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Accepted price – An Analysis of Cooperation in the Real Estate Markets and its Pricing.

Final assignment for Bachelor Degree in Business Administration

Madeleine Gustafsson and Sofie Billstam

Jonas Kågström

2012 - May

The aim with this final assignment is to investigate if the introduction and the cooperation of accepted price was necessary to generate a more stable real estate market with marketable listing prices in Stockholm. The introduction of accepted price led to a cooperation with some of the most important real estate firms in Stockholm. This cooperation was opposed by a number of companies on the real estate market. This fact inspired to examine similarities and differences of being and not being part of the cooperation and thereafter comment on the outcome. The aim is to compare the pricing between companies within the cooperation of accepted price and external companies and the advantages and disadvantages of entering and not entering a collaboration. The main questions to be answered are:

- Is the cooperation necessary to regulate listing prices to a marketable level?

- What are the effects of higher listing prices on the Swedish real estate market?

- What´s the best possible method when pricing listing price?

- What are the advantages and disadvantages of entering and not entering a collaboration?

The final assignment has been implemented in an abductive way. The essay is mainly based on secondary data in form of journals, websites, literature and qualitative empirical data collected trough three interviews with Erik Carlborg, Mats Uddare and Fastighetsmäklarnämnden. Quantitative empirical data has been collected trough a questionnaire sent to real estate agents working at Svensk Fastighetsförmedling in Stockholm. Theory and empirical evidence has been analyzed and linked together in the analysis chapter, where the essayists’ thoughts and opinions have been presented.

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The result of the study demonstrates that cooperation between competitors in the same industry in this case is positive since it does not involve a "win-lose situation". How a listing price is set can be affected by numerous factors. To conclude, it is important to keep the price at a marketable level in order to keep the real estate market stable. What the pricing is called is less significant. The pricing should only be called price.

The study is delimited to two companies, Svensk Fastighetsförmedling and Karlsson&Uddare, and can therefore not represent the entire real estate market in Stockholm. The study has been limited to brokers at Svensk Fastighetsförmedling in order to compare the brokers’ views with the views of the management within the company. Since the accepted price is relatively new on the Swedish market, there is also a limitation in comparing similarities and differences over time. Suggestions for future research may therefore be to examine how the accepted price has affected the market for a longer period of time, and how the cooperation of accepted price is progressing. A larger study may also be performed where more firms and brokers could be included in order to generalize to the entire industry.

This essay contributes whit the brokers’ opinion about the introduction of accepted price, which has not been examined earlier. In addition to this, the essay contributes with an analysis about cooperations and pricing, which are the main parts with accepted price. It also shows the advantages and disadvantages of being and not being part of the cooperation.

Accepted price, Listing price, Time on market, competing cooperations, Svensk Fastighetsförmedling, Karlsson & Uddare.