Intermediäre und Standards in der Immobilienwirtschaft

Intermediaries and standards in the real estate industry. The aim of the paper at hand is to examine the significance of the integration of financial and real estate markets for urban property markets. It is argued that the integration of both markets has increased the volatility of urban property markets and in particular of the office market of financial cities as London and Frankfurt am Main. International property consultants play a key role in it as knowledge brokers. Through their global office networks they produce and offer information about the outlook of investment possibilities, i.e. urban property markets. In that sense they channel capital which contributes to increased volatility of capital flows into and out of the built environment. Thus, the liberalisation and globalisation of the financial markets as well as modern investment products transformed the urban real estate markets to a great extent.