published_or_final_version / Architecture / Master / Master of Architecture

published_or_final_version / Architecture / Master / Master of Architecture

Military personnel are faced with having to move every three to four years, making it extremely difficult to build any equity in a home when they are forced to refinance their loan every time they buy and sell their home. This continuous churn of home loans over a 20 year career, results in military personnel ending their career with little equity in a home because they have primarily only paid the high interest portions of the loans to financial institutions and any equity gained from rising home prices is offset by closing costs. This research will review the current approaches to housing for military personnel, develop the stakeholders needs, propose new approaches to meet these needs, analyze these new approaches and identify the recommended new approaches. The major players in military home purchases have been the service member, Department of Defense, local real estate services, and financial institutions. Local real estate services and financial institutions are currently the groups benefiting from the churn of homes by service members so they have no obvious incentive to change. The research will break down the resources of each of these players and align them with new approaches to real estate. The new approaches listed below will establish the need for large property management/developers that have purchasing powers within the real estate markets similar to Wal-Mart/Sams Club within the consumer goods market. With the military base realignment and closure almost complete, Department of Defense looking to get out of the housing business and the military clearly at a low manning level, the markets are now primed for this transformation. New approaches include planned communities that are built specifically for military personnel and owned by the corporation. These communities can be strategically located near the bases (real estate values are often low adjacent to military bases), constructed according to the Basic Allowance for Housing (BAH) rate for each location, constructed for frequent resident moves, service contracts for maintenance, utilities maintained by corporation and then billed directly to residents, community center geared toward spouse and military activities and key business (veterinarian, pet boarding, video store, coffee shops, restaurants, military gear store, etc). If the corporation owned 2000 houses, there would be 4000 members with 30 year loans to maintain the equity for the homes.

published_or_final_version / Urban Design / Master / Master of Urban Design

Thesis (M.D.S.)--University of Hong Kong, 1993.

Thesis (M. Sc.)--University of Hong Kong, 1992.

Thesis (M.D.S.)--University of Hong Kong, 1993. / Also available in print.

Magister Legum - LLM / Planning administration in the Western Cape is at a critical juncture. It is faced with having to address planning issues and housing needs whilst at the same time demonstrating through its practices the promotion of environmentally sustainable development. This paper will discuss planning and environmental legislation and the impact that the application of the legislation has on development proposals. Current legislation addresses issues of spacial development in developed areas and new development proposals but lacks the ability to address issues within informal settlements. Although socio-economic factors are not currently considered when assessing the viability of applications, the courts seem to consider these factors. Since new housing settlements are often developed for the poor and industrial developments in close proximity to these areas have direct impact on these individuals, planning could only gain if these factors are taken into consideration.If planning administration in the Western Cape is to continue successfully and without endless litigation against the Department of Environmental Affairs and Development Planning administrators will have to find a balance between promoting development and protecting the environment. To promote environmentally sustainable developments will require closer cooperation between the land use planning and environmental management components. The loopholes, which permit incremental development in the present legislation, have to be identified and addressed. Guidelines, which will standardize the conditions under which applications can be approved or refused, will have to be drafted to ensure decision-making that is consistent and defensible. If having a liquor store within an affluent environment is not considered desirable such applications should not be considered within lower income areas. The same should apply when dealing with applications to establish factories or industry which will have an impact on the living conditions of communities in close proximity. The MEC will have to ensure that all decision taken are within the legal framework and that such decisions benefit entire communities and protect the rights of the poorest communities as well as that of the wealthy and influential. Environmental legislation and the growing importance of environmental protection is also having an impact on the way in which new settlements are planned and on the rights of property owners. Although, we are responsible for the preservation of the environment for the next generation, socio-economic conditions, HIV and a myriad of other considerations may have to take precedence over environmental concerns. / South Africa

Two developments that may impact house prices have dominated the residential property landscape in South Africa in recent years, namely government’s planned social housing developments and residential property value assessments carried out by local municipalities across South Africa for property tax purposes. Social housing developments are often plagued by “local opposition”, who argue that subsidised housing units may have a negative effect on adjacent non-subsidised residential housing. Negative preconceptions of social housing form the basis of this argument, which is commonly referred to as the “not-in-my-backyard” (NIMBY) syndrome. International studies conducted have, however, produced mixed results with some concluding that social housing developments lead to a reduction in nearby property prices, whilst others conclude that they lead to an improvement in surrounding property values. Currently, the state of the South African economy and demographics are limiting previously disadvantaged, poor peoples’ access to affordable and safe housing, and for this reason the basis of the NIMBY rationale deserves closer attention. In order to test the validity of the NIMBY rationale, this study examines, by means of the hedonic price method, the effect of an existing housing establishment catering for low-income earners (the Walmer/Gqebera Township) on adjacent property values in the suburb of Walmer, Port Elizabeth, Nelson Mandela Bay in the Eastern Cape. The study concludes that the low-cost housing development exerts a negative impact on the property values of nearby houses - the average owner of a non-subsidised residential property in Walmer would be willing to pay between R38 033 and R46 898 to be situated 200 metres further away from the Walmer Township. This conclusion is subject to three qualifications. The first is that the Walmer Township is not a recognised social housing development but merely a proxy for one. The second qualification is that a relatively small data set was used in this study and only one social housing development was considered. The third qualification is that the study period is from 1995 to 2009, which necessitated the adjustment of market prices to constant 2009 rands. For this purpose, data from the Port Elizabeth and Uitenhage section of the ABSA house price indices were used. It was not possible to disaggregate the indices further to obtain a Walmer-specific index. It is possible that an imperfect correlation exists between the Walmer property trend and the metropolitan (Port Elizabeth and Uitenhage) trend used in this study. Based on the results of this doctoral investigation it is recommended that a monthly rebate on property rates of between R269.40 and R332.19 be implemented for affected Walmer residents. This amount could be sufficient to mitigate the capital loss associated with proximity to the Walmer Township. In terms of the management of social housing projects, it is strongly recommended that the following occur in order to alleviate the NIMBY syndrome: existing dwellings should be renovated, tenants should be monitored, dwellings should be appropriately designed and maintained, the composition of the host neighbourhood should be assessed and the image of social housing should be improved. With regard to the renovation of dwellings, social housing site preference should be given to existing structures in need of renovation, as positive externalities are associated with the renovation of such properties. The monitoring of tenants needs to take place in order to ensure that the financial and behavioural obligations of the tenants are met, and that informal “shack dwellings” do not materialise on site, and finally, that tenant default rates remain low. The appropriate management of these projects will also aid in combating the perception that social housing developments lead to private residential property devaluation. In respect of residential property value assessments, many homeowners have recently argued that there is very little equivalence between the municipality’s valuations and true market values. This study uses, inter alia, the hedonic price model to investigate the accuracy of the Nelson Mandela Bay Municipality’s 2007/2008 valuation roll. The investigation was limited to the valuation roll applicable to the Walmer neighbourhood. The study finds that there is, on average, a 13.89 percent difference between market prices and the 2007/2008 municipal assessed values. In addition, this study finds that an attributebased hedonic price model produces property price predictions that are more in line with true market values. This finding is subject to two qualifications. The first qualification is that only the Walmer neighbourhood’s assessed values were considered, thus limiting the findings. The second qualification is that a relatively small data set was used.

One of the key components of international development is to provide adequate shelter for citizens of developing countries. This is often accomplished by governmental, non- governmental, and private organizations that seek to lower the cost, increase the quality, and expand the availability of safe, sustainable housing through the use of innovative technologies. These new technologies can affect the social and/or economic structure within communities. This paper is a case study resulting from the construction of a seventy-one-home village, including infrastructure, near Yogyakarta, Indonesia by a foreign, aid-based non-governmental organization (NGO). The village was relocated less than two kilometers from its original site after a massive landslide, triggered by the 2006 earthquakes of Central Java, virtually destroyed the entire community. Four years after construction the researcher took an inductive inquiry approach through interviews with residents of the community and residents of neighboring communities to understand the social and economic impacts. The research project explored the unintended consequences to the community resulting from the NGO's use of innovative housing technologies (steel reinforced concrete domes and planned community development) without a thorough understanding of underlying community culture and interactions.