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The world over is becoming urbanized, and people are migrating to cities in large numbers in search of opportunities. The increased urbanization has posed challenges such as congestion, rising crime, and growing urban poverty. The governments respond by providing amenities such as schools, hospitals, and housing to meet to increase in demand for these facilities. However, there is a need for the provision of facilities that meets the expectations of the people, particularly on the proximity of amenities and bundles of utility-bearing housing characteristics. In an attempt to address the challenge mentioned, the study estimated the hedonic characteristics influencing the willingness to accept and willingness to pay for housing facilities in the Eastern Cape Province, South Africa. Using a multiple linear regression model and artificial neural network, the study found out that properties with a bathroom, garage and large floor size have a higher value compared to properties without these facilities.When making decisions to acquire a property, buyers consider the availability of discounts and the prevailing property price. Overall, willingness to pay and accept decisions are mainly determined by location and the price at which homogeneous neighborhood properties were sold. Therefore, the study recommends that urban town planners and other housing authorities prioritize the construction of properties with larger floor areas, parking bays, and bathrooms using a cost-effective mechanism that makes the properties affordable to residents.

Homeownership provides shelter and is a vital component of wealth, and house purchase signifies a lifetime achievement for many households. For South Africa confronted with social and structural challenges, homeownership by the low and lower middle-income household is pivotal for its structural transformation process. In spite of these potential benefits, research on the affordable housing market in the context of South Africa is limited. This study aims to contribute to this knowledge gap by answering the question “do changes in household income per capita have a symmetric or asymmetric effect on affordable house prices?”

A survey of the international literature on house prices and income revealed that linear modelling that assumes symmetric reaction of macroeconomic variables dominates the empirical strategy. This linearity assumption is restrictive and fails to capture possible asymmetric dynamics inherent in the housing market. The authors address this empirical limitation by using asymmetric non-linear autoregressive distributed lag models that can test and detect the existence of asymmetry in both the long and short run using data from 1985Q1 to 2016Q3.

The results revealed the presence of an asymmetric long-run relationship between affordable house prices and household income per capita. The estimated asymmetric long-run coefficients of logIncome[+] and logIncome[−] are 1.080 and −4.354, respectively, implying that a 1% increase/decrease in household income per capita induces a 1.08% rise/4.35% decline in affordable house prices everything being equal. The positive increase in affordable house prices creates wealth, helps low and middle-income household climb the property ladder and can reduce inequality, which provides support for the country’s structural transformation process. Conversely, a decline in affordable house prices tends to reduce wealth and widen inequality.

This paper recommends both supply- and demand-side policies to support affordable housing development. Supply-side stimulants should include incentives to attract developers to affordable markets such as municipal serviced land and tax credit. Demand-side policy should focus on asset-based welfare policy; for example, the current Finance Linked Income Subsidy Programme (FLISP). Efficient management and coordination of the FLISP are essential to enhance the affordability of first-time buyers. Given the enormous size of the affordable property market, the practice of mortgage securitization by financial institutions should be monitored, as a persistent decline in income can trigger a systemic risk to the economy.

The study results illustrate the importance of homeownership by low- and middle-income households and that the development of the affordable market segment can boost wealth creation and reduce residential segregation. This, in turn, provides support to the country’s structural transformation process.

The affordable housing market in South Africa is of strategic importance to the economy, accounting for 71.4% of all residential properties. Homeownership by low and lower middle-income households creates wealth, reduces wealth inequality and improves revenue collection for local governments. This paper contributes to the empirical literature by modelling the asymmetric behaviour of affordable house prices to changes in household income per capita and other macroeconomic fundamentals. Based on available evidence, this is the first attempt to examine the dynamic asymmetry between affordable house prices and household income per capita in South Africa.

This study aims to investigate the suitability of a multi-step prototyping strategy for producing pneumatic rotary vane actuators (RVAs) for the development of lightweight robots and actuation systems.

RVAs typically have cast aluminum housings and injection-molded seals that consist of hard thermoplastic cores and soft elastomeric overmolds. Using a combination of additive manufacturing (AM), computer numerical control (CNC) machining and elastomer molding, a conventionally manufactured standard RVA was replicated. The standard housing design was modified, and polymeric replicas were obtained by selective laser sintering (SLS) or PolyJet (PJ) printing and subsequent CNC milling. Using laser-sintered molds, actuator seals were replicated by overmolding laser-sintered polyamide cores with silicone (SIL) and polyurethane (PU) elastomers. The replica RVAs were subjected to a series of leakage, friction and durability experiments.

The AM-based prototyping strategy described is suitable for producing functional and reliable RVAs for research and product development. In a representative durability experiment, the RVAs in this study endured between 40,000 and 1,000,000 load cycles. Frictional torques were around 0.5 Nm, which is 10% of the theoretical torque at 6 bar and comparable to that of the standard RVA. Models and parameters are provided for describing the velocity-dependent frictional torque. Leakage experiments at 10,000 load cycles and 6 bar differential pressure showed that PJ housings exhibit lower leakage values (6.8 L/min) than laser-sintered housings (15.2 L/min), and PU seals exhibit lower values (8.0 l/min) than SIL seals (14.0 L/min). Combining PU seals with PJ housings led to an initial leakage of 0.4 L/min, which increased to only 1.2 L/min after 10,000 load cycles. Overall, the PU material used was more difficult to process but also more abrasion- and tear-resistant than the SIL elastomer.

More work is needed to understand individual cause–effect relationships between specific design features and system behavior.

To date, pneumatic RVAs have been manufactured by large-scale production technologies. The absence of suitable prototyping strategies has limited the available range to fixed sizes and has thus complicated the use of RVAs in research and product development. This paper proves that functional pneumatic RVAs can be produced by using more accessible manufacturing technologies and provides the tools for prototyping of application-specific RVAs.

Based on the main studies presented in the literature, this work aims to examine the level of student satisfaction towards the on-campus accommodation service provided by an Italian university. Notably, the objectives of the study are twofold: (1) to examine the mediating role of student satisfaction on the relationship between university on-campus accommodation service quality and word-of-mouth and (2) to determine whether there is any significant difference in students' satisfaction towards on-campus accommodation in terms of gender and the halls of residence.

The study is based on the results of a survey carried out through an online questionnaire by 381 students living on campus at the University of Urbino.

The findings revealed that the quality perceived by university students in relation to individual services had a positive impact on their general satisfaction towards the halls of residence experience.

The study presents some limitations such as lack of temporal comparisons, a focus on specific service quality items and the fact that it refers to a single Italian university.

The findings of this study will help the management of public universities to improve the quality of services in their halls of residence for the satisfaction of their students.

To the authors' knowledge, there have been no previous studies about on-campus accommodation service quality conducted in Italy. The study contributes to enrich the service quality literature, confirming both that the sum of the quality of individual elements is not as the overall satisfaction and the outcome intention of positive WOM depends not only on service quality attributes, but also from an overall evaluation of satisfaction.

Supertall towers (300 m+) offer a viable solution to the increasing demand for housing and commercial space caused by rapid urban growth, migration from rural to urban areas and economic expansion in Asia. In this particular context, the efficient utilization of space becomes a crucial factor in the design process for Asian skyscrapers as they seek to address the changing socioeconomic landscape. This study will provide valuable guidance, especially to architectural and structural designers in the pursuit of sustainable development for Asian skyscrapers by analyzing space efficiency.

The methodology employed in this paper involved a case study approach to gather data on 75 Asian supertall towers in order to examine space efficiency.

Findings of the research can be summarized as follows: (1) the average space efficiency of these towers was 67.5%, ranging from a minimum of 55% to a maximum of 82%; (2) the average proportion of the core area to the gross floor area (GFA) was 29.5%, with values ranging from 14% to 38%; (3) the majority of Asian skyscrapers exhibited a tapered form and adopted a central core typology, which catered to mixed-use and office purposes; (4) the most frequently utilized structural system was a combination of composite and outriggered frames; (5) space efficiency tended to decrease as the height of the tower increased; and (6) there was no noteworthy difference in the impact of various load-bearing systems and building forms on space efficiency.

There is a noticeable lack of extensive research into space efficiency in supertall towers in Asia, which serves as a hub for skyscrapers. This study seeks to fill this substantial gap in the current scientific literature.

This paper aims to explore the impact of a recent earthquake activity on house prices and their spatial distribution in the Istanbul housing market.

The paper uses a multi-level approach within an event study framework to model changes in the pattern of house prices in Istanbul. The model allows the isolation of the effects of earthquake risk and explores the differential impact in different submarkets in two study periods – one before (2007) and one after (2012) recent earthquake activity in the Van region, which although in Eastern Turkey served to alter the perceptions of risk through the wider geographic region.

The analysis shows that there are variations in the size of price discounts in submarkets resulting from the differential influence of a recent earthquake activity on perceived risk of damage. The model results show that the spatial impacts of these changes are not transmitted evenly across the study area. Rather it is clear that submarkets at the cheaper end of the market have proportionately larger negative impacts on real estate values.

The robustness of the models would be enhanced by the addition of further spatial levels and larger data sets.

The methods introduced in this study can be used by real estate agents, valuers and insurance companies to help them more accurately assess the likely impacts of changes in the perceived risk of earthquake activity (or other environmental events such as flooding) on the formation of house prices in different market segments.

The application of these methods is intended to inform a fairer approach to setting insurance premiums and a better basis for determining policy interventions and public investment designed to mitigate potential earthquake risk.

The paper represents an attempt to develop a novel extension of the standard use of hedonic models in event studies to investigate the impact of natural disasters on real estate values. The value of the approach is that it is able to better capture the granularity of the spatial effects of environmental events than the standard approach.

This paper aims to analyze how nearby property prices are affected by new construction projects in Stockholm. If there is an impact on property prices, the authors endeavor to investigate whether the effects vary among different areas within the municipality, for different groups of inhabitants and for different types of housing (i.e. public versus private housing).

The authors use a difference-in-difference specification in a hedonic model, and the sample consists of more than 90,000 observations over the period 2005-2013.

The results are robust and indicate that house prices in nearby areas increase following the completion of infill development. The results also indicate that infill development has a positive spillover effect on nearby dwelling prices only in areas with lower incomes, more public housing units and more inhabitants born abroad.

It provides an analysis on how nearby property prices are affected by new construction projects by creating a restricted control area, so as to make the treatment group and the control group more homogeneous. Thus, it mitigates any potential problems with spatial dependency, which can cause biased standard errors.