BOOK · 2026
People, capital, and commercial real estate in growth markets
A practical book about how square metres become sustainable assets in emerging markets, and why a completed building is not yet an asset.
About the book
Almost every professional book on real estate draws on the experience of London and New York, where markets evolved over decades. Yet most of humanity lives in places where the market emerged within the lifetime of a single generation: data is scarce, institutions are young, and the rules change faster than buildings can be constructed.
“The Real Estate Frontier” is a book about commercial real estate in growth markets: Central Asia, the Caucasus, and other emerging economies. One question runs throughout the book: under what conditions does real estate in a young market cease to be merely square metres and become a sustainable commercial asset?
Denis Sokolov traces the entire journey. He begins with how a market is born: privatisation, land, law, and capital. He then examines the products: offices, shopping centres, warehouses, and mixed-use developments. This is followed by financial models, investors and valuation, project creation, asset management, and working with data. Every global industry tool is tested against the realities of the frontier: where it works, where it ceases to work, and what can replace it.
The book draws on 25 years of consulting experience: from Eastern Europe, Brazil, Mexico, Nigeria, and Iran to Tashkent, where the author lives and works today. It is based on data from the EDB, EBRD, World Bank, and CMWP, as well as photographs of real properties, most of them taken by the author.
The book is intended for investors, developers, consultants, banks, asset managers, and government teams — anyone making decisions where the map does not yet match the territory.
— Denis Sokolov
The book’s eight parts
01
The Map and the Territory
Why a building is not yet an asset and how to read the narratives that capital believes in.
02
The Birth of a Market
Privatisation, land, politics, foreign capital, mortgages, and the market’s first cycle.
03
The City: Place and People
Urban rent, demographics, generations, and placemaking.
04
From Building to Product
Retail, offices, warehouses, high-street retail, mixed-use developments, and alternative formats.
05
Central Asia and the Caucasus
The region in figures: logistics, retail, and office real estate.
06
Real Estate and Money
Land, inflation, financial models, investors, valuation, and financing.
07
Creating a Project
From an investment hypothesis through HBU and a financial model to the launch of a property.
08
Management
Transactions, assets, data, and digital transformation.
Who this book is for
Investors
Developers
Consultants
Banks
Asset managers
Architects
Government teams
About the author
Denis Sokolov — FRICS, with 25 years in commercial real estate consulting. He headed research at Cushman & Wakefield in Eastern and Central Europe and worked on projects in Brazil, Mexico, Nigeria, and Iran. He lives and works in Tashkent.
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