Preferences for housing attributes in Saudi Arabia: A comparison between consumers’ and property practitioners’ views

Due to rapid urbanisation, population growth and limited supply of housing, the housing sector in Saudi Arabia is facing significant challenges. There have been attempts to provide large-scale housing projects to combat this issue. However, there are concerns that short-term policies to provide large quantities of housing can result in low-quality units which are underside by consumers. Therefore, understanding consumer preferences with regard to housing is crucially important if housing projects are to be successful in the long term. This paper explores consumer preferences for housing attributes in Saudi Arabia and compares these against the views of property professionals. Data was gathered via quantitative surveys from 752 housing consumers and 101 property practitioners from across Saudi Arabia. Descriptive analysis and the Mann-Whitney U test are used to determine the mean importance of the housing attributes and to compare the findings from each group. The results of the study provide an analysis on the importance of various housing attributes and highlights similarities and disparities in opinions. The analysis found significant differences between consumers’ and property practitioners’ views on what consumers believe are important housing attributes. Given this lack of alignment, the findings should offer housing providers with a better understanding of consumer preferences in the Saudi Arabia context

What Attributes Determine Housing Affordability?

The concept of housing affordability is a contested issue, but a pressing and widespread problem for many countries. Simple ratio measures based on housing expenditure and income are habitually used to defined and assess housing affordability. However, conceptualising and measuring affordability in this manner focuses only on financial attributes and fails to deal with wider issues such as housing quality, location and access to services and facilities. The research is based on the notion that the housing affordability problem encompasses more than the financial costs of housing and a households ability to meet such costs and must address larger issues such as social and environmental sustainability and the welfare of households. Therefore, the need arises for a broad and more encompassing set of attributes by which housing affordability can be assessed. This paper presents a system of criteria by which the affordability of different housing locations could be assessed in a comprehensive and sustainable manner. Moreover, the paper explores the way in which such criteria could be measured

Preparation for the Energy Act 2011 and minimum energy efficiency standards in UK commercial property

Improving the energy performance of buildings has become a priority area for energy efficiency policy across the European Union. A cornerstone to achieving carbon reductions in UK buildings is the Energy Act 2011 and subsequent minimum energy efficiency standards. This Act contains a number of provisions which will have implications for the commercial property sector. The paper presents a quantitative study that investigates the implications of the legislation and assesses how key stakeholders, specifically commercial landlords and property agents, are preparing for its implementation. The results reveal there is generally a good awareness of the Act and suggest that a number of property owners, and to a lesser extent advisers, are taking greater account of energy and environmental performance in their acquisitive due diligence and asset management strategies, as a result of the Act. Less preparation was evident with regard to green leasing practice, although this was being considered as an action in the near future