Exploring financial decisions in Swedish commercial real estate : How the question of added flexibility in the real estate product is handled in practice

Sammanfattning: This thesis explores how the question of added flexibility in the real estate product is handled by Swedish commercial real estate developers. Theoretically this problem can be solved with a real options approach. Traditionally the use of real options analysis in practice in commercial real estate has been limited. The results indicate that the use of real options analysis is limited also in the Swedish commercial real estate market. Traditional investment methods coupled with rules of thumb that determine appropriate flexibility levels continue to dominate. The results highlight some of these rules of thumb. The commercial developers do argue in favor of flexible designs in locations where there is higher uncertainty, this result is in line with real options theory. Future research is needed to assess how effective this rule of thumb approach is to determining the appropriate level of flexibility in a real estate product compared to a real options approach.