Value of Professional Property Managers in Residential Project Development

This study considers the characteristics of the relationship between landlords and property managers in Akure, Nigeria. The study adopted a cross-sectional survey design where data were obtained from landlords and estate surveying and valuation firms in the city. Akure was divided into three population density zones for the data obtained from the landlord on the nature of their relationship with their property managers. Out of the total landlords that responded, 63 rented out their properties to tenants, on which descriptive statistical analysis was conducted. The result of the analysis shows that 20 out of the rented out properties were managed by the landlord themselves, while others were managed by professional property managers and other categories of property managers, where property managers are often secured through recommendation. However, with the use of the chi-square test, it was revealed that the engagement of property managers does not have a statistically significant implication from the population density zone where the property is located, while landlords are more satisfied with properties that are managed by professional property managers than by other categories of property managers. It is concluded that landlords in Akure have a higher level of satisfaction with the services rendered by professional property managers than other categories of individuals who are engaged in property management. It is therefore recommended that for landlords to have maximum satisfaction from the services delivered by managers of their properties, professional property managers should be engaged.

Property management is a very complex and challenging profession due to its nature and coverage of work in managing not just the four walls but what inside and outside the four walls. In addition, the task also requires monitoring of 24/7 and 365 days. The team of property management consists of various backgrounds to ensure that it can cater the needs and requirements of each building. Thus, to deliver quality services would require a minimum competency according to their scope and area of work. This research is aim to develop the property management competency framework that is applicable in the Malaysian property management service delivery. The method used is using focus group consists of the experts in the industry either private organizations or public institutions; nationally and internationally. Findings reveal that the knowledge base and technical skills required of today's property management professional have changed significantly. The competency requirements for a professional property manager include advanced technical knowledge, a good grasp of business operations and a working knowledge of the real estate business environment. The ability to integrate different business concepts, apply sustainability principles, to be cost effective and a strong ethical foundation is an essential element of a successful professional property manager. Hence, it is crucial to have the minimum competency level as a basis to deliver excellent quality service as well as to be adapted and adaptable to the environment, the stakeholders and the buildings.© 2016. The Authors. Published for AMER ABRA by e-International Publishing House, Ltd., UK. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).Peer–review under responsibility of AMER (Association of Malaysian Environment-Behaviour Researchers), ABRA (Association of Behavioural Researchers on Asians) and cE-Bs (Centre for Environment-Behaviour Studies), Faculty of Architecture, Planning & Surveying, Universiti Teknologi MARA, Malaysia.Keywords: Property management, competency framework, property management industry

As corporations' environmental impacts come under greater scrutiny from global financial, regulatory, and societal stakeholders, management scholars have increasingly focused on the role corporate governance plays in undertaking corporate environmental responsibility (CER). This paper combines managerial incentives and CER in a dynamic environment to formulate a differential game model of managerial incentive design in a duopolistic market, investigating whether companies with profit-maximizing interests are motivated to provide their professional managers with incentives related to CER and the impact of such incentives on corporate profitability, social welfare and emissions reduction. The results demonstrate the following: (1) Employing professional managers increases the emissions reduction efforts of firms and giving incentives to professional managers further increases the emissions reduction level of firms. (2) When a firm employs a professional manager and pays him or her a fixed salary, it generates slightly less income than it does when a manager is not employed; however, if the professional manager is given CER-related incentives, the firm's income is greatly increased. (3) As long as professional managers are employed, social welfare increases regardless of whether professional managers are given incentive pay. (4) The emissions reduction of a firm increases with an increase in the income distribution coefficient π1. This paper extends the existing CER decision-making model by considering different managerial incentive designs, providing new insights into CER and enterprise organizational strategy and offering useful policy recommendations and a scientific basis for environmental governance, which is expected to be useful for finding ways to balance economic development and environmental protection.

Swimming pool use and birth defect risk

U radu se prezentiranju prikupljeni arhivski podaci o marangonima i lapicidama koji se spominju u Trogiru između 1420. i 1450. godine. Analizom istih te analizom njihova međuodnosa s podacima o tada poduzimanim podizanjima novih i preoblikovanjima postojećih zdanja nastoje se ocrtati njihove uloge u građevinskim pothvatima u onodobnom Trogiru. Prvotno smo za ovaj broj časopisa Ars Adriatica, posvećen profesoru Ivi Petricioliju koji nam je za vrijeme studija pobudio zanimanje prema proučavanju srednjovjekovne umjetnosti, a graditeljstva osobito, htjeli ponuditi prilog o zadarskim graditeljima u Trogiru. Njihovu ulogu i značaj moguće je, međutim, razmotriti tek u sklopu šire rasprave o svim marangonima i lapicidama koji su istovremeno djelovali u tom gradu.

Successful property management, which can be done by individual owners or by professional property managers, has numerous interrelated complex business processes: tenant attraction, screening, leasing, tenant move-in, property maintenance, retention/lease renewals, tenant move-out, and reputation management. Property managers must be highly skilled communicators and thoroughly understand the legal implications of housing and contract law in their operating environments. The lack of affordable solutions available to small and mid-sized property managers drives their use of fragmented technology solutions provided by numerous technology vendors that employ redundant data-gathering methods, putting them at a competitive disadvantage. This research paper explores the information systems needs of property managers in contrast to the solutions available to them in the marketplace.

PurposeIn the knowledge economy, the management of knowledge is important because the value of corporations and individuals is directly related to their knowledge and intellectual capital. This is especially true for real estate management, which is of increasing concern to the public and plays an important role in the property market today. This paper aims to show the nature of property professionals' acquisition, sharing and reuse of knowledge in their work.Design/methodology/approachTo better understand the practices of knowledge management (KM) currently employed by property management firms, a study of the general practices of knowledge management in property management firms in Hong Kong was undertaken. This study described the notion of knowledge and knowledge management and investigated the norms of property professionals in acquiring, sharing and reusing knowledge in their daily practices. It also analyzed the relationship between size of firms and methods of knowledge acquisition and sharing. A questionnaire survey was conducted to study the opinions of professional property managers on the acquisition and reuse of knowledge and experience in their daily work. Questionnaires were sent to 103 PM firms with a response rate of 30 percent.FindingsThe survey results reveal that property managers mostly acquire their knowledge from the internet and newspapers. They also obtain knowledge from their colleagues and thus they are always important target persons with whom to share knowledge. In addition, property managers have close contact with professionals within and beyond their profession, allowing them to tap into and share knowledge across organizational boundaries. Although property managers are willing to share knowledge with others, there is no evidence to show that there are formal knowledge management strategies in PM firms. It seems that there is a need for explicit knowledge management strategies in property management, which could leverage their employees' knowledge assets.Research limitations/implicationsPast research that studied other types of knowledge workers may not be applicable to the unique nature of professionals working in the property management sector.Originality/valueThe originality of this paper is that it examines the practices of property professionals in acquiring, sharing and reusing knowledge in their daily practices which have not been studied systematically before. This paper also makes suggestions for improving knowledge‐managing strategies in this profession to prevent knowledge loss.

To enable further advanced study of Antarctica, a new station called Kunlun Station has been built by China in the Dome A region of the inland East Antarctic ice sheet. This paper describes the Antarctic station building design system that was developed with consideration of factors that may affect Kunlun Station, such as environment and climate, construction work and transport, environmental protection and energy conservation, psychological requirements and functional requirements. The design system included site selection, station planning, external building form, construction work, function and indoor environment, energy conservation, environmental protection, and material strategy. We also describe the experience acquired during the transportation and construction phases of Kunlun Station. Citation: Zhang Y, Wang Z J. Design and development of infrastructure of the Dome A Kunlun Station (2005–2015). Adv Polar Sci, 2017, 28(3): 214–227, doi: 10.13679/j.advps.2017.3.00214

Chapter 18 - Architecture and Property Management

In recent years, the concept of Industry 4.0 has been significantly advanced in industrial circles as an aspect that provides a competitive differential. Through the technologies involved, machines can now monitor and relay information on their operating conditions for analysis and decision-making, as well as for prompting action. These new functions generally involve the development of technological projects and significant investments. This renders it expedient to explain why certain systems should be monitored, but not others, as well as the use to be given to the data gathered as a way of generating income for a firm. This approach is especially important in certain corporate operations, such as after-sales maintenance. This article introduces a reference framework that permits the effective and efficient management of after-sales maintenance services. This framework relates after-sales service technologies with product technologies (Industry 4.0), and therefore covers the reasons and purposes of Industry 4.0 within the ambit of after-sales service.

The article calls attention to homeowners associations (HOAs), which are becoming the dominant organizational form of housing development. It focuses on managing HOAs, especially on the social aspects and determinants of the process. The author claims that in order to understand how HOAs function, it is absolutely crucial to take social aspects under consideration. The members’ involvement, relations between the tenants and cultural norms influence the effectiveness of collective action. Those issues are especially important for professional property managers. The aim of the article is to present social aspects of managing HOAs in Poland. The article presents the results of a study on the social aspects of HOA activity. It examines and compares three organizational models of HOAs in Poland. One of them is self-managing, with an active board of the association that operates without external help; this model requires a high level of volunteer commitment. The second model represents HOAs jointly managed by the board and a professional property manager; this type is heterogeneous – the allocation of tasks and relations between the two players vary according to the level of the board's engagement. The last type represents a HOA that was not able to establish a board, thus its role is played by a professional property manager. In all three types, both organizational structures and management methods depend on the level of the homeowners’ engagement. The study indicates such engagement factors. HOAs are characterized by their typical operations, decision-making processes, information flow, the roles played by the board of the association and professional property manager, the level of volunteer commitment and neighborhood ties. The study also indicates satisfaction factors in terms of the property manager's service.

Construction companies are important economic actors in every country. Their activity translates into employment levels, tax revenues, and the provision of new spaces that require further expenditure on equipment, thus stimulating consumer spending. The activity of construction companies depends on the demand for space, the state of the economy and the financial market. Undoubtedly economic disturbances in the form of a recession have a significant impact on construction activity. The authors were interested in whether the boom and recession in the selected countries were similarly reflected in the activity of construction companies. In particular, they were interested in residential construction activity, although it was not possible to select companies that would only deal with residential construction. The authors selected four post-socialist countries and two countries which are called winners of the integration process due to their enormous economic growth. The authors outline the residential construction and construction sector results and activity in the Czech Republic, Poland, Slovakia, Hungary, Spain and Ireland, and draw a wider picture for analyses of construction companies’ financial results for the years 2003-2012. This period was chosen because it covered periods of both boom and bust. All enterprises were part of the sector denoted in the Amadeus database as primary code: Eurostat NACE Rev. 2 with codes: 41 - Construction of buildings: 4110 - Development of building projects, 4120 - Construction of residential and non-residential buildings. Due to the specificity of the construction sector the authors divided the surveyed enterprises into two groups – all companies; and only large and very large companies. It was not possible to separate data specifically with respect to residential construction companies.

The rural revitalization strategy adheres to the priority development of rural areas, the full scientific and rational use of natural landscape resources, the effective protection of the ecological environment and the governance and beautification of the rural living environment. The advantages of assembled buildings which are compatible with the concept of environmentally sustainable development, including pollution reduction, energy saving and carbon reduction, promote the development of the application of assembled buildings in the construction of new rural areas. This paper analyzes the advantages and disadvantages of assembly building and the current situation of new rural housing construction and carries out a theoretical research on assembly buildings applicable to the construction of new rural areas, so as to provide a theoretical and practical basis for the application of assembly buildings in the construction of new rural areas.

This paper studies the Frequency Temperature Control mechanism and cold (heat) metering algorithm about central air-conditioning terminal installations. The temperature control and household metering management system for central air-conditioning terminal machine are developed. The system hardware, software design programs and key technologies are expatiated. The terminal machine is integrated with PIC microcontroller, user data acquisition, transmission and control. Delphi language is used in the accounting management system of the host computer. The results show that, the system is no need of new wire, the high performance-price ratio, easy assembly, stable operation and reasonable charge. It is of great significance to adopt the heat and cold metering for the energy conservation, environmental protection and property management. At the same time, it provides the property management with a new technology and channels for the modern intelligent building.

Purpose — This study seeks to investigate the degree to which energy efficiency is incorporated into office building refurbishment and capital expenditure with the emphasis placed on a cost‐benefit analysis from the owner’s perspective. Design/methodology/approach – In order to develop a research framework, a thorough literature review was conducted of three disciplines being construction technology, building refurbishment and property management. The study identifies differences between varying levels of capital expenditure to ensure an existing building is more energy efficient, with the emphasis placed on the cost of implementation and the potential for tenants to acknowledge the increased energy efficiency via higher rents. Findings – Office buildings have been identified as a contributor to global warming during the construction phase, however during the building lifecycle there is a greater contribution to CO2 omissions. Whilst various building designs and construction techniques have evolved to improve energy efficiency, the focus has largely been placed on new buildings where it is easier to incorporate change and innovative approaches. However, the proportion of new buildings constructed each year is relatively small in comparison to existing building stock, which requires regular capital expenditure to maintain and attract new tenants within a competitive marketplace. Practical implications – The increasing importance of energy efficiency affects the office market in a variety of different ways. Originality/value – This paper identifies important links between the environment and the built environment, and the implications for office building owners.