Property Development Projects Research Articles

A Near Real-time Early Warning System on Erosion Hazards

With many incidences of landslides, mudslides and erosion occurrences lately, especially in the highlands in Malaysia, properties were damaged and lives were lost. Seeing the need of resolving and minimizing such untoward incidences, a study has been embarked on developing a near real-time early warning system on erosion hazards so as to provide an early warning to the public, whenever there are signs and probable occurrence of such incidences. Consequently, a case study on Cameron Highlands Catchment was carried out, which involved a detailed baseline database of the study area to be set up first. The highland catchment is considered an environmentally sensitive area where many land development for various activities such as agriculture, agro-tourism, property development and road-widening projects, had already been carried out and some are still on going as to-date. To develop the baseline database, acquisition of the latest Structure Plan, Satellite Imagery, topographical and rainfall information of the catchment area were carried out. Once this is done, real-time rainfall information would be adopted to develop the early warning system. This could be done by using solar-powered rain sensors, which would be triggered based on the rainfall amount and intensity. A SIM-card based GPRS transmitter, which is attached to the “rain sensing and transmission unit” would then send out e-mails at every minute interval, so that the data could be transferred to a receiving unit. At this point, the e-mail is read and data is processed within the Geographical Information Systems (GIS) using an automated keyboard simulation programme. The final processed values would then be set against the threshold values, which will trigger an early warning if any of the values exceeds the threshold limits. Therefore, it is hoped that the application of this new locally developed system, which has been trademarked under the name EWARNSTM (Early Warning And Risk Navigation Systems), would be beneficial to the local authorities, highway operators and the public in general in providing an early warning especially during periods of heavy rainfall, which could possibly trigger serious soil erosion occurrences that may induce landslides.

Development Involvement and Property Share Performance: International Evidence

This paper concerns the dilemma whether regulators should preclude tax-exempt property investment companies from engaging in property development activities. We analyze the economic effects of combinations of property investment and property development by looking at the performance of an international set of property investment companies with varying degrees of involvement in property development. We study the five most important listed property markets in the world: the United States, Hong Kong, Australia, the United Kingdom and France. We examine the extent to which property investment companies participate in development projects by dividing the book value of their development projects by total assets. These development ratios yield remarkable differences both within and across national samples, with national averages varying between 2.23 percent for the United States and 21.34 percent for our Hong Kong sample. Analysis of property share performance yields results that consistently indicate that the cluster of property companies most involved in development projects is associated with both the highest total return and the highest systematic risk. We also find a weak positive link between development involvement and the Jensen alpha of property shares. The statistical significance of this link varies by country, with strong results for Hong Kong and Australia and less compelling results for the United States, the United Kingdom and France. Besides analyzing the stock performance of the companies in our samples we also focus on their operational profitability. Again, we consistently find both the highest and most volatile performance for companies actively participating in property development projects.

Sustainable stormwater management at Fornebu—from an airport to an industrial and residential area of the city of Oslo, Norway

The Oslo Airport at Fornebu was closed in 1998 after 60 years of operation. An area of 3.1 km 2 was made available for one of Norway's biggest property development projects. Plans include 6000 residences and 20,000 workplaces. Fornebu is situated on a peninsula in the Oslo Fjord just outside the city of Oslo and is regarded as a very attractive area for both urbanisation and recreation. The residential area located centrally at Fornebu surrounds a centrally located park area. In the planning process, there was an expressed interest in using water as a life-giving element within the vegetation structure of the park. In Norway, stormwater in urban areas has traditionally been collected and transported in pipe systems to adjacent watercourses. However, there is an increasing interest in alternative “green” solutions for the management of stormwater. The paper presents a concept for sustainable stormwater management at Fornebu. A main objective is to improve the recreational and ecological value of stormwater while achieving a cost-effective solution. This objective is reached by replacing conventional urban drainage pipes with swales, filter strips, wetlands and ponds as collection, storage and treatment systems designed for natural processes. The paper thereby addresses integrated systems for stormwater management by approaching nature's way and sustainable development principles.

The impact of news concerning development project launches and their take‐up rates on the stock prices of publicly listed property development companies

AbstractA successful launch for a property development project has direct implications on the profitability of the development company. This paper examines the impact of news on the take‐up rates in property development launches on the stock prices of publicly listed property development companies. The implications of a study on stock price reaction to news on property development launches are clear. The property company could view good market response as an opportune time for raising financing in terms of equity as well as bonds or for refinancing. More fundamentally, a favourable market response can be viewed as a market endorsement of the financing structure for property development companies where project financing is widely used. When good take‐up rates are announced in the press, one expects the stock price of the development company to react positively. Empirical evidence from Singapore suggests that the cumulative average abnormal returns (CAARs) are flat on days subsequent to the announcement dates, but there exist significant movements some weeks after the condominium actual launch dates. When the launch date is used as the event date, the CAARs over the period following the launch date are positive for projects that sell well and negative for projects that do not. In addition, the cumulative returns correlate positively to the percentage of units sold over the launch period. Copyright © 2002 Henry Stewart Publications

GLOBALIZATION AND URBAN CHANGE: TALES FROM VANCOUVER VIA HONG KONG

The main aim of this article is to examine some of the sociocultural dimensions of contemporary globalization processes, especially in a "Pacific Rim" context. This broad subject is approached by using the Can$3 billion Pacific Place urban mega-project (UMP) in central Vancouver as a vehicle through which to explore the social processes structuring a trans-Pacific property transaction. I examine the key factors leading the Li Group from Hong Kong to extend their "reach" over space into Vancouver at this particular time in history. Addressing this topic entails attempting to understand (1) the business and personal dynamics of the key actors involved with such global flows of property capital, set within a broader geopolitical and geoeconomic context; (2) the meaning and significance of Vancouver to the actors, especially in the context of immigration flows to the city; and (3) the significance and multiple functions of this type of property development project—the urban mega-project—to the actors. And while this case study is not designed to be representative of the overall nature of the trans-Pacific property development process, it does highlight some important characteristics about Vancouver's changing social and political structure, as well as the need (in theoretical and methodological terms) to produce more modest and provisional accounts about the "global space of flows."

不動産開発プロジェクトの実施プロセスの構成に関する考察

不動産開発プロジェクトの実施プロセスの構成に関する考察