Place-Plus, a real estate development firm, is considering several alternative development projects. These include building and leasing an office park, purchasing a parcel of land and building an office building to rent, buying and leasing a warehouse, building a strip mall, and selling condominiums. The financial success of these projects depends on interest rate movement in the next 5 years. The various development projects and their 5- year financial return (in $1,000,000s) given that interest rates will decline, remain stable, or increase, are in the following payoff table. Place-Plus real estate development firm has hired an economist to assign a probability to each direction interest rates may take over the next 5 years. The economist has determined that there is a 0.45 probability that interest rates will decline, a 0.35 probability that rates will remain stable, and a 0.20 probability that rates will increase.
a. Using expected value, determine the best project.
b. Determine the expected value of perfect information. Decline Stable Increase Office park $0.4 $1.55 $3.5 Office building 2.5 1.8 2.75 Warehouse 1.7 1.45 1.5 Mall 0.8 2.3 3.5 Condominiums 3.2 1.5 0.5