Abstract:
Operationalizing sustainability within the real estate development is a challenge as
such development process is complex, multidisciplinary in nature and involves multiple
agencies. The paper, therefore, aims at strengthening the conceptualization of sustainability
within the real estate development process (REDP) to address this challenge effectively.
Adopting the systematic review, 127 publications focused on sustainability and REDP were
appraised. Focusing on the institutionalist viewpoints, sustainability was found to be a
problem driven notion which is socially constructed. Therefore, it requires to be viewed
within the larger picture of agency, structure and power in the context of economic, social
and environmental uncertainties. These are found to be applied in the same way in the
contemporary REDP literature too. On account of this, the paper suggests, conceptualizing
sustainability within REDP needs the latter to take into account the agency dynamics of
actors in the development process such as agency motivation (values) to offer a meaningful
operationalization of the concept. In other words, this paper calls for significant stakeholder
participation in the REDP which allows significant levels of economic, social and
environmental values of actors to be brought forward to build consensus to determine as to
what is sustainability within it.
