world are putting new stress on the environment as they develop. Romania is one of the developing countries, and will it be able to switch to sustainable development in the near future? This chapter aims to highlight Romania's perspective regarding real estate sustainability. The chapter has shown that (1) even though the country submitted to various conditions that were part of policies concerning the environment and greenhouse gas emissions when it became a member state of the European Union in 2007, progress with the implementation of such conditions is rather slow and behind schedule; (2) both the private and public sectors have not shown the required interest in using low or zero carbon dioxide materials in real estate development and developers' primary aim is to maximise profits and, therefore, make minimum adjustments to comply with the current demand and expectations with respect to energy efficiency and green buildings; (3) illegal deforestation is high, which has a big impact on the environment, and regarding waste management, the country has key challenges and, thus, is at risk of non-compliance with the 2020 municipal waste recycling targets; and (4) air quality is poor and continues to be a problem due to pollution from the transport and energy sectors. In light of these findings, Romania needs to increase its energy production from fossil fuels to renewables and have a better recycling policy and a higher awareness regarding the environment. Further efforts aimed at developing new programmes in education and subsidies policies to encourage a more sustainable future are needed.