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The objective of this paper is to test whether the complete pass-through of exchange rate exists when there are almost no transaction costs and in the environment of competitive market. In general, the literature claims that the pass-through of exchange rate is incomplete due to imperfect market, i.e. the presence of transaction costs and imperfect competition. The quasi-experimental case of the food import to Hong Kong from Mainland China is considered in the analysis. The results show that the pass-through of the exchange rate of Chinese RMB against to US dollar to Hong Kong's food import price is complete in long-run equilibrium. Besides, the short-run adjustment significantly contributes to correcting the deviation from the long-run pass-through effect. Moreover, the complete pass-through still exists after accounting for the effects of asymmetry and volatility. Therefore, this paper contributes to the literature by providing empirical evidence that the complete pass-through of exchange rate can exist in the real world. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of International Journal of Strategic Property Management is the property of Vilnius Gediminas Technical University and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Use of forward contracts for pre-selling uncompleted properties is becoming popular in many countries. However, there have been limited researchers investigating the risks arising from asymmetric information specific to buying a presale property and the critical factors required for the development of an effective forward property market. Hong Kong is one of the largest forward property markets in the world and it has been getting mature after half-a-century long development. This paper therefore aims to study the asymmetric information problem found in the forward property markets in different areas and explores the set of factors that are critical to the development of a forward property market by referencing the development of the Hong Kong forward property market. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this paper is to investigate the contagion across real estate markets of four countries: Hong Kong, China, U.S. and U.K., during the financial tsunami in 2008. We use the Forbes-Rigobon test, the coskewness test and the cokurtosis test. We propose a new cokurtosis test constructed by extending the method of constructing the coskewness test to further higher order moments. It can show additional channels of contagion that other tests fail to show, and hence can provide more information on the direction of contagion, and reflect a more complete picture of the contagion pattern. The coskewness and cokurtosis tests show that contagion exists between the four countries, and the contagion effect is stronger between Hong Kong and China, and between U.S. and U.K. This provides clues for investors on how to diversify their investment to reduce their risk. This paper bridges the gap that previous works on contagion across real estate markets give mixed results, and gives a first insight into the contagion pattern of global real estate markets during the financial tsunami. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Real estate markets and real estate stocks are interrelated and are important not only to the investors, but also to the academics. Real estate stocks are, in a sense, good measures of performance of the physical real estate market. The objective of this paper is to provide a preliminary study on gauging the performances of real estate stocks in Hong Kong using the Shiryaev-Zhou index. Evidence shows that the Shiryaev-Zhou index can gauge a real estate stock's performance, good or bad, according to the sign of the Shiryaev-Zhou index. Thus a trading strategy can be formulated as follows: buy a stock if its Shiryaev-Zhou index changes from negative to positive, then hold it until its Shiryaev-Zhou index turns negative, when it is time to sell the stock. We examine the Shiryaev-Zhou indices of the real estate stocks in Hong Kong, and from this we deduce the latest best selling dates of the stocks during the period of our study. The Shiryaev-Zhou index could be an indicator of whether the market is bullish or bearish and consequently tells an investor to hold a stock or not, and it naturally leads to an optimal selling strategy that maximize the average ratio of the selling price to the maximum stock price when the underlying coefficients are assumed to be constant over a definite period of time. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Journal of Civil Engineering & Management is the property of Vilnius Gediminas Technical University and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Price discovery of real estate investment has been getting lots of attentions from researchers and it is generally believed that lagging errors exist in appraisal-based returns of commercial real estate investments, in comparison to other investment instruments traded in the stock market Due to fewer transactions in the commercial real estate market, it is reasonable to notice a difference in the handling of current market information. By introducing two study approaches along with a test case using Singapore's data, this paper explores the extent of lagging in Hong Kong's commercial (office)real estate values, in a State Space Model with Kalman filter. The findings first suggest that whether appraisal-based indices overstate or understate true values lies in the economy condition at the time. Then, commercial real estate values in Hong Kong are about three months behind the stock market property indices. Also, as indicated by the findings, data collection/selection bias may render a de-lagged index not as efficient as it is supposed to be. This paper provides a different perspective on price discovery and the process of de-lagging property values. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the factors affecting the implementation of green buildings for the local construction industry. Questionnaire surveys and structural interviews were conducted to investigate the economical and social factors in the implementation of green buildings. From the survey results, the industry strongly believes that green building implementation is environment-friendly and can improve social values to the consumers. However, material costs, construction and transportation for green materials and green building features are more expensive than those for the conventional buildings. Four major factors affecting the existing limited implementation of green buildings were also discussed. Recommendations to improve the implementation of green buildings were also explored. This study can bring insights locally and around the world on how green buildings can be implemented to achieve environment-friendly, long-term cost saving and being recognized by the society and the consumers to reduce difficulties and burden encountered in the implementation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of International Journal of Strategic Property Management is the property of Vilnius Gediminas Technical University and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

This study examines how price adjustments in a flat's marketing phase, along with various housing attributes, influence its time-on-market (TOM). A Cox survival model is used for the analysis of two separate periods, one of economic downturns (2003) and one of economic recovery (2004–2006), in Hong Kong. Factors such as price adjustments, sale price, numerous housing attributes, general property price trend, and changes in unemployment rate have significant impacts on TOM, with their respective impacts changing over time. Specifically, the effectiveness of raising list prices before transactions, in optimizing sellers’ returns and TOM, depends on economic conditions as well as on the market expectations regarding future property prices. Directions on future studies are then discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Forecasting office rents is among the most researched topics in real estate study. However, there are still heated debates on how predictions can be best done. This study provides a generator approach, on the basis of both system dynamics and econometric modeling. The findings suggest that the office rental values in Hong Kong appear to be more volatile and uncertain under better economic conditions, likely due to both the supply side of the property market being over-optimistic of economic trends and the development lags and adjustment cost, under the influence of the current land policies in Hong Kong, are the main issues behind this phenomenon. In order to minimize the uncertainties on the office leasing market, the government should relax the approval procedures concerning changing land use, and the subsequent rearrangements of premium payment. Further, the current policies on land sales need to be revised, especially the application list system. Those measures could reduce the time and transaction cost incurred, thus leading to more timely response to demand changes over time. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

From 1998–99 to 2003–04, the Hong Kong government increased investment in education by 20%. A number of primary schools have been rehoused in new millennium school buildings that have innovative facilities as well as a new design quite different from the design of traditional school buildings. However, whether the money was spent appropriately and cost-effectively as a way of improving education in Hong Kong remains a debatable point. To investigate the facilities management (FM) of new millennium primary schools, a study was conducted of teachers who had worked in old traditional school buildings and then moved to new millennium school buildings. Since staff rooms are the major working areas for teachers, the study focused on the levels of satisfaction with the performance of FM in the staff rooms of primary schools and on the working behavior of primary teachers. Two questionnaire surveys were conducted of 113 teachers who had worked in both types of school buildings. Independent-sample T-tests were employed to evaluate the quantitative data that was collected from the teachers at the two stages in order to investigate the enhancement of FM in millennium school staff rooms and its impact on the working behavior of teachers. The results showed that FM in the staff rooms of the new millennium schools in Hong Kong was remarkably different from FM in the old schools. However, the teachers did not consider that their working behavior were significantly better in the millennium schools. The governmental investment is considered a success to a certain extent, but there are still a lot of areas where construction professionals and facilities managers of primary schools should improve millennium primary school projects in order to achieve the requirements of end-users. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]