Editorial

Citation

Warren, C.M.J. (2016), "Editorial", Property Management, Vol. 34 No. 4. https://doi.org/10.1108/PM-06-2016-0024

Editorial

Article Type: Editorial From: Property Management, Volume 34, Issue 4.

In this, the fourth issue of Property Management for 2016, we have some interesting and thought provoking papers with a mix of research from some of the most developed countries to those in the developing world. This issue has papers from researchers in North America, the Netherlands, Sweden, Uganda and Ghana. There is also the usual mix of residential and commercial management papers presented, representing the diverse interests of property managers.

The first paper in this issue comes from Dustin Read, Erin Hopkins and Rosemary Goss from Virginia Tech, School of Apparel, Housing and Resource Management, USA. Their paper is entitled “Working effectively with asset managers and institutional groups.” The research investigates the role of residential asset managers and draws on interviews with 25 of the largest third-party property managers in the USA. The paper finds that many firms are embracing incentive-based fee structures and new technology in order to become more responsive to customer needs.

The second paper comes from Joshua Mabe from Erasmus University, the Netherlands and Elias Kuusaana from University for Development Studies, Ghana. This paper discusses property taxation and examines the extent of its contribution to financing urban infrastructure in Ghana. The paper’s title is: “Property taxation and its revenue utilisation for urban infrastructure and services in Ghana: evidence from Sekondi-Takoradi metropolis.” The paper explores the property taxation system in Ghana using a case-study approach. The findings show that property rates have made a significant contribution to funding infrastructure projects. The paper, while dealing with the specifics of the tax system in Ghana, provides an interesting insight into the property sector in the region.

The third paper is written by Peter Palm from the Department of Urban Studies, Malmö University, Sweden. Peter is a frequent contributor to Property Management and in this paper he reports on the real estate industry in Sweden. The paper, “Measuring customer satisfaction: a study of the Swedish real estate industry.” Aims to identify the strategies of formal customer evaluations and the use of the “Satisfied Customer Index” within the Swedish commercial real estate industry. Using 24 companies’ annual reports and conducting structured interviews, the paper finds that there is limited application of the Swedish Real Estate Barometer in measuring customer satisfaction. The paper has clear implications for those involved within the real estate industry in Sweden, but also shows the role that customer satisfaction surveys can have in a wider context.

The fourth paper is written by Matthew Tucker and Mohd Rayme Masuri both from the School of Built Environment, Liverpool John Moores University, UK. The paper, “The rationale to integrate facilities management into the development process” seeks to justify the need to establish a framework that serves to optimise the value of facilities management in property development. The paper once again identifies the lack of integration of the property management process into the development process, an issue that has been identified by many practitioners over the years, and undertakes a structured literature review in order identify factors that are hindering facilities management from being effectively integrated.

The final paper is based on research undertaken in Africa. This paper is written by Ziade Hailu from Makerere University Business School, Uganda and Gerrit Rooks, of Eindhoven University of Technology, the Netherlands. Their paper “Property rights and owner occupied housing investment in urban Ethiopia,” as the title suggests, looks at property ownership in Ethiopia. The purpose of the paper is to investigate whether the provision of formal land and building rights provides incentives to poor households to invest in their property in urban Ethiopia. The researchers undertook a random survey of 210 households in Addis Ababa in order to test their research hypothesis. Their findings show that recipients of government-issued land titles are more likely to invest in their property than those who do not receive this benefit. The paper’s findings have implications not just within urban areas of Ethiopia but also in many parts of the world where informal housing exists and governments strive to improve housing conditions for the urban poor.

I trust that you find the range of research papers presented in this issue of Property Management interesting and informative. This ongoing flow of quality research papers to Property Management continues to be strong however, quality papers are always in demand and I encourage you to present your research for inclusion in the journal.

Clive M.J. Warren