Guidance arrangements

Assignment 1

Guidance arrangements

Just to confirm details of the academic guidance for the Assignment 1 tasks.

This will comprise :

• Briefing webinar 25.4.22 with an emphasis on finding the equivalent yield (part b). The slides will be sent to the VLE team on Friday 22.5 and will almost certainly go up on the VLE that day.
• Surgery Q&A 4.5.22 + I’ll have some slides ready explaining the application of the standard marking criteria as well.
• Surgery Q&A 11.5.22
• This forum –  for which I’ll put up some dedicated threads later next week relating to the various parts of the Task and also the format of the submission.

In the meantime for guidance on the approaches please see the following weeks (including webinars) :

• Part a) Week 4 : Sustainability
• Part b)

Week 1 : rental analysis

Week 2 & 5 : Finding the equivalent yield (using a term and reversion approach)

Week 3 : Investment DCF – appraisal of worth

• Part c) Week 3
• Part d) conclusions including consideration the reporting of valuation uncertainty (week 6)

Format of submission & word count

Report format :

Your submission should be presented in a professional report format.

For guidance on the typical layout of a professional report see the briefing webinar and/or the relevant guidance under Study Support.

Word counts :

The Assignment brief provides a table of what words ‘count’ in the word count.

Words in calculations do not ‘count’. The briefing slides explain exactly what this means.

The Assignment brief also states : ‘all written sections carry equal weighting’ .

The written sections are your answers to part a), part c) and part d) – so those sections will probably be of equal length (say a maximum of 600-700 words for each of those written sections.)

Use Appendices judicially as they are there for supplemental reference information and are not marked.

Don’t put any of your answers in an Appendix in an attempt to ‘extend’ the word count.

Part a) Design, value and valuation of ‘green’ buildings

Use the Activities and your research findings from Week 4 to provide a brief description of what is meant by ‘green’, how its measured and its impact on value.

Activities 4.2, 4.3 and 4.4 should be particularly useful but aim to supplement the study materials with academic findings sourced from the e-library journals.

The briefing webinar provides some guidance of where to source academic articles in the library but there is also good guidance provided under the library tab.

Part b) Comparable rental analysis

You will need to find the current rental value of the subject in order to complete the other calculations.

A table of comparable rents is provided. Analyse all the comparable information to find the current rate(s).

For guidance on this see the materials in Week 1.

Remember that a ‘good’ comparable should be similar in location, size, use, date of transaction and lease terms – so variations in analysed rates may be due to one or more difference between the comparable and the subject. Look for trends – say a trend in rents over time. Try not to adjust analysed figures for all the differences (because you probably haven’t got sufficient evidence to justify adjustments). The exception is an adjustment for Lease terms where accepted ‘rules of thumb’ are provided in Activity 1.2.

An example is also provide in the briefing webinar.

Part b) DCF investment valuation (worth)

Details of the investors required target discount rate, holding period and market information are provided.

Set out a separate DCF table for each Lease and capitalise the income for at least the stated holding period.

The approach and layout of a table are provided both in the Week 3 activities (particularly Activity 3.8), Week 3 webinar and also the briefing webinar. 

Part b) Finding the equivalent yield

The Equivalent yield is the single yield that is needed in order to arrive at an observed sale price of a reversionary property. It is therefore an internal rate of return (IRR).

For further explanation see the relevant Activities in Week 5, Activity 5.2 in particular and the example provided in the briefing webinar.

For an explanation of the term and reversion approach used see also Week 2.

Part c) Critique of valuation approaches

Again some of the Activities in the weekly materials will provide a good start here (see Activity 3.6) but supplement this with further library research.

The briefing webinar includes some guidance on some sources of other’s critiques including the textbooks.

Note that it is the methods of valuation generally that should be critiqued rather than the data supplied.

You could still discuss any other insights you had regarding the adequacy of the data supplied in part d).

Part d) Conclusions and recommendations

Your Supervisor expects you to summarise not only your findings but also any issues that you anticipate in the preparation of appraisals of sustainably built bio-incubator investments in the future.

So  draw together your findings but also reflect on the task and make insightful recommendations.

For your recommendations consider :-

How easy would it be to prepare the appraisals in practice ?

What problems do you think a valuer would face ?

Do you have any ‘solutions’ or recommendations on how any potential problems should be tackled ?