Contractor financial prequalification using simulation method based on cash flow model

Although construction contractor prequalification highly prioritizes the financial capacity of the construction contractors, a special assessment of contractors' financial capacities has seldom been performed in the construction industry. Cash flows largely reflect a contractor's capacity to meet its financial obligations, this study assesses the credit qualities of construction contractors by using a cash flow based credit model (CFB credit model). The model uses historical continuously free cash flow to firm of construction contractors to simulate possible future cash flow paths. The credit quality scores of construction contractors are then assessed using the CFB credit model. The results demonstrate the effectiveness of assessment of the credit quality of construction contractors, and recommend the clients to adopt it in prequalification of the contractors' financial abilities.     

Strengthening housing finance in emerging markets: the savings and credit cooperative organisation (SACCO) model in Kenya

Abstract

Savings have long been an essential source of funding for credit. Whether in Europe, North America, Africa, Asia or Latin America, community-based financial institutions have relied on deposits to make financial services accessible to moderate-income borrowers. Despite the foundational role savings and loans have had in financial sector development, emerging markets have largely overlooked the important role these institutions can have in providing shelter credit in their own contexts. Savings and Credit Cooperative Organisations (SACCOs) in the Republic of Kenya illustrate the potential model for deposit-based lending to deliver housing finance for many of the country’s underserved prospective borrowers. This study draws upon the experiences of several savings and loan associations in the industrialized world with applications towards improving the Kenyan SACCO model that provides the most extensive credit union loans on the African continent. The article concludes community finance institutions merit strong consideration towards helping overcome the housing finance sector underdevelopment too often experienced in the developing world.     

Financial transformation and portfolio reallocation: impacts on house mortgage finance in the USA

This study examines the US house mortgage finance in the context of the financial transformation of the entire credit market. It finds that the nation's credit market shifted away from less creditworthy borrowers under the macroeconomic dislocation and financial stress of the 1970s and 1980s, and returned to these borrowers amid the favourable macroeconomic conditions and a transformed financial industry during the 1990s. This pattern is generally confirmed by a simple simulation, in that gaps in the growth of ability to finance between the white/higher‐income family and the African American/lower‐income family widened during the 1970s' and 1980s' economic expansion, and narrowed during the 1990s' economic expansion. The simulation model also shows the interplay between two dimensions of the portfolio factors, mortgage interest rates and family income. During the 1970s and 1980s, disadvantages in mortgage interest rates for white/higher‐income families were more than compensated for by their advantage in terms of income over African American/lower‐income families. During the 1990s, the African American advantage in income growth was further aided by advantage in mortgage interest rates for the African American/lower‐income family over the white/higher‐income family.     

Financial restructuring and housing markets in Finland

In Western, industrialised countries, houses are typically expensive in relation to average incomes so that their production and exchange are facilitated by extensive systems of finance as well as being a major source of profit for the suppliers of finance. Also typically, national financial systems have been, and continue to be, subject to fundamental changes. These can be expected to lead to a changed relationship between housing and financial markets, which will lead to further changes in both. In this paper, against a background of theoretical assessments of the consequences, recent and ongoing changes affecting financial markets in Finland are explored. It considers how these might affect Finland's home ownership market through possible developments in the availability of credit, subsidies and prices.     

Combinatory Urbanism

Abstract

This essay investigates the relationship between programming and design. It exposes and criticizes those views that characterize programming and design as separate and their relationship as linear. Instead, we propose that the relationship is interactive and that the clarification of programmatic and design issues goes hand in hand. During this interactive process both client and architect take significant responsibilities. The design process of the First Unitarian Church of Louis Kahn is an illustrative example. Investigation of the client's reports, of Kahn's and the client's letters, and of Kahn's design proposals exposes the client's contribution and the interaction between programming and design. Our study suggests that clients have the potential to play crucial roles in design and deserve credit.     

Corn's cob as a potential ecological thermal insulation material

Tabique construction is one of the main Portuguese traditional building techniques that use earth based building materials. It is peculiar building technique which uses corn's cob as a filling material for the external tabique walls. The existing tabique construction in Trás-os-Montes e Alto Douro region of northeast Portugal was studied to learn from it for modern day construction. The research showed that corn's cob, an agricultural waste, has the potential to be used as a sustainable building material for thermal insulation. An experimental work concluded that there are significant similarities between the corn's cob and the extruded polystyrene (XPS) material in terms of microstructure and chemical composition. Furthermore, the results obtained from an expeditious experimental thermal procedure indicate that the corn's cob may have adequate thermal properties for building purpose.     

Community Development Financial Institutions: Current Issues and Future Prospects

Abstract: Community development financial institutions (CDFIs) help to address the financial needs of under‐served, predominantly low‐income communities. CDFIs include community development banks, credit unions, business and microenterprise loan funds, and venture capital funds. Although CDFIs are a rapidly growing and an increasingly important area of community economic development, they have not received proportionate attention from academic researchers. This article begins to address the gap. It outlines the history of the CDFI industry and details how CDFIs are responding to three specific development needs: basic financial services; affordable credit for home purchase, rehabilitation, and maintenance; and loan and equity capital for business development. The article then considers the strengths and limitations of CDFIs, concentrating especially on the relationship between CDFIs and conventional financial institutions. It concludes by examining the impact that these alternative financial institutions realistically can hope to achieve.     

UNEQUAL QCCESS: Financial Institution Lending to Black-and White-Owned Small Business Start-ups

ABSTRACT: This article analyzes financial institution lending to small business startups. Relative to the white-owned firms, black-business start-ups are observed to be poorly capitalized, and they are more likely to have discontinued operations over time. Black-owned businesses receive smaller loans than white-owned firms with identical measured characteristics. The black-firm borrowers, furthermore, rely more heavily upon forms of consumer credit—especially credit cards—than whites. Past studies have implicated banks for their unequal treatment of black firms. Findings of this study indicate that such unequal treatment continues to handicap black-owned businesses.     

Theory of valuing building life-cycle investments

The physical adaptability of buildings is very important in today's fast-changing business environment. The actors who invest in long-term adaptability are positioned better to the changes during the life cycle of a building. This conceptual paper argues that the current dominating real estate (property) investment analysis theories do not accommodate enough building design-related information (i.e. physical asset characteristics), which results in long-term loss of competitiveness and unsustainable use of built environment resources. It is demonstrated that physical asset characteristics can create valuable real options that should be acknowledged in real estate investment analysis and management. The real estate investment literature has not so far been able to produce a widely accepted financial model for justifying life-cycle investments. A theory is proposed here that can be used to value life-cycle investments in buildings. This new theory combines of real options valuation, investment analysis and building component life-cycle design. These themes are used to formulate a conceptual framework for valuing life-cycle investments. The framework is intuitive and transparent, and it can be easily added to current spreadsheet investment analysis tools.     

SECONDARY MORTGAGE MARKETS AND FEDERAL HOUSING POLICY

ABSTRACT The government sponsored secondary mortgage markets (Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac) are crucial infrastructure links in the housing finance system. This paper examines the evolution of the policy debate about the public purpose of the enterprises. It focuses on three recent reform efforts: the need to redress discrimination in access to credit, the need to resolve the credit crunch for multifamily housing, and the need to ensure financial safety and soundness. Recent changes in corporate strategy and reforms enacted in Title XIII of the 1992 Housing and Community Development Act are assessed in the context of these three issues and conclusions are drawn about the implications this restructuring will have for the public / private basis of US housing policy.     

BuildingsLife: a building management system

The financial resources available for infrastructure maintenance and rehabilitation are always limited, which creates a need for efficient resources' management and for the ability to predict maintenance actions throughout the infrastructure's service life. In the context of bridges, management systems have been developed and are already implemented around the world. A much larger variety of maintenance problems and a reduced number of buildings per owner mean that building management systems (BdMSs) are still quite rare. Actually, efficient methods for the service life prediction of building materials still need to be developed. This paper discusses the service life prediction methods used in building components based on deterministic, stochastic or engineering methods. The architecture of a recently developed BdMS – BuildingsLife – is presented, where the service life analysis of components is based on an initial statistical analysis of anomalies obtained from the inspection of in-use buildings. This method analyses the corresponding degradation through the use of deterministic and stochastic models.     

The determinants of elderly migration in France

The aim of this paper is to study elderly migration in France. First, it analyses whether the decision to migrate relies upon individual characteristics. Second, it examines the ways in which the economic, social and environmental characteristics of the French territories determine the retirees' choice of localization. The paper draws upon a unique database of 12.67 million French inhabitants, with information about their personal attributes and locational choices from 2003 to 2008. It also uses an original database with locational characteristics for the French territories at the level of the 364 zones d'emploi. This is the only study on regional migration in France which builds upon such a thin spatial level of analysis. The paper builds empirical probit and Heckman models dealing with selection bias and endogeneity bias issues. The paper shows that retirees usually leave large agglomerations and old industrial areas in Northern France and the Paris agglomeration and relocate to socially and environmentally attractive zones with preferable climates. When studying the migration patterns within the zones d'emploi, it appears that the most vulnerable zones, which display a lower quality of collective services as well as higher income disparities and crime rates, feature lower elderly residential mobility.     

Housing Policy,Housing Assistance and the Wellbeing Dividend: Developing an Evidence Base for Post-GFC Economies

This paper discusses the recent evolution, at a time of turmoil within global financial markets, of Australia's housing system and considers the effectiveness of housing assistance responses formulated to assist lo- income Australians. Following the Global Financial Crisis (GFC), housing was recast in the public and political consciousness and received substantial policy attention. In this era of rapidly declining housing affordability as well as threats to the supply of housing finance, the Australian Government renewed its approach to housing assistance. The paper examines housing assistance in Australia and assesses individual outcomes in terms of a ‘wellbeing dividend’. It draws upon on a survey of 1700 low-income households to examine individual outcomes for health and wellbeing across three of Australia's major forms of housing assistance. The research clearly shows that while housing assistance makes a positive contribution to wellbeing, not all forms of assistance are equal.     

The global financial crisis and the Australian and New Zealand housing markets

The evolution of the US sub-prime mortgage meltdown into a global financial crisis clearly demonstrates the increasingly integrated nature of mortgage and capital markets. However, notwithstanding the global scale and severity of the recent financial crisis, the effects of the credit crunch were mediated by nationally constituted housing markets, the activities of local financial institutions and national housing policies. Adopting an institutional perspective this paper critically examines the manner in which the financial crisis impacted upon the Australian and New Zealand housing markets. These countries had actively participated in the liberalisation of mortgage markets and experienced significant house price inflation post-2000 but, in contrast to the USA and some European experiences, they escaped a severe housing downturn. It is argued that a combination of pre-existing institutional practices, market conditions and government policies acted to shelter these markets and created the potential conditions for a new housing boom. While avoiding a deep housing slump, both Australia and New Zealand have to address the on-going macroeconomic implications of a system predicated on housing inflation and capital gains.     

Hearth and cloth: dwelling practice and production in Eastern Tibet

In the context of rapid contemporary shifts of migration, modernisation, urbanisation and Sinification in Eastern Tibet, a significant impact on the inhabited environment of the 'everyday' is evident, manifest in the use of new materials, new work and building practices, the impact of new neighbours, and the appropriation of new media. Within a critique of attitudes to the primitive (vernacular) and modern, practices related to dwelling in terms of the material realisation of the house and tents are shown to be related. A sophistication of sBra-gur, the black tent of the nomadic pastoralist, is revealed, with symbolic ordering and spatial relationships related to Tibetan dwelling houses. Through examining the spatial role and production of the Semperian archetypes of 'hearth' and 'cloth' in the tent in particular, it is shown that settlement and fabrication are interdependent. It is argued that understanding patterns of 'everyday' dwelling practice should be the basis for potential judgements concerning continuity and future adaptation and change. The origin of this work was architectural consultation on the adaptation of traditional Tibetan houses, an approach in which inherent dilemmas soon become evident - the potential to participate in shifting balances of making, inhabiting, developing, communicating.     

Between East and West: immigrants,critical regionalism and public housing

This paper focuses on two museum buildings designed in the 1980s: Rafael Moneo's Museum of Roman Art in Merida (1980–86) and Daniel Libeskind's Jewish Museum in Berlin (1988–99, 2001). The first consolidated the initial phase of Moneo's career, while the second, over-interpreted in subsequent criticism, ignited Libeskind's reputation as a theorist who could build. Approaching the design of both museums with Aldo Rossi's influence in mind, the particular focus is the relationship between concepts of order and contingency associated with the theme of temporality recurrent in his architecture. This retrospective examination was initially conceived in response to Robin Evans's review of Libeskind's Chamberworks, where he remarked on the efficacy of Rossi's short preface. Relationships discovered in comparative examination of these two polemically divergent buildings credit Rossi with a more nuanced influence on late twentieth-century architecture than is generally attributed to his work (currently at the margins of architectural discourse).     

Critique: building appraisals Álvaro Siza's Bonjour Tristesse: a symphony for a big city

The directors of the Internationale Bauausstellung Berlin (IBA-Berlin) famously created a Janus face for urban renewal through the 1980s, as an attempt to cope with Berlin's struggle for identity during the Cold War. IBA-Berlin's intellectual framework was divided between Kleihues's critical reconstruction of the past (IBA-Neubau), and Hämer's careful urban renewal (IBA-Altbau). While the IBA-Neubau generated famous buildings designed by architects such as Aldo Rossi, Oswald Mathias Ungers, John Hejduk and Peter Eisenmann, the production of the IBA-Altbau section was somewhat more discreet, yet with conspicuous buildings designed by Hinrich and Inken Baller, and by Álvaro Siza.

In this article I will focus on Álvaro Siza's Bonjour Tristesse, designed and built in the early 1980s under the auspices of the IBA-Altbau section. Situated in Berlin's Kreuzberg district, this building simultaneously incorporates and transgresses the urban renewal principles of both Kleihues and Hämer. It challenges existing conventions and typologies, and caters for the urban experience of the migrants arriving in the big city, activating the creative potential of the ‘as found’ as a strategy to enhance collective memory and promote political engagement through conflictive consensus. This article examines the design decision-making process of the Bonjour Tristesse, and the coeval reception of the project. It demonstrates the extent to which Siza's critical account of a confrontation with reality contributed to the development of a project in tune with the ambivalence of modernity, a building that is at the same time strange and familiar, detached and situated, sterile and contaminated.     

THE LANDSCAPE OF URBAN PRESERVATION: A SPATIAL ANALYSIS OF FEDERAL REHABILITATION TAX CREDITS IN RICHMOND,VIRGINIA

Historic preservationists tout the federal historic rehabilitation tax credit (RTC) as one of the nation's most successful urban revitalization programs, but minimal research exists on the local use of this private‐sector, market‐responsive tool. Using geocoded data on RTC investments in Richmond, Virginia that occurred between 1997 and 2010, the research explores the city's RTC geography, finding that these investments are most intense in the central city, but have centrifugally diffused outward over time. The research shows that RTC investments are contributing to Richmond's postindustrial transformation, offer a measure of resiliency in the recently volatile real estate market, and function as a de facto housing policy without directly resulting in gentrification. The research offers policymakers improved understanding about the urban geography and spatial effects of RTCs and outlines potential policies that can capitalize on and further encourage these private‐sector investments.     

Modelling of flow through gravel-filled trenches

Today's standardized computer models for simulating flow through in-ground sustainable urban drainage systems (SUDS) require substantial monitoring data in order to allow for a realistic representation of system behaviour, as they are based on predefined or user-specific head-discharge relationships. Darcy's law in combination with the finite volume method was applied to compute the flow through filter material and validated against monitored data. The finite volume Darcy's flow (FVD) model is based on physical characteristics, which represents flow through gravel material. Flow characteristics are dependent on the dimensions and materials used and an excellent model fit was achieved when compared with monitoring data.     

The French Z.U.P. Technicjue of Urban Development

Using the new town at Hérouville, outside of Caen in Normandy, France, as an example, this article describes an innovative French technique for organizing urban development—the “Z.U.P.” (zone à urbaniser de priorité) or Priority Urbanization Zone, an important part of French national urbanization policy. This technique, which uses a mix of public and private sectors, is compared with American new town development. It is suggested that it may be feasible to transfer some of the Z.U.P.'s financial and administrative techniques to U.S. efforts to structure settlement patterns.