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As the awareness of environmental preservation and of sustainable development have become increasingly pronounced among various stakeholders, such as governments and communities, many businesses, in response, commence to introduce environmental-friendly measures and/or implement an environmental management system (EMS) in their daily operations. Even a service-oriented industry such as property management is no exception. To showcase their commitment to this cause, property management companies tend to obtain different environmental certifications. This study aims to investigate the effect of green property management, through environmental certifications, on property price.

The hedonic price model is used to determine the impacts of different environmental certifications on prices of selected residential properties in Hong Kong. Three districts from different parts of Hong Kong, including 16 private residential developments, are covered in this study.

The results show that ISO 14001 certification itself is not statistically significant in explaining property price. It is only when a property management company has obtained other local environmental management awards/certificates that varying levels of (positive) property price premiums are found. Nonetheless, the authors also find that controlling for other housing attributes, obtaining as many environmental certifications as possible does not necessarily result in the highest property price premium.

Nonetheless, the data sample has its limitations, such as its relatively small size and the unavailability of housing attribute(s) such as orientations.

For the implications, the value of environmental management awards/certificates, from the perspective of the end-users of property management services, is based on the scopes of these environmental certifications; the promotional effort on the part of organizations behind these awards/certificates; the disclosure of information about the EMS itself and the assessment criteria; and the public’s perceptions as to the companies’ rationale behind such certifications.

The study has provided some insights regarding the effect of various management standard certifications in property management, from the perspective of the end-users of the service (i.e. homeowners and potential homebuyers). This serves as a reference for developers, property managers, buyers and users alike.

This study aims to examine whether Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) certification yields additional premiums for Shanghai’s office rental sector.

The hedonic model is utilized to evaluate the impact of LEED, as well as of other factors, on the rental values of 59 Grade A office buildings in Shanghai, including 23 LEED-certified buildings and 36 non-LEED-certified buildings.

It is found that rental values of buildings with LEED are about 12.8 per cent than those of buildings without the same certification. Other factors, for instance accessibility to facilities such as subway station and 4-star hotels, the availability of catering services in surrounding areas as well as the building’s location (i.e. inside the CBD) also are significantly positively correlated with office rents in the sample commercial buildings.

Besides being one of the earlier contributions to the literature with regard to the study of the impact of green certifications in China’s office market, the findings in this study also provide some empirical evidence for stakeholders, such as developers, investors, property managers and market practitioners, to evaluate the introduction of green features (and/or green certifications such as LEED) as an investment decision.

This paper aims to find out whether lagging problems exist within Hong Kong's office values.

A State Space Model with the Kalman filter is deployed in detecting the extent of lagging errors in Hong Kong's office price indices, proffered by the ratings and valuation department (RVD).

The findings suggest that about one year of lagging errors exists in RVD's office price indices compared with the stock market property indices. Also, the finding suggests that the Kalman filter provides a more efficient form of estimates for real estate values and returns.

While most studies investigating lagging problems of appraisal‐based returns concentrate on the US real estate market, studies in this regard for Asian countries (or cities) are few and far between. Hong Kong, in particular, is worth studying, considering its established role as a financial centre in South East Asia. This paper also provides some insights for further studies on the prediction of future real estate values, in particular those with fewer transactions.

As environmental awareness has become increasingly pronounced among various stakeholders such as governments and communities, many businesses start to adopt a more environmental-friendly approach in their operations. Even a service-oriented industry such as property management is no exception. One way to showcase a company's commitment to this cause is to become ISO14001-certified, under which it is required to implement an environmental management system. In light of this, this paper aims to investigate the impact of this certification in property management, along with two other well-known management certifications/awards in ISO9001 and Hong Kong Management Association Quality Award (HKMAQA), on property price.

The hedonic price model was used to determine whether or not there is a relationship between ISO14001 certification (as well as ISO9001 and HKMAQA) and property price, and if so, its impact. Three districts from different parts of Hong Kong, including 17 private residential developments, were covered in this research.

The results show that a flat managed by a company with ISO9001 certification is 8.87 percent higher than another flat managed by a non-ISO9001-certified property management companies (PMC); the adoption of ISO14001 certification appears to help generate a premium of about 3.65 percent in property price for a PMC which has already been ISO9001-certified; and for a company already with both ISO9001/14001 certifications, the obtaining of HKMAQA brings about an extra 15.37 percent in housing price. It can be said that the impact of ISO14001 certification on property value is smaller than that of the other two management standards.

The findings do not necessarily suggest that the adoption of ISO14001 (or HKMAMA) generates the exact same premium to a residential property by itself, as two or more components in tandem may create more value than the sum of the parts. Nonetheless, considering that most companies have already been ISO9001-certified prior to considering an ISO14001 certification, they, as separate variables, are inevitably highly correlated which could be an issue when using methods such as hedonic models. This renders the assessment of the impact on property price solely attributed to ISO14001 rather problematic if they are studied together.

In the short run, ISO14001 certification, as a public relations tool, might actually help flats within these developments to gain an advantage over the competitors within the district, or at least offset the adverse impact of some of its intrinsic defects in order to stay competitive (for instance, the age issue and the smaller brand name effect due to the development's lack of scope), but not in the long run.

The paper has provided some insights regarding the effect of various management standard certifications in property management, from the perspective of the end-users (i.e. homebuyers), rather than from that of those involved in the operations as seen in previous studies. This serves as a reference for developers, property managers, buyers, and users alike.