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The purpose of this paper is to examine links between environmental design of high-rise housing communities and residents’ perceptions about antisocial behaviour (ASB).

A conceptual framework was proposed to investigate correlations between architectural design parameters and perceived severity of ASB activity. A questionnaire was administered to test the relationships. Residents of 14 public rental housing estates in Hong Kong participated, and 422 complete responses were analysed.

Strong correlation was discovered between elements of residential design and residents’ perceptions of ASB severity. Block layout, building height and number of flats per floor affected residents’ feelings about ASB threat. Access to outside air in communal corridors also significantly reduced residents’ complaints about ASB.

This study offers insights into how architectural design of high-rise residences might reduce residents’ perception of ASB severity. Findings impact current ASB research, but also architects’ and developers’ designs. Better planned built environments will enhance residents’ security and satisfaction, reinforcing communities.

Previous studies have ignored whether architectural design of high-rises could directly influence residents’ perception of ASB severity. This study is the first to focus on the relationship.

This paper aims to study neighbourhood attachment and satisfaction in a middle-class, high-density and semi-gated neighbourhood in Hong Kong.

Drawing on the findings of survey on 356 households, a principal component analysis and hierarchical regression analysis were conducted to assess how attachment and satisfaction were manifested and whether they were manifested as separate phenomena.

Attachment and satisfaction in neighbourhoods were manifested as separate phenomena. It was further found that residents were broadly attached to and satisfied with their neighbourhood. Of the neighbourhood characteristics identified as influencing satisfaction in previous research, the support was found only for the physical environment and safety but concluded that satisfaction was also influenced by status, neighbourhood youths’ ambition and schools. Contrary to the expectation, the authors did not find support for deeper social bonds as an element of satisfaction. The hierarchical regression analysis indicated that satisfaction may lead to increased attachment.

This study offers policymakers and housing managers’ valuable insights into the management of increasingly large and complex residential neighbourhoods. It helps us understand which initiatives are likely to lead to greater attachment.

Previous studies have focused on neighbourhood attachment and satisfaction in typical low/medium-density settings. This study extends previous efforts to a high-density housing estate of Hong Kong.

Facilities management (FM) activities affect citizens’ health and safety, long-term urban environmental sustainability and the relationships between the built and natural environments of cities. This study aims to comprehend the status of smart FM tools application, how they are used to improve the delivery of FM services and the barriers to their implementation.

To investigate the current smart solutions that leverage the quality of FM service, a case study based on the FM practice in Hong Kong was carried out. The case study was conducted in two phases of data acquisition based on a qualitative research methodology. After conducting in-depth interviews to determine the application of smart FM tools in different types of properties and to identify the initiatives and barriers to smart FM tool application, three workshops were conducted to validate the findings and further investigate the influence of FM professionals on smart FM tools application in Hong Kong.

The findings of the case study revealed, firstly, that four types of smart FM tools – user-centric, safety and hygiene, maintenance and sustainability-oriented – are used to assist the delivery of FM services. Secondly, smart FM tools are shown to be useful in assisting FM activities. Thirdly, the existing barriers to smart FM tool application manifest differently in shopping malls, office buildings and residential buildings. Fourthly, smart FM tools are used to address the four attributes of user needs: comfort, health and wellbeing, convenience and information to occupants.

The value of this study lies in its focus on the industry level (FM industry) and the application process of smart FM tools in different types of property, revealing the benefits, initiatives and barriers to their future application. This study provides a comprehensive picture of the current status and elaborates the barriers to smart FM tool application, which will help FM practitioners to make strategic decisions on selecting and developing smart FM tools. Also, this study will facilitate smart FM tool application policy development.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the level of disability awareness in the property management industry in Hong Kong.

A structured questionnaire survey was conducted on 342 local property management practitioners. The survey was conducted online in the period between 15 September 2014 and 30 November 2014 to collect various information of the respondents such as their backgrounds, different perceptions towards the disabled and disability awareness. In addition, in-depth interviews with two front-line property management personnel were undertaken to provide a more narrative account of the topic.

The respondents generally recognized the importance of inclusive built environment to persons with disabilities (PWD) and the vital role played by property management in safeguarding the interests of PWD. However, the research found that some misconceptions about disabilities still prevailed in the industry and the interests of PWD have received inadequate consideration in the routine property management tasks performed by the practitioners, reflecting a lack of disability awareness in the local property management industry.

The research findings provide a baseline reference for longitudinal tracking of the disability awareness among property management practitioners in the future.

Drawing on the research findings, this paper made several recommendations for improving disability awareness in Hong Kong’s property management industry. In addition, the research findings can be used for before-and-after analyses when the public authority strives to evaluate the effectiveness of their programmes, training workshops or campaigns of disability awareness promotion in the industry.

The importance of property management in the achievement of inclusive built environment has long been ignored in the literature. This study on disability awareness of property management practitioners is very likely the first of its kind in the world.

For the sake of public health and safety, a territory‐wide evaluation of the quality of buildings in Hong Kong is crucial. However, it is a lengthy process to assess the performance of the whole stock of buildings in the city. To get around this predicament, this paper aims to propose a statistical approach for a fast and reliable building evaluation algorithm using the Building Quality Index (BQI) developed by The University of Hong Kong.

Using the BQI assessment framework, the condition of 133 and 160 private apartment buildings in Yau Tsim Mong and the Eastern District respectively are assessed and rated. The data of the Yau Tsim Mong buildings are used to estimate a regression model associating the relationships between building performance, measured by the BQI, and other exogenous factors. The resulting model is then employed to predict the performance of the surveyed buildings in the Eastern District.

The regression analyses on the Yau Tsim Mong data indicate that building age, development scale and building management mode are significant determinants of the existing condition of the sampled buildings, echoing the findings of previous studies. BQI scores of buildings in the Eastern District are estimated using the resulting regression model, and there is a highly positive relationship between the predicted BQI and in‐situ BQI scores.

The study is the first in the literature to provide an algorithm for estimating building condition in a densely developed high‐rise urban area.

The finance literature extensively documents the abnormal positive returns of unseasoned initial public offerings (IPOs) in the early trading. Neuberger and LaChapelle (1983), McDonald and Fisher (1972), Neuberger and Hammond (1974), Reilly (1977), Logue (1973), Ibbotson (1975), Ibbotson and Jaffe (1975), Ritter (1984), Miller and Reilly (1987), and Ibbotson, Sindelar and Ritter (1988) are but a few studies providing convincing evidence of initial price volatility in IPOs which, after some period of time, tends to level off. Some IPO studies, particularly Neuberger and LaChapelle (1983), Logue (1973), and Friend (1967), intentionally ignore institutional IPOs. Logue (1973) states that banking issues create a downward pricing bias because the market has already accurately priced the assets of financial institutions. Alli, Yau and Yung (1994) provided evidence that banking IPOs enjoyed significantly less positive abnormal returns in the early trading than a control sample of industrial firms. This study examines the early stock price movements of the 32 non‐US banking equities issued on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) from January 1986 through May 2001 and finds that virtually no underpricing exists in the early trading for those issues – a vast deviation from the results of most IPO and ADR event studies, but a strong indication that banking IPOs do create a downward pricing bias when considered in IPO studies with securities from different industries. All new foreign equity issues in this study are traded as American Depository Receipts (ADRs) except the Canadian stocks.

Proper management and maintenance of building stock are vital to sustainable development of a city for a number of reasons, for example, the close relationship between building performance and residents' health. However, effective housing management requires active participation of the residents, particularly the homeowners. Yet, homeowners' participation in housing management in Hong Kong is claimed to remain at a low level because of its voluntary nature. This paper aims to empirically explore the determinants of participation behaviour of homeowners in private housing management in the city based on survey findings.

Founded on the literature reviewed, an analytic model for explaining homeowners' participation behaviour in housing management is developed. The model is then tested by means of logit regression with the data collected from a structured questionnaire survey conducted in summer 2009. A total of 346 respondents from 53 private multi‐storey residential buildings in the western district were surveyed.

In general, older, better educated and less wealthy homeowners are active participants in building management matters, keeping other things constant. Sense of community is also found to be a significant determinant. Besides, homeowners' approach towards building care is predominantly reactive since they engage in housing management because of their dissatisfaction with building quality. The findings of the research will provide valuable insights to public administrators for formulating better policies on private housing management.

The analysis results pose a positive view towards the effects of the communitarian approach to avoid free‐riding problems in housing management. In order to heighten the participation rate of homeowners in private housing management, local authorities or other public bodies can try to boost homeowners' sense of community within their residential communities.

This study is the first attempt to empirically investigate the determinants of homeowners' participation in the management of high‐rise residential buildings in Hong Kong.

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.

The responsibility for ensuring the safety and standard of building works in Hong Kong has long rested with the government. In 2003, the government proposed a new control regime to streamline the process of building proposal approval by allowing private‐sector practitioners to certify certain types of minor building works. The purpose of this paper is to consider the likely effectiveness of the proposed regime by examining the views of local building professionals.

Following an overview of the government's initiative in private certification of building works, a literature review is conducted to collate the collective views of the local professional institutions about the proposals. A total of 90 local architects, building surveyors and structural engineers in the private and public sectors are then interviewed using a structured questionnaire.

The proposed regime is generally perceived as having the capacity to speed up the process of building proposal approval whilst also improving overall standards of building performance in Hong Kong. Concerns are however expressed about the clarity of the definition of minor works, and about the level of professional competence of the private certifiers. The respondents also expressed further general concern over the adequacy of government support offered to the private certifiers under the proposed system.

Stakeholders of the proposed minor works regime are not confined to building professionals such as architects, engineers and building surveyors, but also include contractors and the general public as a whole. Owing to limited resources, only the views of the local building professionals are solicited.

The findings of this study provide valuable insights for public administrators into the design and subsequent operation of the new regime. They will also assist the Hong Kong Government in making more informed decisions about the future streamlining of the building control system without, at the same time, sacrificing the overall building safety of the city.

This is the first published study on the views of building professionals from different professional backgrounds on the proposed private certification regime.

There has been a growing public concern over the importance of building management in apartment buildings. However, people's views toward the effects of building management on building performance have long been divergent due to a lack of empirical study. This study aims to empirically test the relationship between building management regimes and the conditions of private apartment buildings in Hong Kong.

An assessment scheme was developed to assess the health and safety conditions of 134 apartment buildings. Multiple regression models were then applied to analyze the effect of building management regimes on building conditions. The optimal functional form of the regression models was selected using Box‐Cox transformation.

The empirical results suggested that the presence of incorporated owners and property management agents (PMA) are significant factors in enhancing building conditions.

The sample was confined to single block buildings located in one particular district in Hong Kong. Further research is needed to validate the findings in estate‐type developments as well as those in other districts.

The empirical results assisted building owners in determining which management regimes to adopt should they want better building conditions. The government may also consider giving more support to owners by incorporating them and employing PMAs to create a pleasant living environment for society.

Our study is the first in the literature to provide an empirical test reconciling the divergent views toward the effects of building management with the conditions of buildings.