ABSTRACT
Poor or weak governance has been associated with many of the major scandals in the financial sector. In the fund management sector, key issues tend to concern how funds and their boards are informed of procedures for dealing with conflicts of interest and how such conflicts are handled and reported. This chapter explores how governance issues affect real estate investment markets and processes. It discusses the concept of governance and identifies its key dimensions. The chapter also discusses specific areas where governance issues emerge in real estate management, brokerage, appraisal and unlisted real estate fund management. Terms such as power, accountability, stakeholders, control, decision making, authority, interests, risk management, equity and transparency tend to be central to theorisations of governance. On their website, The Institute on Governance succinctly states that ‘Governance determines who has power, who makes decisions, how other players make their voice heard and how account is rendered’.
