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Tax sales intersect with the market, housing policy and socioeconomic matters, but the topic in this context is understudied. The purpose of this paper is to investigate whether and how land banking is more effective in fostering positive property outcomes than tax lien sales and what market-based measures can be combined with land banking to reuse tax delinquent, vacant and abandoned properties.

This paper analyzes the consequences of tax lien sales and land banking in Indianapolis, Indiana, the USA. Various local data sources are used.

This paper finds that land banking, when compared to tax lien sales, results in less tax delinquency, less vacancy and abandonment, more increase in assessed value and fewer ownership changes after sales. Also, this paper shows the contributions of non-profit and for-profit developers as business partners to land banks.

This paper demonstrates the utility of the land banks that have become prevalent in some states in the USA over the past 20 years. The results of this paper recommend the realistic approach of combining government intervention and market forces.

This paper sheds light on the US practice of tax lien sales. It goes largely unnoticed, but malpractice risks harming the vulnerable members of community.

Housing policy needs to find common ground with the market. It is a dilemma, more or less, for every country. The results of this paper suggest a harmonized public policy approach that includes land banking and the market can be effective in combatting with troubled properties.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate “image management” as an important element within the concept to the Crime prevention through environmental design (CPTED). Globally, guidance tends to focus on promoting surveillance and few studies have explored how vacant poorly maintained housing might affect perceptions of crime and CPTED.

This paper contrasts the perceptions of 168 members of the public and 12 built environment professionals with regards to a detached property in Perth, Western Australia. Using two photographs to elicit responses (one poorly maintained and one well-maintained) respondents were asked about their perceptions of crime, and the extent to which CPTED features were perceived to be present. These results are contrasted with a site audit of the CPTED qualities visible in both images.

The CPTED audit recorded significantly higher scores for the well-maintained property than for the poorly maintained dwelling. Most respondents indicated they felt less safe, perceived more crime and lower levels of CPTED in relation to the poorly maintained house. The findings provide support that there is a link between poorly maintained housing and the perceptions of CPTED, crime and the fear of crime.

This innovative study utilised two photographic images of the same property to probe “image management”, perceptions of crime and CPTED qualities. It highlights the need to consider these issues throughout the different stages of the development process and presents idea of the “cradle to the grave” life-cycle of criminal opportunities.

The purpose of this study is to explore spatiotemporal factors that affect the empirical analysis of whether crime rates in buffer areas surrounding abandoned properties transferred to a Land Bank that differed among three regimes: before transfer, during Land Bank stewardship and after disposition and whether those differences were associated with differences in relative crime activity in the neighborhoods in which they were located.

This study analyzed crime incidents occurring between 2010 and 2018 in 0.1-mile buffer areas surrounding 31 abandoned properties sold by the Land Bank and their neighborhoods in which those properties were located. Using Copulas, researchers compared concordance/discordance in the buffer areas across the three regime states for each property and approximately matched time periods for associated neighborhoods.

In a substantial number of cases, the relative crime activity levels for buffer areas surrounding individual sold properties as measured by the Copulas shifted from concordant to discordant states and vice versa. Similarly, relative crime activity levels for neighborhoods shifted from concordant to discordant states across three matched regimes. In some cases, the property and neighborhood states matched, while in other cases they diverged. These cross-level interactions indicate that criminal behavioral patterns and target selection change over time and relative criminal activity. The introduction of Copulas can improve the reliability of such models over time and when and where they should be customized to add more granular insights needed by law enforcement agencies.

The introduction of Copulas can improve the spatiotemporal reliability of the analysis of criminal activity over space and time.

Spatiotemporal considerations should be incorporated in setting interventions to manage criminal activity.

This study provides support for policies supporting renovation of abandoned properties.

To the best of authors’ knowledge, this research is the first application of Copulas to crime impact studies. As noted, Copulas can help reduce the risk of applying intervention or enforcement programs that are no longer reliable or lack the precision provided by insights into convergent/divergent patterns of criminal activity.

The first paper, entitled “Crime and the design of residential property: exploring the theoretical background” (Property Management, Vol. 19 No. 2), has argued that “perceptions” and the “image” of housing designs remain a largely untested avenue of investigation in the design‐effects‐crime debate. Presents and discusses exploratory research into the perception of crime/deviancy, fear of crime and “defensible space”, in relation to a range of characteristic UK housing designs. This investigation concerns the perceptions of planning professionals, convicted burglars and other users and provides both qualitative and quantitative analysis of results from a series of interviews which presented slide representations of terraced, semi‐detached and detached housing designs in addition to low‐rise/walk‐up flats and high‐rise flats. Where possible, two contrasting versions of the same design were presented to probe the influence of “image” in the perception of crime and “defensible space”. The results from this exploratory investigation underpin Newman’s theory of “defensible space” in that a “hierarchy of place” appears to exist with regard to housing designs. However, the “image” of each design is perceived to be a significant contributing factor in relation to the criminogenic capacity of each design presented. Wilson and Kelling’s “Broken Windows” theory is also supported by these research findings.

Abandonment of construction projects is still a burning issue in Nigeria. Beside the poor financing of educational infrastructure, abandonment of construction projects remains a significant contributor to the inadequacy of facilities in Nigerian public tertiary educational institutions. The purpose of this paper is, therefore, to assess the causes of abandoned projects specific to public institutions of tertiary education in Nigeria, with a view to providing empirical data that are generalizable to enhancing successful delivery of teaching and research facilities.

Primary data used for the study were obtained through questionnaires administered to 47 professionals comprising 8 architects, 12 mechanical and electrical engineers, 15 civil/structural engineers, 4 builders and 8 quantity surveyors who were involved in physical development of construction projects in public tertiary educational institutions in Osun State. The data were analyzed using mean analysis, factor analysis and the Kruskal-Wallis (K-W) test.

The factors most significant to abandonment of tertiary educational institutional projects were delayed payments, fund mismanagement, inadequate budgetary allocation, inadequacy of finance, inflation and bankruptcy of the contractor. Findings also showed that not all factors causing abandonment were significant to tertiary institutional projects. The significant factors clustered under stakeholders’ response capacity, poor financial management, inadequate planning and monitoring, and unexpected occurrences. The K-W test showed significant differences among the categories of tertiary institutions on the ranking of the most significant causes of abandoned projects.

The study was limited to public tertiary educational institutions in Osun State. Further studies could focus on public health institution projects and private tertiary educational projects to improve the body of knowledge on the subject of causative factors for project abandonment.

The study provided implications for effective contract management of public tertiary educational institutional projects, which is a significant step to improving the available teaching and research facilities in Nigerian tertiary institutions.

The study provides implications for effective contract management systems of projects for public tertiary educational institutions, thereby improving the available teaching and research facilities.

This paper aims to determine the effect of the period of abandonment on the final cost and duration of resuscitated tertiary educational building projects as a basis for enhancing the performance metrics of the projects and improving the availability of facilities in tertiary institutions in Nigeria.

A structured questionnaire was administered on 47 professionals involved in the physical development of construction projects in Osun State public tertiary educational institutions to provide primary data for the study. Secondary data relating to initial and final costs, initial and final completion dates, dates of abandonment, period of abandonment, date of re-award, etc. were obtained from selected resuscitated projects. Data were analyzed using relative significance index and regression analysis.

The most significant effects of project abandonment were found to be disappointment of populace and over-stretching of existing facilities. The study showed a directly proportional and an exponential effect of period of abandonment on percentage cost overrun of resuscitated projects, which were represented by y_c = −329.755 + 19.545x and y_c = 6.1662e_0.0506x, respectively. A linear relationship between period of abandonment and percentage time overrun was represented by y_t = 0.467 + 0.816x.

The fact that the regression equations could not be validated because of paucity of data was identified as a limitation of this study.

This study adds to the body of knowledge on abandonment of building projects from a quantitative perspective. Findings have implications for guiding long-term infrastructure development plans in public tertiary educational institutions.

Maximum threshold at which abandoned projects may be resuscitated at an economic cost was established as 16 months. Findings further suggest that the economy of new construction would outweigh resuscitation of abandoned projects beyond this period.

The failure and abandonment of construction projects have proven to be insurmountable problems incessantly militating against the efficient performance of the construction industry in Nigeria. The complexity, technicality and a host of other project execution issues unique to multi-storey building projects do increase their susceptibility to failure and abandonment. Thus, the purpose of this paper is to examine the factors influencing failure and abandonment of multi-storey building projects in Nigeria. This is with a view to provide inferential empirical data that could enhance successful delivery of multi-storey building projects in Nigeria.

Primary data were used for the study. A structured questionnaire was administered on consultants and contractors’ personnel within Lagos State, Nigeria. A total of 180 copies of the questionnaire were administered ,and 134 copies which represent a combined response rate of 74.4 per cent were retrieved. The data were analysed using frequency distribution and percentages, Mean item score and factor analysis.

The factors most significant to the failure and abandonment of multi-storey building projects are inadequate funding by the client, improper planning at the pre-construction phase, structural failure in multi-storey building during construction, bankruptcy/business failure of the contractor, improper scheduling of the building project activities and failure to engage qualified professionals with technical expertise and experience. The rated factors clustered under human resources capability, planning and structural quality, contractor selection and variation, insecurity and variation, and force majeure and political risk.

The study was limited to multi-storey building projects in Lagos State, Nigeria. Further studies could focus on specific resuscitation strategies for abandoned multi-storey building projects.

The study provided implications for effective project and contract management of multi-storey building projects which is very paramount to improve the delivery of complex, technical- and capital-intensive building projects in Nigeria.

The study provides specific implications for the management of multi-storey building projects, thereby enhancing the delivery of building projects.

The purpose of this study is to identify potential changes in crime generators and attractors based on monthly models in a high-tourist destination.

A risk terrain modeling approach was used to assess spatial relationships between 27 crime generator and attractor types in Atlantic City, New Jersey with robbery occurrence for the 2015 calendar year. In total, 12 separate monthly models were run to identify changes in risk factors based on the month of the year.

Results indicated unique significant risk factors based on the month of the year. Over the warmer and summer months, there was a shift in environmental risk factors that falls in line with more of a change in routine activities for residents and tourists and related situational contexts for the crime.

The analytical approach used in the current study could be used by police departments and jurisdictions to understand types of crime generators and attractors influencing local crime occurrence. Subsequent analyses were used by Atlantic City Police Department to direct place-based policing efforts.

With growing crime and place research that accounts for temporal scales, the authors advance these endeavors by focusing on a tourist destination, Atlantic City, New Jersey.

The purpose of this paper is to analyse urban transformation as a tourism resource. Tourism is undeniably a powerful motor for urban transformation but in return, urban transformation can represent a resource for actors related to tourism. More precisely this paper focuses on one major transformation of modern cities: gentrification.

The central hypothesis of this paper is that gentrification accompanies tourism, but that gentrification itself may also become an object of the tourist gaze. The paper focuses on local guides and small touristic entrepreneurs in order to identify the tensions that might arise. The presentation of two guided tours – “Subculture Brixton Nightlife Tour” and “Where Brooklyn At?” – will enable us to explore how the gentrification of Brixton (London) and Brooklyn (New York) may be used as a tourism resource for local private entrepreneurs.

Results presented here are based on ethnographic methods such as observation as well as content analysis and semi-directive interviews. Mobilising the historical concept of “slumming”, this paper proposes an extended conceptual framework, “neo-slumming”, to analyse evolving tourism practices in modern cities, practices that are considered here as tourism’s new frontiers.

However, as tourism transforms cities, the process itself is now of interest to tourists and thus becomes a resource for sector businesses (Naef, 2018). Yet studies about the touristification of urban transformation are still quite rare. This analysis aims to fill this gap by looking at the way a process, such as some spectacular, rapid or radical transformation of the urban fabric, can become a touristic resource associated with specific narratives and representations. In this context, the tourist gaze (Urry, 2002) is directed on a resource characterised by its ongoing change.