Research in real estate finance and economics has developed in an exciting way in the past twenty-five years or so. The resulting theoretical and empirical findings are shining a new light on some of the classic mysteries of the real estate markets. It is good to see that a growing proportion of this research output is concerned with contemporary problems and issues regarding the European and Far Eastern property markets. To stimulate a creative exchange of new ideas and a debate of the latest research findings regarding the global property markets, the Maastricht-Cambridge Real Estate Finance and Investment Symposium was established. This initiative aims at bringing together a number of leading researchers in the field for a short, intensive conference. The 2000 Symposium, which was hosted by Maastricht University in the Netherlands in June of that year, is the first in an annual series of such conferences, which will alternate between Maastricht University and Cambridge University. This book is a compilation of the papers originally presented at the first Maastricht-Cambridge Symposium in 2000.
