While regional infrastructures are being actively pursued by the Hong Kong governments in recent years, the impacts brought by the cross-boundary infrastructures have not been comprehensively scrutinized. This study is aimed to fill in the research gap by examining the interrelationships between regional planning, transport planning and real estate economics. As concerns on accessibility and transport convenience are key factors determining the price of a flat, transport improvements made to the residential area should lead to an increase in residential property prices. On the other hand, as regional infrastructures are often justified with their impacts in fostering further economic development, retail rental prices in the service coverage areas should experience positive impacts. Therefore, changes in price gradient of residential properties, and that in transaction prices of commercial properties will be both taken into consideration in understanding the impacts of regional infrastructures. When examining these impacts, an additional dimension will be incorporated to investigate the impacts across the initial stage, planning stage, post-feasibility stage, construction stage as well as the post-project completion stage of the projects. Hedonic pricing models will be applied in this study for assessment. The empirical case will focus on the Hong Kong-Shenzhen Western Corridor (SWC) project and the associated areas of Tin Shui Wai, Yuen Long and Tusen Wan, to obtain the relevant data to understand the interrelationships across the different stages of the SWC project. In the research finding, as far as residential property sales are concerned, it is observed that a general decrease in property prices has been experienced from the commencement of the SWC, as a result of the combination of factors such as construction pollution and catchment problems. While for the retail rental prices within the study scope, a contrasting uprising trend has been instead generally observed, attributed to the differences in the accessibility to the areas and the availability of business opportunities experienced in the focus area during the various stages of the project. The empirical results reveal that cross-boundary cooperation in coordinating time of infrastructural project completion is exceptionally crucial. If the coordination of the infrastructures bridging the two sides of the borders are not coordinated well, the problem of SWC in the early stage of commissioning will happen again, causing the unavailability for areas connected to the border to enjoy the business opportunities, economic and spatial efficiency in the area. Also, the residential property prices may even be driven down by the cross-boundary infrastructure, which is considered to be strategic in fostering economic development and enhancing transport efficiency upon regional integration of the Pearl River Delta cities. Therefore, careful planning and regional coordination are needed to enhance the efficiency of the cross-boundary infrastructure, so as to achieve its objectives to facilitate economic growth, social harmony and environmental sustainability. / published_or_final_version / Urban Planning and Design / Master / Master of Science in Urban Planning

Enlightened by the theory of Tiebout and Hamilton about property tax as a benefit tax and the new view reformulated by George R. Zodrow and Peter Mieszkowski, this dissertation seeks to study the capitalization and regressivity of Government Rates in Hong Kong, which have already existed for 165 years in the city and are equivalent to property tax mentioned in western literature. Since both Hong Kong and Mainland China share the same structure of land lease system, it is meaningful to study the implications of Rates in the property market in Hong Kong at the juncture of a new wave of property tax reform in China commencing with the latest property tax experiment in two major cities: Chongqing and Shanghai. 　　This dissertation first reviews the history and describes the roles of Government Rates in the financial revenue and expenditure system of the Hong Kong Government to get a clear picture of where Rates are from, how they are collected and where they have been spent on. Meanwhile, effects of Rates and public expenditures on local residential property values of different classes during the year 1974-2008 are examine by applying time series of housing price index, percentage of Rates charge, and public expenditure, etc. Furthermore, in order to test whether Hamilton’s intra-jurisdictional capitalization exists, transaction data of the year 2000 from EPRC are employed to examine whether low income housing (small units) sells at relatively higher price compared with high income housing (large units) due to the fiscal surplus. The empirical results show no capitalization of Rates but capitalization of public goods exists and the Rates payment is shifted forward into the housing price. We find out that Rates in Hong Kong is not a capital tax, and actually it is a benefit tax and user fee paid for public goods. The last part of the dissertation concludes valuable lessons for the property tax reform in Mainland China. ii 2 / published_or_final_version / Real Estate and Construction / Master / Master of Philosophy

published_or_final_version / Housing Management / Master / Master of Housing Management

published_or_final_version / abstract / Real Estate and Construction / Master / Master of Science in Real Estate and Construction

published_or_final_version / Surveying / Doctoral / Doctor of Philosophy

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Nowadays, the work of any concern or organisation that uses modern methods is highly related to computerised information system, which helps the organisation in solving and implementing various tasks that arise during its work. The prototype of Lithuanian interface software that was created during the project is dedicated to small real estate agencies to collect and manage the information on real estate objects and orders that were registered in the agency. The product suits managers of real estate agencies best. Using the following software it is possible to search through the real estate objects that are registered in the system, print the information needed, view the records, register orders, objects related to the orders and all the information related to the implementation of an order. This software will give the managers of organisations the possibility of fast comparing between the real estate objects under various criteria and to select the variants that suit the customer best. The creation of the system involved several main stages. First, it was necessary to specify the requirements for the future system. The second stage involved designing and programming of the system itself using Microsoft Visual Studio 2005 tools and Visual Basic programming language. At the end, the process involved testing of the system and writing the thorough user manual.

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Chapter 1 Introduction In his budget speech of23 February 2000 the minister of finance Mr Trevor Manuel announced the introduction of Capital Gains Tax (CGT) in South Africa. Internationally, the idea of such tax is uncommon, with many ofour trading partners having implemented CGT decades ago. In order to give effect on the proposal relating to CGT, an Eighth Schedule has been added to the Income Tax Act 58 of 1962. The Eighth Schedule determines a taxable gain or loss and a new section 26A of the principal Act provides that the taxable gain is included in taxable income. The date from which capital gains tax started was 1 October 2001. Chapter 2 The transfer ofprimary residence from private individuals The Department of Inland Revenue makes a distinction between what it calls Property Investors and Property Traders. This is a very important distinction; A Property Investor will be liable to pay Income Tax , on rental income and Capital Gains Tax (CGT) on profits made when selling the property in the normal way, however, a Property Dealer (also known as a trader) will find that all his or her profits made on the sale of a property are taxed as Income Tax and not taxed as Capital Gains. So, the key to deciding your tax minimising strategy is figure out whether you will be treated as a dealer or an investor. The Eighth Schedule to th~ Income Tax Act 58 of 1962 provides that only natural persons (individuals) are entitled to exclude the first R1 million of gains on disposal of their primary residences. Chapter 3 & 4 The transfer of primary residence from Trusts, Companies and Close Corporations Many individuals have historically purchased their residence in companies for a variety of reasons, including protection from creditors, avoidance of transfer duty and estate duty and circumvention of the repealed Group Areas Act. These persons now face a potential Capital Gains Tax (CGT) liability when their company, close corporation or trust disposes of the residence. ~ The Eighth Schedule to the Income Tax Act 2004 provides that only natural persons (individuals) and special trusts are entitled to exclude the first R1 million of gains on disposal of their primary residence. This exclusion does not apply where a company, close corporation or trust owns the residence. Chapter 5 Transfer Duty A system whereby conveyancers will be able to lodge transfer duty declarations and make payments electronically via the internet will become operational during April 2005. Conveyancers will be ab, le to lodge the declarations by transferors (sellers) and transferees (purchasers) to SARS branches electronically and simultaneously make payments to designated SARS bank accounts. SARS will verify the duty calculations and authorizes the issue of a transfer duty receipt. Conveyancers wishing to make use of ev filing should register as e-filers by visiting the e-Commerce section of the SARS website. Chapter 6 Conclusion and Recommendations / Thesis (M.Com.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, 2005.