Introduction from the Editor

Citation

Reed, R.G. (2011), "Introduction from the Editor", International Journal of Housing Markets and Analysis, Vol. 4 No. 3. https://doi.org/10.1108/ijhma.2011.35104caa.001

Introduction from the Editor

Article Type: Editorial From: International Journal of Housing Markets and Analysis, Volume 4, Issue 3

The papers in this third issue of the fourth volume of the International Journal of Housing Markets and Analysis have been reviewed via a thorough double-blind refereeing process and therefore are published as a sound and substantial contribution to knowledge. In a similar manner to previous issues these papers represent a cross-section of residential land uses and research approaches in different countries.

An informative and interesting paper on the Finnish market examines co-housing and also housing for seniors. The focus is placed on residents’ views towards social and physical environments where the emphasis is placed on the connections between well-being and the built environment. There have been very few papers produced on the Finnish market based on this topic. A different paper in this issue examines the residential market in Dubai and examines a monthly time series between 2003-2010 in order to forecast future trends in the Dubai housing market. The findings assist real estate investors, developers and builders who are planning new residential housing developers.

The next paper examined the process of undertaking mass appraisal in the USA by analysing a database with over 33,000 residential houses. The three most commonly used statistical and artificial neural network (ANN) models were analysed where the findings confirmed that statistical models are reliable methods for mass appraisal of residential housing for lower and medium priced housing, although the ANN is considerably more accurate for higher priced houses. Another paper focussed on mass appraisal based on US data but uses a segmentation technique based on geostatistical modelling methods using geographically weighted regression. The results from the data analysis which used a methodology for three US counties highlighted quite different market characteristics.

A research paper examines increasing importance of the proximity of cell phone towers to the value of residential property. Based on New Zealand data over a time series the focus was placed on two types of mobile cell towers, namely residential only and also all towers. The findings confirmed a relationship between residential house values and armed monopole towers due to the acute visual disamenity. The final paper, from Malaysia, questions to what extent homeownership is economically and socially beneficial for homeowners where the emphasis is placed on multi-owner low-cost housing. Questionnaire surveys of Malaysian homeowners were conducted where the findings identified four factors which are linked to households affected the level of homeowner satisfaction. This has important implications for low cost housing and recommendations to address this problem are discussed.

The six papers provide a level of synergy for this issue which is truly international and directly focussed on housing. They emphasise the increasing quality research conducted in housing, which will continue for the next issue of this journal – a special issue on housing affordability. I encourage your feedback on these (richard.reed@deakin.edu.au) and once again thank you for your continued support of this journal.

Richard G. Reed