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This study aims to identify the pandemic’s impact on house rents by applying a rental gradient analysis to compare the pre-and post-COVID-19 periods in Auckland. The micro-level household census data from the Integrated Data Infrastructure of Statistics New Zealand is also applied to scrutinise this WFH trend as a robustness check.

Since the outbreak of COVID-19, work-from-home (WFH) and e-commerce have become much more common in many cities. Many news reports have contended that households are leaving city centres and moving into bigger and better houses in the suburbs or rural areas. This emerging trend has been redefining the traditional theory of residential location choices. Proximity to central business district (CBD) is no longer the most critical consideration in choosing one’s residence. WFH and e-commerce flatten the traditional bid rent curve from the city centre.

The authors examined micro-level housing rental listings in 242 suburbs of the Auckland Region from January 2013 to December 2021 (108 months) and found that the hedonic price gradient models suggest that there has been a trend of rental gradient flattening and that its extent was almost doubled in 2021. Rents are also found to be increasing more in lower-density suburbs.

The results imply that the pandemic has accelerated the trend of WFH and e-commerce. The authors further discuss whether the trend will be a transient phenomenon or a long-term shift.

Suppose an organisation is concerned about productivity and performance issues due to a companywide ability to WFH. In that case, some standard key performance indicators for management and employees could be implemented. Forward-thinking cities need to focus on attracting skilful workers by making WFH a possible solution, not by insisting on the primacy of antiquated nine-to-five office cultures.

WFH has traditionally encountered resistance, but more and more companies are adopting WFH policies in this post-COVID era. The early rental gradient and the micro-level household data analysis all confirm that the WFH trend is emerging and will likely be a long-term shift. Instead of resisting the change, organisations should improve their remote work policies and capabilities for this WFH trend.

So far, empirical studies of post-COVID urban restructuring have been limited. This study aims to empirically test such an urban metamorphosis by identifying the spatial and temporal impacts of COVID on house rental gradients in the Auckland Region, New Zealand. The authors apply rental gradient analysis to test this urban restructuring hypothesis because the method considers the spatial-temporal differences, i.e. a difference-in-differences between pre-and post-pandemic period against the distance measured from the city centre. The method can control for the spatial difference and the endogeneity involved.

There have been very few empirical studies investigating the value enhancement effects of refurbishment and most rely on cross‐sectional data, which cannot show the before and after effects conclusively because of the heterogeneous nature of the properties. The problem of refurbishment is more complicated in buildings or housing estates with multiple‐ownerships, since refurbishment is a collective decision, which can sometimes be difficult to achieve. Uses panel data in Hong Kong to estimate the impact of refurbishment on the market value of properties in a large housing estate. The results show that the refurbishment brought about approximately a 9 per cent increase in the market value of the properties, which far exceeds the cost of refurbishment. Suggests that property owners of a housing estate will benefit if they can reach a collective decision on renovation.

Tile finishes are very commonly used in external walls of buildings. However, the ageing process of the tile system is very seldom studied, which makes maintenance scheduling on external wall finishes impossible. The paper aims to contend that weathering exposure is one of the main accelerators of delamination. This paper seeks to test empirically the effects of orientation and shading on the probability of wall tile delamination.

This paper analyses the weathering effects, including orientation and shading, on thepercentage of deliminated areas of the external wall tiles by regression in a large estate in Hong Kong. Wall tile delamination data are collected from ten blocks of a high‐rise housing estate in Hong Kong, multiple linear regression is used to analyse the effects of orientation and shading on the probability of failure of the wall tiling systems.

The results of this paper indicate the effects of orientation and shading on the proportion of delamination of the external wall tile finishes.

The results agree with our contention that shaded areas are found to have lower rate of delamination, while north‐west and exposed façades are found with serious delamination. The results have great implications on maintenance scheduling for external wall tile finishes. Exposed areas receiving intensive thermal and moisture cycles are found to have significantly higher probability of failure. The study is limited by the small number of samples.

The results provide a set of data on the probability of failure of external wall tiling systems, for further ageing and durability analyses of external wall tiling systems. The findings are also of importance to designers and property managers for choosing external wall finishes and shading devices; and for maintaining external wall tile finishes.

This paper is the first study on the probability of failure and weathering impacts on external wall tiling systems. It is also the first attempt to achieve the objectives by means of empirical evidence.

To re‐examine the role of property management from an institutional economics perspective.

The role of property management is explored by asking why property management has emerged from the first principle. Then, an analytical framework for property management is put forward. Different dimensions of institutional arrangements, ranging from open access to communal private property or solely owned private property, are discussed in the real estate property context.

The paper shows that a unique feature of property management is its role in excluding outsiders and resolving internal conflicts among the stakeholders of communal private property.

This approach opens up a new research agenda for property management. The adoption of different institutional arrangements in property management can be explained by further studies.

The efficiency of different institutional arrangements for the governance of communal private property is situation‐specific. An endogenous assumption of institutional regime in property management practice greatly expands the flexibility of management.

This paper is the first to apply an analytical framework for interpreting the institutional arrangements in property management.

The central debate on pollution havens concerns whether the level of environmental regulation in developing countries influences foreign investment location decisions. Most empirical studies are based on aggregate data, while micro-level evidence is relatively lacking in the literature. To fill this research gap, this paper tests for the existence of intracountry pollution havens in China by estimating the determinants of foreign investment flows based on a large firm-level panel dataset. Evidence from this study supports the existence of pollution havens within China in certain industries. However, the sensitivity of foreign investment to environmental regulation varies significantly across industries with different pollution characteristics. Furthermore, when the impact of government subsidies on foreign investment is accounted for, the results show that subsidies can compensate for pollution treatment costs in provinces with stricter environmental regulation.

This paper seeks to explore the relationship between market positioning and rents of retail facilities in Hong Kong.

Regression analysis is deployed in the paper to find out the impact of various attributes, in terms of a retail facility's physical characteristics, market positions, and location, on the annualized per‐area net rental income. The sample data obtained from the initial public offerings of the Link real estate investment trust (REIT), one of the largest REITs in the world, is used for analysis.

The study finds that district centers command the highest average rental levels, followed by local and estate centers. As the effects of positive externalities for unorganized shops are smaller, the average rental levels for shops are generally lower. In terms of the impact of individual attributes on rents, a retail property's age and its efficiency ratio have negative relationships with rents, while its size (in terms of gross floor area) and the amount of shops positively affect the facility's rental levels.

Although obtaining the largest possible dataset in the Link REIT portfolio for the study, the sample is not considered big enough to detect the impact of the location of a retail facility on its rental adjustments. Further studies are required with regard to this issue.

The results of this study give planners and developers of retail facilities some insights about the effects of market positioning on a retail facility's performance on the leasing market.

This paper aims to review the extant intelligent home specifications and put forward a new dimension for the specifications of intelligent home (IHS).

This study adopts a learning (bottom‐up) algorithm which emphasizes the importance of learning and adaptability to the dynamic environmental changes in the IHS.

The study finds that the intelligent home has been characterized by automation, integration of facilities and communication. However, it is contended here that an intelligent home specification in such a hard‐wired (top‐down) approach cannot be sustained in the light of the continuous changes of user requirements. Hence, adaptation to users' needs must be encompassed in a system of home intelligence.

This study provides a framework for all stakeholders to work for a common goal and a platform for benchmarking the performance of intelligent home in the long run.

This is the first to adopt the learning (bottom‐up) algorithm in defining home intelligence.

There have been very few cost‐and‐benefit evaluations of rehabilitation. This paper is a triangulation attempt to evaluate directly the cost‐and‐benefit of rehabilitation works without relying on price‐proxy and econometric assumptions.

Chau et al., in their paper, “Estimating the value enhancement effects of refurbishment” (Facilities, Vol. 21 No. 1/2, 2003) have produced an empirical test by regression on the elevation of property price‐differential after rehabilitation. However, property price is merely a proxy on the improvements of building conditions, and its efficiency in reflecting building quality is subject to some institutional constraints. The estimation is also subject to the validity of econometric assumptions. This paper investigates the improvements directly under 18 assessment criteria of the quality of seven housing blocks in Hong Kong.

The results show that rehabilitation brings benefits to owners, but that these only marginally outweigh the benefits of redevelopment.

The sample size is small, yet it opens up a new framework for future studies on building performance assessment of rehabilitation.

The study serves as a benchmark for future assessment of rehabilitation works.

The study represents an attempt to evaluate the costs and benefits of rehabilitation using a direct performance assessment approach.