Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Hong Kong, 1999. / Microfiches in pocket. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 223-238).

Thesis (M. Hous. M.)--University of Hong Kong, 2006.

No description available.

Thesis (M. Hous. M.)--University of Hong Kong, 2008. / Includes bibliographical references (leaf 112-115)

Dissertation, St. Gallen University, 2009 / Includes bibliographical references.

Dissertation, St. Gallen University, 2009. / Includes bibliographical references.

Globalization of real estate investments have revealed an increased desire by investors to operate outside their domestic markets. The removal of barriers to international capital movement and liberalisation of financial markets have made cross-border property investments an attractive alternative for investors, as they take advantage of its diversification potential thus spreading their risks. However, international real estate investment entails venturing into the unknown, where there are unfamiliar political and economic environments. Each property market has its rules, business culture and networks, while experience in one market may not translate well to another. This is because the institutions of a market impinge on market outcomes and behaviour by generating transaction costs which weigh against the returns on investment assets, while these costs may affect domestic versus foreign investors differently. Also, the peculiar nature of real estate, for example heterogeneity and asymmetric information makes it a particularly illiquid asset class. The time element of illiquidity represents an important risk to investors because it exposes them to an extended period of uncertainty. Illiquidity in turn makes real estate an asset specific investment as it calls for the input of intermediaries who utilize their extensive knowledge of the market to facilitate transactions. This makes intermediation an essential requirement for successful investment, as intermediaries introduce asset specific knowledge to the investor to promote liquidity and attenuate risk. However, intermediation imposes an additional transaction cost on investors as it is the price paid for immediacy of the transaction. It is therefore argued that the institutional environment of a real estate market not only underpins market structures and behaviour, but also the inherent characteristic of the asset which calls for the need for intermediation further informs the structures of the market through which commercial real estate is traded. Therefore, an understanding of the wider institutional environment of a real estate market is not only important, but also an understanding of the intermediation structure and associated costs which informs market processes is expedient for successful international real estate investment. This study investigates the institutions through which the commercial real estate investment market in Lagos, Nigeria operates. It offers a new and holistic framework for understanding how the institutions of a market influence its operation in terms of the associated transaction costs, particularly in the context of an emerging real estate market. The study adopts a combined Northian and Williamsonian Transaction Cost Economics theoretical framework and employs a qualitative research approach to achieve the objectives of the study. This involves semi-structured interviews with key market players and a process of thematic analyses of the interviews. Findings show that the Land Use Act of 1978 and the indigenous landholding system form the major formal and informal institutions governing the operation of the market respectively. Findings further reveal that transaction costs associated with the formal institution of the market at 15% of assessed property value and additional intermediation cost of between 2.5% and 5% of the property price, are high when compared to the developed market of the UK, for example. Also, while the formal institutions of the market do not affect foreign and domestic investors differently, findings show that the informal institutions and specifically the associated transaction costs do. An implication of the poor enforcement of the formal rule of the market is the increasing informality in the market and consequent difficulty of securing debt financing and high interest rate due to poor evidence of title. The study recommends a review of the key formal institution of the market to remove its ambiguities and eliminate the omo-onile phenomenon which is a negative transformation of the indigenous landholding system, and of which the perpetrators behave opportunistically, exploiting loopholes in poorly written formal law, thus generating transaction costs embedded in informal institutions of land rights.

Thesis (M.U.D.)--University of Hong Kong, 1991. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 153-161).

published_or_final_version / Housing Management / Master / Master of Housing Management

Compared with local shoppers, tourist shoppers have very different shopping behaviors and preferences, which in turn influence the location selection decisions of retailers and the pricing of retail spaces. The implementation of "Individual Visit Scheme" (IVS) policy since July, 2003 which allows Mainland Chinese tourists to visit Hong Kong on an individual basis has significantly increased the proportion of tourist shoppers. This policy provides us with an invaluable opportunity to examine how changes in tourist-local shopper mix affect the pricing of retail spaces in Hong Kong. There have been very few empirical studies on the pricing of street level retail shops (or "shops") due to lack of transaction data and difficulties in identifying and measuring price-influencing location attributes of shops. Shops in Hong Kong have been more actively transacted compared to most markets around the world, which helps to solve the data availability problem. In this study, transactions of the shops in Causeway Bay, a major shopping area for both local and tourist shoppers in Hong Kong, during the period 1993 to 2011 has been used for empirical analysis. The difficulty of modeling the unknown location attributes of shops is tackled with use of spatial auto-regressive modeling techniques. The significances of this study are threefold. First, we find that the shopping behaviors of tourists are influenced by their hometown shopping experiences. This is evidenced by the reversal of the impact of building age on shop’s transaction price after the implementation of IVS policy. Before this policy, when local shoppers were the majority, the effect of age on shop prices was positive as it captures some of the preferential location attributes of shops that were well known to local shoppers. When the proportion of Mainland Chinese tourist shoppers increased after the implementation of IVS, the impact of age on shop prices becomes negative as their hometown experiences suggest that new shops provide better shopping environment and are more preferred than old ones. The second contribution is to show how tourist shopper’s shopping behaviors are affected by the cost of stay. Compared with local shoppers, tourist shoppers have a much higher cost of stay. Shop location attributes that can reduce the shopper’s idle time (e.g. travelling and shopping around time) would be more valuable to tourist shoppers than local shoppers. This implies that the proximity to Mass Transit Railway (MTR) station and the accommodation facilities around the retail units are preferred by tourist shoppers. Empirical evidence shows that the value of proximity to MTR station has increased significantly after the implementation of IVS, which is consistent with the prediction from tourist shoppers’ high cost of stay. Finally, the third contribution of this study is improvement of empirical analysis method. A major problem in analyzing shop prices is the difficulty in measuring and modeling the specific price-influencing location factors, which give rise to misspecification of the hedonic price model. This study resolves this problem by adopting spatial econometric models. Our empirical results also show strong evidence of spatial auto-correlation in shop prices. / published_or_final_version / Real Estate and Construction / Doctoral / Doctor of Philosophy