Building procurement has become a fashionable term with industry practitioners and researchers. It determines the overall framework and structure of responsibilities and authorities for participants within the building process. It is a key factor contributing to overall client satisfaction and project success. The selection of the most suitable procurement method consequently is critical for both clients and project participants, and is becoming an important and contemporary issue within the building industry. The problem, nevertheless, lies in the fact that there has been limited empirical research in this field of study. Postal questionnaire surveys of 41 clients and 35 consultants were carried out, and were used to obtain experience of and attitudes to a variety of procurement methods and the criteria used for selection. The findings indicate that a simple set of the criteria generally is adequate and sufficient for procurement path selection, and that there is a reasonable consensus on the appropriate weighting for each path. Moreover, it is shown that, contrary to expectations, similar clients generally do not have similar procurement needs.Procurement Selection, Criteria Weighting, Client Needs, Utility Rating,

Summary. In recent years, amid the debates of sustainable development and urban compactness, there has been a widening interest to reintroduce high-rise living in cities. Several European cities including London and Manchester are once again building high-rise housing as part of their urban housing strategy. Elsewhere, in Asia, Hong Kong and Singapore are distinguished by their high-rise public housing developments. With nearly half of the world's population living in urban areas, the unfolding trend is towards a more urban-style development with taller buildings included as an inevitable housing solution. Drawing on findings from a study of Singapore public housing residents' living experience, this paper aims to look at the increasingly important question of the liveability of high-rise living by discussing the occupants' appreciation and concerns of high-rise.

A key element in achieving sustainability's triple-bottom-line goals is a good public transport system. Many studies have shown the relationship between effective public transport services and sustainable development at the city level. The purpose of this study is to introduce and use a SERVQUAL framework to measure public transport services within a master-planned community in Australia. The stakeholder survey findings suggest a wide gap between community expectations of public transport services and the actual service quality provided. This was consistent across all commuter groups. In particular, the findings have been useful in shedding broad light on the areas where improvements are needed most, i.e. responsiveness and reliability of services, to encourage greater use of public transport within the community level. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment.

Employing a recently developed panel econometric technique, first, we show that accounting for spatial dependence and heterogeneity yields more accurate risk factor coefficients and abnormal housing returns. Rather than systematic risks, idiosyncratic risks explain the variations in residential housing excess returns. After controlling for asset-specific and systematic risk factors, the positive and significant impact of the unobservable common factors on the excess returns suggests that speculative market forces drive the housing excess returns. Second, we then analyze the risks and returns of houses in affordable and expensive submarkets allowing for spatial dependence and heterogeneity. We find that houses in the affordable submarkets perform better than houses in the expensive submarkets. Thus, the potential demand for houses in the affordable submarket may aggravate the housing affordability crisis. Our study’s results, therefore, encourage policymakers and investors to view the housing market as a collection of regional units and submarkets, but not as a single national market.

No abstract