The Hedonic Model, a traditional method for forecasting house prices has been criticised due to nonlinearity, multicollinearity and heteroskedasticity problems, which were argued to affect estimation accuracy. Unlike the Hedonic Model, the Artificial Neural Network Model (ANN), permits nonlinear relationships and thus avoids the problems plaguing the Hedonic Model resulting in superior forecasting performance. Despite these advantages, attempts to model house prices using ANN are limited in geography and data thus besetting the usefulness of the results. To address the research gap, this paper aims to establish such a new model using ANN in forecasting house prices. A sample of double-storey terraced houses transacted in Johor Bahru are analysed using ANN. The findings illustrate a superior forecasting performance for ANN through high values of goodness of fit and low values of errors. This paper adds to the house price modelling literature and provides new knowledge to both academics and practitioners.

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Abstract. Affordable housing was developed in order to give equal opportunity for middle and low-incomers in owning a house, especially in Malaysia. To make sure that these people can have a quality house, the National Housing Policy (DRN) with Pelan Tindakan DRN has been introduced by the Malaysian Government to not only provide adequate housing, but also a comfortable, fun and affordable for the wellbeing of the people in Malaysia (KPKT, 2011). Therefore, sustainability for housing is important to achieve balance between economic development, social interactions and environmental impact by reducing the problems related to population growth, urbanisation, slums, poverty, climate change, lack of access to sustainable energy, and economic uncertainty. One of the goals in DRN and Pelan Tindakan Dasar Perumahan Negara (PTDRN) is to provide an affordable housing and ensure the people from low-income can own a house. However, there is an issue towards assessing the sustainability level of affordable housing, especially in social aspects. This study will discuss on sustainability of affordable housing in Malaysia focused on social aspects. Assessment of spatial indicators was conducted to assess the indicator's implementation of social aspect of the sustainability model. The indicators used in this study include public community facilities, health, safety, religion, and public transportation. These indicators will determine the level of sustainability of the affordable housing. From the results, most of the affordable housing in Malaysia is in intermediate level of sustainability in term of social aspects. These results can help/guide the Government in planning and development in the future, especially with collaboration from private agencies and non-government organization (NGO).

Property tax is a main source of local authority and contributes to nation’s development. Local Government Act 1976 (Act 171) has authorized local authority as the responsible party in levying property tax. Based on pilot study, there is an urgency in conducting property tax reassessment due to the lack of manpower in valuation department. Besides, it was found that the outsource solution by appointing private valuation firm also failed to complete the reassessment within dateline. Hence, this study is conducted to scrutinize the most significant factors that cause failure in completing reassessment work among private valuation firm appointed by local authority. Questionnaires were distributed among local authority within Iskandar region to rank the most important factors that cause the failure. The results shows that workload increase, and time constraint is the most prominent factors that cause failure in completing the reassessment work. This paper is significant for local authority in handling the problem regarding reassessment work among appointed valuation firm.

Malaysia is expected to face ageing population in year 2030. This phenomenon is a challenge that hinders the provision of an excellent environment, including housing them. Active ageing refers to the process of improving the quality of life amongst the elderly in terms of health, social, physical, and environmental aspects. Provision of environment that is conducive and promotion of active surrounding highly influence the elderly to stay active. Nonetheless, literature pertaining to this particular topic area from the stance of elderly Muslims is in scarcity. Hence, the objective of this study is to determine terms associated to active ageing from the Muslim perspective and to identify the appropriate housing environment for them. Data collected from questionnaires distributed to 411 respondents residing in Johor were analysed quantitatively. The outcomes suggest that active ageing amongst elderly Muslims displayed positive effects on spiritual and religious activities. Upon providing housing for them, active ageing is essential so as to perceive active living and exceptional well-being