Editorial

Citation

Warren, C.M.J. (2016), "Editorial", Property Management, Vol. 34 No. 5, pp. 362-363. https://doi.org/10.1108/PM-08-2016-0037

Issue 5 is the final issue of Property Management for 2016 and I would like to take this opportunity to once again thank the Editorial Advisory Board and all the reviewers who have helped throughout the year in ensuring that we maintain the quality of papers published in Property Management. Without the help of reviewers volunteering their time to provide feedback on papers submitted to the journal we would not be able to maintain the quality of publication. As researchers we rely heavily on the professionalism of our peers in providing constructive feedback on our research outputs and without this the improvement in the finished publication would not be achieved. There is little recognition provided to our peer reviewers and the only reward is the satisfaction derived from knowing that your review has helped a fellow researcher to improve their communication of research findings.

In an attempt to increase the recognition of the contribution that paper reviewers provide to our research there is now an online portal which collates all peer reviews undertaken and presents these against a contributing academics profiles. This tool provides a worthwhile display of the level of commitment that a researcher makes to the publication of research undertaken by others. It is, in my view, a very worthwhile objective to demonstrate a contribution to the publication process which otherwise goes unrecognised and, is one I feel should be recognised by our universities. Without peer review our research outputs would not have the standing that they do. I would recommend that you look at the reviewer site at www.publons.com and, if you review for Property Management, I encourage you to sign up and have your contribution recognised.

Turning to the current issue of Property Management, as usual we have a range of papers addressing a number of significant issues for property managers. The research papers also reflect the diverse readership of the journal with a mix of research from some of the most developed countries to those in the developing world. This issue has papers from researchers in, Australia, Finland, Hong Kong Kenya and Nigeria. There is also the usual mix of residential and commercial management papers presented, representing the range of interests of property managers.

The first paper in this issue comes from Rotimi Abidoye and Albert Chan from Department of Building and Real Estate, The Hong Kong Polytechnic. Their paper is entitled: “A survey of property valuation approaches in Nigeria”. The paper evaluates emerging trends in valuation practice and the use of advanced valuation techniques including hedonic pricing and autoregressive integrated moving average in Nigeria. The research finds that there is limited use of these advanced techniques among practitioners and recommends greater emphasis on advanced techniques for those undertaking valuation education.

The second paper comes from David Parker at the University of South Australia. This paper discusses the decision-making process employed by unlisted property funds in Australia. The paper title is: “Property investment decision making by Australian unlisted property funds: an exploratory study”.

The paper explores the envisioning, planning, dealing and executing stages through which an unlisted fund manager pass in arriving at an investment decision. The paper puts forward a model of the four-stage 17 step decision process.

The third paper is written by Timothy Oluwafemi Ayodele, Timothy Tunde Oladokun and Job Taiwo Gbadegesin, from the Obafemi Awolowo University and Nigeria Estate Management Department. This second paper in this issue from Nigeria is entitled: “Factors influencing academic performance of real estate students in Nigeria”. The purpose of this paper is to examine the factors impacting on academic performance of real estate students in a developing country like Nigeria. The results of this study show the factors which influencing performance are systems of assessment, parent/family background and teaching methods used while school and general academic environment had less influence. While focussed on education in Nigeria the findings of this paper will have implications for university teaching in many countries.

The fourth paper is written by Antti Kurvinen, from the Tampere University of Technology, Finland and Tanja Tyvimaa, from the Queensland University of Technology, Australia. The paper: “The impact of senior house developments on surrounding residential property values” explores the impact of housing developments for seniors on the values of neighbouring apartments. The results show a positive impact on adjoining property values within 500 m of new housing for seniors. While this study focusses on a region of Tampere, Finland it is likely that the findings may be applicable to other regions with similar developments.

The final paper is based on research undertaken in Hong Kong in which the authors seek to identify the level of awareness among residential property managers of the need to make provision for disabled residents. This paper is written by Yau, Yung from the City University of Hong Kong and Lau, Wai Kin from Technological and Higher Education Institute of Hong Kong. Their paper is: “Property management, disability awareness and inclusive built environment”. The authors undertook a detailed survey of property managers in Hong Kong to establish the level of disability awareness. The findings show that property managers generally recognised the importance of inclusive built environment to persons with disabilities role played by property management in safeguarding the interests of disabled occupants. The paper does however also highlight some misconceptions and areas for improvement in property management practices.

I hope that you find the range of research papers presented in this issue of Property Management interesting and informative. This ongoing flow of quality research papers to Property Management continues to be strong however, quality papers are always in demand and I encourage you to present your research for inclusion in the journal.