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The purpose of this paper is to quantify leaky building stigma associated with monolithic claddings, explore how this stigma has likely been amplified by media coverage, estimate the number of affected properties and quantify the collective house price impact on homeowners of monolithic‐clad dwellings in the Auckland region.

Residential sales transaction data organised in two subgroups (single‐family houses and multi‐unit dwellings) from 1997 through 2006 are analysed using a series of annual hedonic pricing models to empirically test for the presence of stigma. This is coupled with a descriptive analysis of leaky building media coverage to understand how this coverage may be influencing the stigma.

The empirical results show that a leaky building stigma exists and is discounting prices of the Auckland Region's monolithic‐clad single family houses by 5 per cent and multi‐unit dwellings by 10 per cent. Approximately 37,500 monolithic‐clad dwellings have been built in the region since 1992 and their homeowners have suffered an estimated $1 billion reduction in property values due to leaky building stigma.

Although leaky building stigma primarily relates to monolithic claddings, this stigma reflects elevated weathertightness risks associated with several Mediterranean‐style architectural features.

The study's findings can be directly applied to residential valuation practice and can assist the New Zealand government more accurately assess the full economic cost of the nation's leaky building problem.

This research provides an initial empirical study on stigma associated with leaky building syndrome. The findings offer direction to further research on other domestic and international housing markets that are experiencing similar stigma phenomenon.

This paper aims to investigate the stigma effect on property valuation/sale price for remediated residential leaky buildings constructed in New Zealand during the 1990s and 2000s. In particular, the authors want to know whether meeting the regulatory standards for remediation work will totally eliminate the negative stigma effect on remediated properties.

Property transaction data for remediated leaky homes are often limited and not well recorded. Thus, it is very difficult or even impossible to identify those remediated properties in a standard property transaction data set. Moreover, a vast amount of information regarding the nature of property defects, remediation process and method is very difficult to obtain. In this study, members of the Property Institute of New Zealand (PINZ) and the Real Estate Institute of New Zealand were invited to participate in an online website survey. The results were then analysed using the principal component analysis, ordinary least squares and multinomial logit regressions.

This study indicates that for monolithic-clad dwellings, the price discount due to leaky building stigma is significant. Depending on the severity of the leaking problems, this is about 11 per cent on average for general market stigma and an additional 5-10 per cent for post-remediation stigma. The results highlight that meeting the regulatory standards for remediation work cannot totally eliminate the negative stigma effect on remediated properties. The findings are in line with the lemon theory introduced by Akerlof (1970) and robust to individual characteristics of the survey respondent.

General market stigma has been widely researched and documented in the literature. In contrast, there is a lack of research as to whether remediation will eliminate stigma, particularly in the presence of general market stigma. The authors are the first to show that post-remediation stigma can cause value loss in addition to general market stigma based on the lemon theory proposed by Akerlof (1970).

The purpose of this paper is to present a systematic approach for the evaluation and selection of curtain wall systems for medium-high rise building construction.

The authors have identified the different types of curtain wall systems that are commonly used in the building construction industry in Saudi Arabia; examined the various performance as well as financial and non-financial criteria affecting the evaluation and selection of these systems; and subjected the identified different types of curtain wall systems to several filtering processes, namely feasibility ranking, evaluation by comparison and weighted evaluation to facilitate making a decision on the most suitable system to select.

The analysis of the collected data indicated that the precast concrete curtain wall system is considered to be the first choice. The second choice is the prefabricated brick panel curtain wall system.

Curtain walls are the most recognized elements of contemporary structures today. There exists ample variety of materials and designs that could be utilized for the development of these building elements. This paper is of practical value to project owners, architects and design professionals endeavoring on the process of selecting and specifying curtain wall systems in their projects.

Numerical superstition is well-known in Asian countries and can influence decision-making in many markets, from financial investment to purchasing a house. This study aims to determine the house price effects of superstition and understand if these have changed over time.

Using sales transactions of freestanding houses in Auckland, New Zealand, the authors use hedonic price analysis to investigate whether superstitious beliefs associated with lucky and unlucky house numbers affect property values.

The analysis reveals ethnic Chinese buyers in Auckland displayed superstitious home buying behaviour in the period 2003-2006 by attributing value to homes with street addresses starting or ending with the lucky number eight. However, this willing to pay higher prices for lucky numbers was not reflected in the analysis of 2011-2015 sales transactions. The disappearance of superstition price effects may indicate that ethnic Chinese in the Auckland housing market have, over time, assimilated New Zealand’s Western culture and have become less superstitious.

Unlike previous studies, the authors parse buyers into two populations of homebuyers, ethnic Chinese and non-Chinese purchasers, and model the two groups’ housing transactions independently to more accurately establish if numerical superstition influences house prices.

The purpose of this paper is to assess the legal liability of local authorities in New Zealand for the issue of building consents and inspection, in respect of domestic homes where the property proves to be faulty. A local authority may be liable for economic loss. The duty of care extends to the owners of multi‐unit dwellings, but not commercial buildings. A ten year longstop for claims from council approvals applies. Problems with leaky homes have given rise to a substantial number of claims. A government response has been to provide a mediation service, and to assume liability for a percentage of repair costs.

The history of liability of local authorities for negligence in respect of building approvals is assessed, through examination of the statute law and the common law principles.

The findings of liability of local authorities in New Zealand is compared to the legal position in the UK. Conclusions are drawn as to legal and practical outcomes.

Changes under the law have occurred within the last year and the study is original in assessing the legal position and future outcomes. The liability for leaky homes is a major issue in the country.

This study aims to examine how innovation can be accelerated within the New Zealand (NZ) building industry to improve the productivity and efficiency of the industry.

The study adopted a mixed philosophical approach combining interpretivism and post-positivism. Data for the study were obtained through a focus group of 50 practitioners that were selected using a stratified sampling procedure. All focus group data were audio-recorded, notes of the discussions were taken and then transcribed, de-identified and managed using NVivo software. Data analysis was undertaken using thematic analysis and inductive reasoning consistent with interpretative phenomenological analysis.

The study findings revealed that the industry could benefit from the adoption of new and emerging technologies to improve its performance, especially its productivity and efficiency. Key drivers for the adoption of innovative practices included the adaptation of “local best practices” from case studies that would consist of stories of successful innovations that could foster confidence in future innovation. It was also identified that Government and industry should nurture innovation through collaborative contracts, policies and regulations. Further, it was highlighted that a culture of innovation needed to be developed to help nurture competencies and capability within the industry workforce.

This study provides an in-depth examination of the need for innovation from the point of view of building industry practitioners. This study provides a useful starting-off point for further research and for the creation of policies that could help to support and accelerate innovation within the NZ building industry.

NZ’s building industry productivity and efficiency have been sub-optimal relative to other industries. But using evidence from the experiences and knowledge of industry practitioners, strategies can be developed to accelerate innovation within the NZ building industry that could help reverse industry performance. Further, the research findings can help inform government policies to develop support mechanisms that could encourage innovation in the industry in NZ. In addition, it is anticipated that the findings will provide a useful set of guidance for other countries that have similar market and physical constraints as those encountered by NZ.

There is a dearth of empirical studies on innovation in the NZ building industry which the current study contributes to. By sharing industry practitioners’ experiences and knowledge of innovation, the paper seeks to counteract more technocratic and technological optimist accounts of innovation within the building industry. Further, the paper provides insights into how the NZ building industry can transform its performance through innovation.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the influence of sprue distributions on the flow field and temperature field of the cladding casting process and verify the simulation results by experiments.

A steady-state mathematic model for the coupling of fluid flow, heat transfer and solidification to describe the process of cladding casting was present. The effect of sprue distributions on melt flow and temperature field was discussed. Based on the numerical simulation results, the cladding billet was prepared successfully. Moreover, the model has been verified against by temperature measurements during the cladding casting process.

There is a good agreement between the measured and calculated results. The homogeneity of melt flow determines the formability of cladding billets and circular temperature difference affects the bonding of the two alloys. The AA4045/AA3003 cladding billet with no defects in size of f140/f110 mm was fabricated successfully. The alloy elements diffused across the interface and formed diffusion layer with a thickness of 15 µm. The interface bonding strength is higher than the tensile strength of AA3003, indicating the metallurgical bonding between two alloys.

The casting parameters are limited to the aluminum alloy cladding billet in size of f140/f110 mm in this paper.

There are few reports of cladding billet, which are used to prepare condense pipes of automotive engines. The effect of distribution schemes on the cladding casting process is rarely studied.