EDITORIAL
It is our pleasure to present you with the latest issue of the "World of Real Estate Journal" for the year 2020, which focuses on state intervention on the real estate market in the vicinity of airports. In Poland this intervention denotes creating restricted use areas (RUAs) pursuant to environmental law. Apart from four articles concerning the above topic, we also present a review of the monograph: The value of real estate in the vicinity of airports – methods of valuing loss and determining compensation, which will supplement the picture of this intervention in Poland. The titles of the papers and the text of the monograph review reveal that emphasis was placed on compensation matters. This is justified by the fact that an effective resolution of the neighbor conflict requires an adequate compensation regime and a correct manner of determining the amount of compensation. The articles and the monograph are a result of wider academic research. In the monograph review, dr hab. Prof. ZUT Maciej J. Nowak noted that this research has been conducted in an economy that functions with a systemic error caused by erroneous interpretation of the law which has permeated court judgments and by mistakes of expert valuers in the practice of real estate appraisal for compensation purposes.
To begin with, we propose getting acquainted with the structure of the system regulating real estate markets in the vicinity of airports in the Netherlands and Poland. The article Compensating owners of residential properties located near airports a comparative perspective on the Netherlands and Poland by Magdalena Habdas, Jan Konowalczuk, and Jacques Sluysmans allows to appreciate the different rules of resolving the neighbor conflict regarding airport noise emissions. Deliberations have been conducted on a practical level of specified airports, namely: Schiphol (Amsterdam) and Chopin (Warsaw). The analyzed interventions were subjected to a multi-criteria comparison.
The specifics of the considered intervention on residential real estate markets in Poland are considered by Jakub Bryła in the article Resolutions introducing restricted use areas around airports as special local legislative acts, based on the example of restrictions on residential development. The reader is acquainted with research results following a comprehensive study of all airport RUAs in Poland, which allowed the Author to consider land use restrictions and their types in an orderly manner.
In the third article of the issue, Katarzyna Kamińska introduces the problem of the expert witness’ role in court proceedings. In the article on The role of an expert witness in civil procedure with special focus on compensation matters in restricted use areas she shows a line that cannot be crossed when it comes to delimiting the obligations of the court and the expert witness. It is noted that in practice courts shift the burden of specifying the event causing damage and the factual state of the object of valuation to the expert witness, despite the fact that s/he cannot substitute the court in its duties. The article also provides insight into the practice of foreign jurisdictions regarding expert witnesses and the Daubert’s standard of expert opinions.
The above mentioned article provides a good basis for considering the fourth article in which results of research regarding formulating by the courts evidence theses for expert witness who calculate the diminution of residential real estate value in RUAs are presented. In his article Evaluating the correctness of evidence theses ordering an expert opinion from a valuer in compensation proceedings regarding RUAs, Marcin Tomecki analyzes evidence theses from the perspective of law and economics. Therefore, apart from considering the formal correctness of these theses, he also assesses the efficacy of state intervention based on the criterion of decreasing real estate market transaction costs. The results of this research, directed to courts, parties to the dispute, and expert witnesses – property valuers, show significant errors of the courts and a lack of good practices among property valuers which may significantly increase transaction costs.
The publications in the current issue are a result of research conducted in Polish and foreign universities. They regard matters from civil (substantive and procedural) law, administrative law, environmental law as well as the theory of public intervention and real estate valuation. Research thus combined different fields of science and its continuation is indispensable to properly implement the rules of protecting both property and the environment, simultaneously appreciating the economic mechanisms of how markets function and the essence of real estate value.
The current issue completes the year 2020 and therefore you will also find an annual table of contents and a list of our reviewers.
We hope you enjoy reading the issue!
Magdalena Habdas, Jan Konowalczuk
Thematic Issue Editor
