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House price fluctuations send vital signals to many parts of the economy, and long-term predictions of house prices are of great interest to governments and property developers. Although predictive models based on economic fundamentals are widely used, the common requirement for such studies is that underlying data are stationary. This paper aims to demonstrate the usefulness of alternative filtering methods for forecasting house prices.

We specifically focus on exponential smoothing with trend adjustment and multiplicative decomposition using median house prices for Sydney from Q3 1994 to Q1 2017. The model performance is evaluated using out-of-sample forecasting techniques and a robustness check against secondary data sources.

Multiplicative decomposition outperforms exponential smoothing at forecasting accuracy. The superior decomposition model suggests that seasonal and cyclical components provide important additional information for predicting house prices. The forecasts for 2017–2028 suggest that prices will slowly increase, going past 2016 levels by 2020 in the apartment market and by 2022/2023 in the detached housing market.

We demonstrate that filtering models are simple (univariate models that only require historical house prices), easy to implement (with no condition of stationarity) and widely used in financial trading, sports betting and other fields where producing accurate forecasts is more important than explaining the drivers of change. The paper puts forward a case for the inclusion of filtering models within the forecasting toolkit as a useful reference point for comparing forecasts from alternative models.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this paper undertakes the first systematic comparison of two filtering models for the Sydney housing market.

This paper aims to bring together research on housing market area, submarket and household migration into a systems approach that helps us gain a better understanding of the structure and dynamics of a housing market and identify housing problems for a large metropolitan area.

The paper uses a geographic information system (GIS)-based method with simple quantitative techniques, including spatial analysis, location analysis, house price clustering and cross-tabulation. The analysis is based on migration data from the 2011 Census, house price data from the Land Registry in 2011 for Greater Manchester at the ward level and the output areas level.

The results show that different submarkets and housing market areas had different patterns of spatial migration and connections with other areas. Through a systematic analysis of migration and house price in combination, it also found a close connection between destination submarkets and the ages of migrants and identified specific problematic patterns for a large metropolitan area.

The interactions between the owner-occupied sector and the social and private rented sectors are arguably an important omission from the analysis. Also, it is acknowledged that clustering ward units based on price differentials is subject to distortions in terms of specification, size and shape. Moreover, the use of the large samples may result in very small p-values, leading to the problem of the rejection of the predefined hypothesis.

A systematic analysis of migration and house price in combination may be used to gain a better understanding of the housing market dynamics and identify housing problems systematically for a large metropolitan. It may help to identify low-demand areas, high-demand areas and assist planners with decisions in allocating suitable land for new housing constructions.

The GIS-based method introduced in the paper could be considered as an effective approach to provide a better basis for determining policy interventions and public investment designed to allocate land resources effectively and improve transport systems to change existing problematic migration patterns.

This paper fills a gap in the international literature in relation to adopting a systems approach that analyses migration and house price data sets in combination to systematically explore migration patterns and linkages and identify housing problems for a large metropolitan area. This systems approach can be applied in any metropolitan area where migration and house price data are available.

BEFORE the war scientific filtration as applied to aircraft was a little known subject. The prime concern of the people developing aircraft in those days was the attainment of higher power output, ceiling and maximum speed. More streamlining was the cry and, although filters were available, they were rarely used.

SAND is very harmful to engines. During recent tests conducted by me in the North African Deserts, as much as half a pound of sand has been collected in ten minutes in each air intake of a Mosquito aircraft taxying, alone, downwind on a desert airfield. Had the Mosquito been following another aircraft, or had its air intake been situated lower, the quantity of sand would have been much larger. Under such conditions the importance of having efficient air cleaning intakes fitted to every aircraft engine is obvious. Sandy conditions are not confined to desert airfields, some airfields in this country and on the Continent are as bad.

The purpose of this paper is to accurately model the existing manufacturing processes of a family‐owned small to medium‐sized enterprise (SME). The study was undertaken to provide the SME with information, so that potential improvements within the production facilities could be identified thereby leading to insights into potential savings, and waste elimination. Ultimately the research attempts to demonstrate that small businesses can benefit from adopting simulation as a decision‐making tool as part of their change management initiatives.

The research methodology is a case‐based simulation study of the production facilities of a SME. A base model and successive experimental models were developed to test various production scenarios.

The experiments demonstrated how simulation could contribute and assist in the implementation of TQM and change management philosophies within a SME environment. The initial models identified problems in the real system and the latter models showed how further improvements can be achieved, defects reduced and lead to the enhancement of the productivity. Therefore, in this way simulation assisted in the implementation of some of the fundamental principles of TQM philosophy.

The study is limited in that it is based on one case study and therefore, a further study that would include several case studies with cross section analysis is recommended. Furthermore, research that uses cases from both the manufacturing and the service sector is recommended in order to fully document the unique and valuable role of simulation in the execution of TQM and BPR management philosophies in the SME context.

The goal is to perform an in‐situ measurement of dust layer thickness on bag filters.

Presents a machine vision system in terms of hard‐ and software which is capable of obtaining the relative height difference of a cloth filter surface in different states of operation. The measurement process starts with a stereo reconstruction of filter surface patches. The patches are aligned to form a continuous model using the iterative closest point algorithm. Models acquired at different states of operation are registered using thin plate spline interpolation and afterwards subtracted from each other to obtain the relative height difference.

Relative thickness measurement is possible with an accuracy ranging from 50 to 300 μm, depending on the operational states.

In‐situ measurement of dust deposition is a new tool for examining the behaviour of commercial bag filters.

Provides the foundation for a system measuring both thickness and density of dust deposition.

Applies findings in the field of machine vision to a problem in process engineering and filter design.

Mildew Test Kit To the naked eye, there is frequently very little difference between an exterior paint discoloured by mildew and one discoloured by dirt. However, a simple pocket‐size test kit has been developed which can distinguish in 95% of cases the difference between dirt and mildew. It is made by Durham Raw Materials Ltd., who manu‐facture Nuodex fungicides, and is available on request from them.

Salt spray/combined corrosion test cabinet. As reported in the trade press earlier this year, Liebisch have introduced the new STG 1000 salt spray/‐combined corrosion test cabinet.

The purpose of this paper is to empirically examine whether public knowledge of poor conditions of multi‐storey residential buildings affected the sale prices of these properties based on an analysis of panel data in Hong Kong.

Previous studies suggested that physical conditions of residential properties, particularly those concerning communal areas and services, might not be fully priced by the market because of the problem of information asymmetry. Therefore, it was envisaged that additional information pumped into the housing market could alter the price gradient between high‐quality and low‐quality properties. In November 2000, the Hong Kong Government publicly announced a list of poorly‐performing buildings, and this study aims to examine whether the blacklisting exercise brought about negative impacts on the sale prices of the affected properties. Hedonic price analysis was conducted on a set of panel data which consists of property transactions in both blacklisted and non‐blacklisted buildings.

The analysis results showed that properties in blacklisted buildings were not transacted at a discount, compared with those in non‐blacklisted buildings before the blacklisting exercise. Also, the release of public information on the blacklist did not create a relative diminution of the property prices of the blacklisted buildings.

Thin property transactions in derelict buildings limited the number of observations for running the regression analysis.

The piecemeal blacklisting exercise could not create price differential in the housing market, and thus it was not possible for the Hong Kong Government to lure homeowners to invest in their properties by market forces. The government should consider the implementation of a territory‐wide building classification scheme or other alternatives to solve the problems of building disrepair.

This study is the first attempt to empirically investigate the value diminution effects of the government's blacklisting against dilapidation buildings.