Real Property Transactions. Procedures, Transaction Costs and Models

Book excerpt: Transactions in land and other real property differ between countries throughout Europe. The transaction procedures reflect formal rules, but they are also normalized through conventions and professional codes of conduct. This complex of technical, legal and economic issues was investigated from the point of view of transaction economics through an ESF-COST supported Action G9 ‘Modeling Real Property Transactions’. The research was performed between 2001 and 2005 by researchers mainly from university departments related to land surveying, real estate management, geo-information sciences and knowledge engineering. This book represents the final outcome of that study. A modeling approach was elaborated and tested on a number of countries (especially Sweden and Slovenia, for which the models are shown in this book in the Unified Modeling Language (UML)). The modeling approach leads to transparency and allows comparison. Nevertheless, the influence of the national and social contexts, and the different perspectives that can be taken, prevent a simple ranking of the studied procedures. For those planning or comparing transaction procedures or parts thereof, the book supplies a tested approach and methodology. But the book eventually warns of simplification in this field full of complex national institutional arrangements.