The purpose of this paper is to theorise on the nature of property management broadly understood as resource management and demonstrate the actual and potential contribution of…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to theorise on the nature of property management broadly understood as resource management and demonstrate the actual and potential contribution of innovative property management to sustainable development.
Design/methodology/approach
The approach is analytical and backed by real life examples, using concepts of property rights informed by Coasian neo‐institutional economics and Yu's ideas on the Schumpeterian process in innovation.
Findings
There is a fast spread of gated communities in the Pearl River Delta and some private shopping centres provide public facilities and entertainment as a public relation method.
Research limitations/implications
The transformation of negative externalities into positive ones is the crux to achieve win‐win solutions to property management for sustainable development.
Practical implications
A good property manager does not simply perform the role of a passive housekeeper or management fee collector. S/he is, above all, an innovator who applies updated technology and concepts with great sensitivity to the externalities generated by or affecting the resource s/he manages.
Originality/value
This is the first paper that defines for property management a research agenda anchored in Coasian economics and demonstrate the actual and potential contribution of property management.
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Survey′s the impact of the Mass Transit Railway (MTR) on officerental structures and locations in Hong Kong. Follows up earlier work byGareth Williams on Mass Rapid Transport…
Abstract
Survey′s the impact of the Mass Transit Railway (MTR) on office rental structures and locations in Hong Kong. Follows up earlier work by Gareth Williams on Mass Rapid Transport (MRT). Reports that the results falsify the commonsense theory that improvement in accessibility would reduce the relative primacy of the Central Business Districts (CBD) as an office centre. Concludes that attempts by strategic planners to implant high‐grade offices in off‐CBD locations along the MTR line need serious reconsideration.
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Lawrence Wai‐chung Lai and Daniel Chi‐wing Ho
This short paper presents the lessons learnt for conservation planning of heritage sites from a pilot study on disused military structures on Devil’s Peak, Hong Kong…
Abstract
This short paper presents the lessons learnt for conservation planning of heritage sites from a pilot study on disused military structures on Devil’s Peak, Hong Kong. Stakeholders’ interest and surveying as facilities management factors should be well considered in the planning stage for heritage conservation. Thus, public education and involvement and on‐site land surveying is essential for future project success.
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Lawrence Wai Chung Lai, Kwong Wing Chau, Daniel Chi Wing Ho and Frank T. Lorne
The purpose of this paper is to discuss a Coasian interpretation of a model of sustainable development for Hong Kong that incorporates three segments, namely economy, society, and…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to discuss a Coasian interpretation of a model of sustainable development for Hong Kong that incorporates three segments, namely economy, society, and environment.
Design/methodology/approach
The approach is analytical, using concepts of property rights informed by Coasian neo‐institutional economics and Yu's ideas on the Schumpeterian process in innovation.
Findings
First, the sustainable development criteria must be non‐dictatorial, decentralized, and compatible with market economics. The emphasis is contractarian rather than legislative or administrative. Second, the essence of segment cooperation is to create a win‐win situation rather than an “integrated” rent seeking game, which will likely result in more values being created. Third, the requirement that it be progressive over time implies that programs and policies that are duplicative need to be avoided, and innovations are to be encouraged. Fourth, the requirement of satisfying only two aspects of the three segments of cooperation implies a less stringent standard of making stepwise improvements, and thus makes entrepreneurial efforts more likely. Last, the three segments of cooperation, if practiced simultaneously and improved over time, can achieve most, if not all, the principles in the Rio Declaration without aiming at a specific principle in the Declaration.
Research limitations/implications
This paper should focus on a “win‐win” rather than a mutually exploitative approach to public participation in sustainable development promotion.
Practical implications
This paper should assist policymakers and politicians in understanding how sustainable development may be conceptually modelled.
Originality/value
The paper is the first paper that defines for Hong Kong a model of sustainable development on the basis of Coasian economics, and contrasts it with other proposed models.
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Lawrence Wai‐Chung Lai and Pearl Yik‐Long Chan
This paper uses a probit model to analyse 100 observations in terms of three hypotheses about the formation of owners’ corporations in high‐density private housing estates in Hong…
Abstract
This paper uses a probit model to analyse 100 observations in terms of three hypotheses about the formation of owners’ corporations in high‐density private housing estates in Hong Kong within the context of Mancur Olson’s group theory. The findings do not reject the theory, revealing that it is more likely for an older urban estate with fewer owners to form owners’ corporations. The discussion includes a brief introduction to Olson’s group theory and the development of the probit analysis. Some speculative thoughts about public participation in local level urban management and planning are offered in the conclusion.
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Lawrence Wai‐Chung Lai, Daniel Chi‐Wing Ho and Hing‐Fung Leung
This paper was motivated by the absence of a government examination of and professional interest in planning conditions as a means of development control in Hong Kong. Proposes to…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper was motivated by the absence of a government examination of and professional interest in planning conditions as a means of development control in Hong Kong. Proposes to examine this situation.
Design/methodology/approach
The research objective is achieved by a field survey and legal analysis of its findings. The field survey of all the 60 residential development projects in Hong Kong under comprehensive development area zoning subject to conditional planning permissions from 1998 to 2000 involving 119 planning applications was conducted to assess factual compliance with planning conditions.
Findings
The findings show that, while most physical planning obligations have been duly fulfilled in these projects, the non‐depositing of master layout plans for development poses actual and potential public domain problems of planning enforcement, building permission, conveyancing and property management. The major problems of non‐compliance are property purchasers being unable to fully appreciate the environment of a development when making a decision to buy; subsequent titles defects, unauthorised building works and operations. Suggestions are made to close the loopholes in planning law and to introduce a formal channel for retrospective rectification in the light of the social consequences of non‐compliance.
Originality/value
This paper is the first serious attempt to evaluate the importance of compliance with planning conditions in Hong Kong and its analysis should be of interest not only to local policy makers and professional people in particular, but also to researchers in comparative development control in general.
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Is China′s “land use rights” legislation whichdistinguishes transferable “land use rights” and inalienable“land ownership”, a novel concept unknown to human kindbefore, or a…
Abstract
Is China′s “land use rights” legislation which distinguishes transferable “land use rights” and inalienable “land ownership”, a novel concept unknown to human kind before, or a pragmatic reversion to the private property rights system abolished by the communist revolution? Advocates the view that the latter is a more correct interpretation. As part of a “going capitalist” economic reform programme, such a reversion is manifested in the legal recognition of the leasehold tenure after the “responsibility system” in privatizing agricultural production had proved to be successful. As the development of private property rights is a prelude to market transactions, the Chinese land use rights reform should be conducive to the success of the economic liberalization policy of China, provided that there is a contemporaneous advance in the development of the rule of law and technical know‐how, such as valuation and land surveying.
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“Unplanned city” (and its relation “unchecked growth”) is the way many people describe cities of which they disapprove. They usually mean too little top-down planning, assuming…
Abstract
“Unplanned city” (and its relation “unchecked growth”) is the way many people describe cities of which they disapprove. They usually mean too little top-down planning, assuming that this is the only planning possible. But Stephen Davies, describing urbanization in England, shows that this was not always so. He notes that,[t]he years between 1740 and 1850 therefore saw an unprecedented amount of urban growth. Cities and towns of all kinds and sizes grew more rapidly and on a greater scale than ever before in history. The rapidly increasing population was drawn into the towns in ever larger numbers with the rise of industry, creating an enormous demand for housing and the urban fabric in general. This was the kind of situation that, when its like happens today, is regularly described in terms of “crisis” or even “catastrophe”. And yet the challenge was largely met. Housing and other facilities were built and provided. The towns of Britain grew to meet the new demands of a growing population and a transformed economy. There were no great shantytowns around growing cities such as Manchester and Birmingham. Instead a tidal wave of brick and stone swept over fields, turning them into new urban areas. Moreover, the period also saw the creation of great architectural achievements of lasting value in both the great cities and the new towns …. The elegance of Bath and Cheltenham, the West End of London and Bloomsbury, the New Town in Edinburgh, and the centers of Glasgow and Newcastle-upon-Tyne – all were built in this period. As this was the first instance of such wide-spread urbanization our understanding of its nature is crucial for our thinking about the process of urbanization in general, whether historically or today. In particular this instance raises the question of how urbanization can happen in the absence of an apparatus of planning and controls, by voluntary means, and what the results of this may be. (Davies, 2002, p. 19)
Lawrence W.C. Lai, Stephen N.G. Davies, Y.K. Tan and P. Yung
This paper aims to provide an initial determination of the date of construction, locations and a typology of design of the pill‐boxes of the Gin Drinker's Line constructed by the…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to provide an initial determination of the date of construction, locations and a typology of design of the pill‐boxes of the Gin Drinker's Line constructed by the colonial Hong Kong Government.
Design/methodology/approach
Post‐war aerial photos taken by the Royal Air Force and R.C. Huntings were examined and site visits made to locate and measure the pill‐boxes. Relevant archive materials were consulted to help interpret findings.
Findings
A total of 76 pill‐boxes, most in ruins due to post‐war destruction for obtaining their steel bars, were mapped on a 1:25,000 scale to give a good idea of the nature of the Gin Drinker's Line. The study finds that, of these, 50 have survived. The pill‐boxes predated those built in the UK to anticipate of German landing.
Research limitations/implications
The paper demonstrates how aerial photos can be used for historical research and conservation planning. Though the locations of the pill‐boxes identified are subject to detailed site surveying, the basic pattern of pill‐box distribution has been identified.
Originality/value
This is the first attempt to map the Gin Drinker's Line and classify its pill‐boxes. The findings are useful references for the actual conservation of colonial heritage in Hong Kong as part of China, as well as for further inquiry into the military history of the Second World War.
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Since the launch of the Mainland and Hong Kong Closer Economic Partnership Arrangement (CEPA) in 2003, Hong Kong cinema is believed to have confronted drastic changes. Hong Kong…
Abstract
Purpose
Since the launch of the Mainland and Hong Kong Closer Economic Partnership Arrangement (CEPA) in 2003, Hong Kong cinema is believed to have confronted drastic changes. Hong Kong cinema is described to be dying, lacking creative space and losing local distinctiveness. A decade later, the rise of Hong Kong – China coproduction cinema under CEPA has been normalized and changed the once pessimism in the industry. The purpose of this paper is to demonstrate how Hong Kong cinema adjusted its production and creation in the first 10 years of CEPA.
Design/methodology/approach
Beginning with a review of the overall development, three paradigmatic cases are examined for reflecting upon what the major industrial and commercial concerns on the Hong Kong – China coproduction model are, and how such a coproduction model is not developed as smooth as what the Hong Kong filmmakers expected.
Findings
Collectively, this paper singles out the difficulties in operation and the limit of transnationality that occur in the Chinese context for the development of Hong Kong cinema under the Hong Kong – China coproduction model.
Originality/value
This is the author’s research in his five-year study of Hong Kong cinema and it contributes a lot to the field of cinema studies with relevant industrial and policy concern.