Dissertations / Theses on the topic 'Private sector housing'

The masters by research project was titled Inn Housing: The Delights of the Private Sector. It was a space for exploring my practice with the development of a conceptual piece about the shifting condition of the community housing produced in inner cities. The research aim was to develop an argument that inquired into the productive meaning of the application of glass walls on the city's housing façades; being these elements that represented a mode of living unknown to my experience and that challenged the way I perceive the relation between the interior intimate and private space of the house with the public city. A confrontation with a different proposal of housing that gave me enough room to speculate about a significant change that may influence the treatment of the private-intimate space of the housing with the public realm. Since the importance acquired by the glass surface seems to encourage (or put emphasis) on the visual experience by way these hermetic façades visually link the interior space of the house with the exterior, exposing views of either one side or the other of the glass skin. Thus the central research questions raised by this research were: what might be the conception that has shaped this housing where the interior appears connected to the exterior through the glass façade? And significantly, does the visual relation with the glass potentially influences individual behaviour and therefore constitutes different modes for dwelling? The method involved in the development of my argument was primary based on a theoretical framework in conjunction with a practice: the construction of visual material that respond to the stimuli generated by the readings. Whereas the selection of theory and readings was based on the obvious need for material that could help me understand and develop certain aspects of my research, images were used to explore my own thinking responses in states of uncertainty, as these offer me a more clear access to my own thinking material once are projected outside my mind.

The study investigates supply-side barriers to private real estate housing development in developing countries using Dhaka, Bangladesh, as a case study. Using the Delphi method, content, and thematic analysis, corrupt bureaucratic mechanisms, and delays in planning approvals were identified as the most influential supply-side barriers to housing development. The study recommends the development of a streamlined application system to reduce corruption and fast track planning approvals. The findings of the study contribute to affordable housing literature and are of assistance to government regulators and policy makers in formulating appropriate policies for housing development in the context of developing countries.

This work contains 18 publications exploring evidence based strategies to enable health promoting housing and communities in the private sector. It examines housing’s contribution to health in the public health agenda; policy priorities and arrangements to deliver healthier housing; partnership working and health outcomes in housing; and measuring evidence of health gain in housing from practitioner interventions and has required a multi-method research programme of theory and practice including case studies, focus groups, comparative studies, telephone and face-to-face interviews/semi-structured discussion in a variety of settings. The work consolidates housing and public health policies, exploring their wider ideological shaping. It particularly focuses on New Labour policies since the launch of the current public health agenda in delivering new evidence-based interventions. These rely on a new relationship between government (as governance) and communities to deliver health improvement and to address health inequalities through partnership working, although barriers remain. Simultaneously, policy developments in private sector housing renewal have emphasised personal responsibility in the sector, and focus more closely on meeting individual and community need. The current situation can present something of a dilemma between seeing housing as a health determinant or as a commercial asset for both owner-occupiers and private sector landlords. The work brings together different sets of literature and fields of research which link housing and health in the private sector, and also different elements of policy as part of the government’s emphasis on joined up government, finding that although the strategic public health frameworks are in place, there remains pressure for organisations to revert to core activities.

Thesis (M.S. in Management)--Naval Postgraduate School, December 1990.
Thesis Advisor(s): Carrick, Paul M. Second Reader: Roberts, Benjamin J. "December 1990." Description based on title screen as viewed on March 30, 2010. DTIC Descriptor(s): Department of Defense, military facilities, family members, construction, military commanders, housing (dwellings), military engineering DTIC Identifier(s): Construction, military facilities, housing (dwellings), military personnel, military construction, costs, theses, family members, fringe benefits, leasing, recruiting, incentives, affordability Author(s) subject terms: PPV, MilCon, 801 Program, 802 Program; 2667 Land Lease; third Party Financing Includes bibliographical references (p. 91.95). Also available in print.

Thesis (M.S. in Management) Naval Postgraduate School, December 1996.
Thesis advisor(s): Shu S. Liao, M.J. Murdter. December 1996." Includes bibliographical references (p. 75). Also available online. Mode of access: World Wide Web.

Global environmental degradation is one of the most serious threats facing humankind as a result of the expansion of its activities around the globe. Scientific evidence is growing that greenhouse gas emissions are having a noticeable effect on the earth's climate. Sustainable development has become a global issue and its life cycle influences the life cycles of the whole planet dramatically. As widely accepted, CO2 emissions are the most significant impact on global climate caused by the amount of energy consumed (Kyoto Protocol, 1997). The UK Government has signed the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change in 1992 and is therefore committed to reducing the emission of six greenhouse gases with carbon dioxide being the most significant to 12.5% lower than the 1990 levels (DEFRA, 2000). The Government has also indicated that it has an aim of further reducing the emissions with an eventual target of 20% below the 1990 levels by 20 10. Energy consumed by the UK building stock approaches 50% of the total while transport is responsible for 28% (DETR, 2000). Accordingly the energy used in housing stock is responsible for about 30% of overall emissions (Shorrock and Walters, 1998), which is a major contributor to global warming and therefore, improving energy efficiency and reducing carbon dioxide emission within housing stock is a key factor for long term sustainability in the built environment. This research aims to study the energy efficiency standards, CO2 emissions and energy ratings of privately rented, university controlled and approved properties within Sheffield. In general, properties in this particular sector account for about 15% of the total housing stock and demonstrate one of the worst conditions of housing standards in the UK (Revell and Leather, 2000). In this research however, properties analysed have shown better characteristics regarding energy efficiency standards especially when compared to the worst housing examples in the country. This is mainly due to properties being controlled and approved by the university standards/requirements, and resulted in achieving higher energy efficiency standards within the privately rented sector. Case study analysis carried out includes over 200 privately rented properties, showing dwelling conditions and examining efficiency of both water and space heating systems. iii Abstract As a global matter, environmental issues and good building design have also been increasingly important in the UK. For that reason, energy and environmental assessment methods for buildings have been developed in order to accomplish good building design, which could contribute considerably to reducing pollution and improving the environment. These assessment methods identify criteria for a range of issues also concerning the global, national and indoor environments. Due to the importance of building energy and environmental assessment methods, many components have to be discussed for the future of buildings and more emphasis should be paid to encouraging property developers to utilise the appropriate methods in order to design energy conscious buildings. Some of the existing methods concerning 'Environment and Healthy Building' developed and used in the country have been reviewed and discussed in the perspective of global effects. In this study, having chosen university-controlled properties would therefore help to utilise the university authority to take action effectively and play a key role in guiding energy efficiency improvements within privately rented properties. With university authority, potential improvements in these properties can be encouraged and implemented much effectively, whilst existing legislation and policies are inoperative to enforce retrospective energy standards in existing housing. Furthermore, this has a negative impact on private rented sector and comes into being a major barrier for this particular sector. Therefore, this is an opportunity that will not only increase energy standards of the housing stock in Sheffield, but also help to achieve the rate of improvement required by the Home Energy Conservation Act 1995 and reduce the overall energy consumption caused by the existing housing stock in the country.

Recent decades have seen a shift in Scotland in terms of the provision of housing and housing-related services from the public sector to the private sector. In statistical terms, the proportion of Scottish households in the private rented sector has doubled during the past ten years. This thesis unpacks anthropologically the private rented sector as a locally-found concept in Edinburgh, largely through the medium of ‘property management', another locally-found concept. Key questions concern how the private rented sector in Edinburgh is ‘managed' at the vernacular level, how the ethics of property management take shape in Edinburgh in the context of this ongoing shift from the public to the private sectors, and how the property relations within the sector relate to existing debates in economic anthropology. The primary ethnographic material, based upon fieldwork in 2014 and 2015, is of an Edinburgh letting agency as archetypal property managers, though other material either was produced in conjunction with Shelter Scotland or stemmed from the tracing of further connections within the field. Engaging with the broader anthropology of ethics, a core conclusion is that processes of property management rest ultimately upon practices of ethics that take place at the ‘ordinary' level. A parallel aim is to consider how anthropologists might produce ethnography of an economic ‘sector', such as the private rented sector. Borrowing from Actor-Network Theory, I propose occupying a range of different vantage points in a given economic sector within a socially defined locale, such as the city, by following the connections encountered in the field, and then by allowing actors to perform both the social and the economic by tracing their associations through the production of the ethnographic text.

In the international context, this research analyzes the state of the art of scientific discussion, the action exerted by national and local governments through regulations, and the opinion of professionals in the field of construction of buildings in relation to the implementation of energy efficiency measures in buildings. In general, the interest in the different areas has been driven primarily by: 1) the worldwide increased energy consumption in buildings, emphasizes by an increasingly urbanized world and the resource scarcity for power generation, primarily fossil fuels; 2) the increase in greenhouse gas emissions related to the buildings' construction and operation; and 3) the thermal behaviour of the building's envelope, which determines the energy demand for thermal conditioning; mainly for heating in winter and cooling in summer. The foregoing has resulted in the implementation of different types of energy efficiency measures in the building sector around the world. On the one hand, through mandatory measures, driven by national and local governments through building codes; mandatory measures require that when building a new building or refurbishing an existing one, the architects, private developers, or builders must comply with building standards that govern the thermal performance of the different elements of the buildings' thermal envelope. On the other hand, by implementing voluntary measures, such as international certification systems, established by non-governmental institutions, aimed at legitimizing the efforts of building owners, design teams, and builders to design, build, and operate buildings in an environmentally friendly way. The latter has triggered an international trend and an increasing demand for certification of the so-called "green buildings". Such independent certification systems seek to reduce the environmental impact of activities in the construction sector. In the Chilean context, this research analyzes the relationship between two main pillars of the Chilean economy, the energy sector and the private housing sector. Particularly, this research focuses on the implementation of energy efficiency measures in the private housing market in Santiago, the Chilean capital. From the energy perspective, the high vulnerability for power generation by the dependence on the provision of gas from neighbouring countries and periods of drought affecting hydroelectric power generation, has led to the Chilean government intervention. Government intervention is centred on two main lines of action: 1) the diversification of the country's energy matrix, through the implementation of alternative systems for power generation based on non-conventional renewable energy sources; and 2) the implementation of energy efficiency measures. In the construction sector, the latter is expressed by the entry into force of the New Thermal Regulations for new residential buildings in three stages in the building code since 2000. With the implementation of new regulations in the construction sector in the Chilean context and the growing demand for green building in the international context, private real estate companies and construction companies, which are the backbone of the construction sector in Chile, have reacted by offering energy efficient real estate products in Santiago de Chile. Based on the foregoing, arises the main question leading this doctoral thesis: How do real estate developers apply energy efficiency in their housing offer in Santiago de Chile? The main research question is further refined by three sub questions: 1) who are the real estate developers that are adopting energy efficiency and why? This is a compound question, first it seeks to identify real estate companies adopting energy efficiency measures in Santiago de Chile’s private housing market; then it looks into the motivations for doing so; 2) what types of energy efficiency measures are real estate companies adopting? This sub-research question seeks to identify the adopted residential energy efficiency strategies; and 3) which barriers to further implementation of energy efficiency exist? It seeks to identify the setbacks found by energy efficiency adopters in the implementation process, in order to understand local issues in the adoption process. The Case Study and Selection of Sub-Cases for the Analysis The research focuses on the voluntary implementation of residential energy efficiency measures in the private housing market; moreover, it analyzes the case of Santiago de Chile. Therefore, the focus is set on real estate companies that offer energy efficient housing in their offer for real estate products in the metropolitan region. The selection of embedded sub-cases for the analysis, or sub-cases, was made by applying a criterion sampling strategy known as purposive sampling. For this, a thorough review of 568 private real estate companies' websites, offering different real estate products in the Metropolitan Region of Santiago de Chile between June and July 2011, was performed. Out of this group, a set of 45 companies that offering energy efficient homes mentioned were selected. Later on, personal interviews mainly with general managers of real estate development companies and other actors considered key informants because of their knowledge in the field, such as scholars, representatives from public institutions, other public and private research centres, and practitioners, were conducted between April and May 2012. Main Methods and Data Analysis Research is conducted under a qualitative approach, as it focuses primarily on the opinion of real estate companies’ CEOs and other key informants considered information rich when helping answering the research questions. The main tool for data analysis was the thematic content analysis. Main Findings The main results of this research are structured on the basis of the answering the secondary research questions or sub-questions. Who are the real estate developers that are adopting energy efficiency and why? As it was mentioned above, the first part of this compound sub-question seeks to identify the real estate companies that are implementing residential energy efficiency measures in their offer in the housing market in Santiago de Chile. A set of 45 real estate companies were identified because they mentioned to be applying some sort of energy efficiency measures. This was a rather small group since, at that time, 568 real estate companies were offering housing products. Based on the empirical findings, a categorization of real estate companies following the Roger’s model was conducted. Thus, real estate companies were categorized depending on when they began adopting residential energy efficiency measures in their housing offer. The three stages of the New Thermal Regulation issued for the housing sector in Chile were selected as time-milestones for defining the adopter categories. Accordingly, three main categories emerged following Roger’s model. 1) Innovators, includes real estate companies who adopted energy efficiency measures for the first time before the entry into force of the first stage of the NRT in 2000; 2) Early Adopters, groups real estate companies who adopted residential energy efficiency measures for the first time between the first and second stage of the New Thermal Regulation, that is to say between 2001 and 2007; and 3) Early Majority, includes real estate companies who began to apply residential energy efficiency measures starting in 2008, meaning after the second stage of New Thermal Regulation came into force. The empirical evidence suggests that the adoption process of energy efficiency measures has started following the normal development described by Rogers' innovation curve. Therefore, it is expected that the rest of the real estate developers operating in the private housing market in Santiago de Chile will eventually follow the Innovators, Early Adopters, and Early Majority categories. This is mainly due to the recent introduction of thermal regulation by the government and because the housing market is a highly competitive market, in which none of the players can risk to be left behind. The second part of the sub-research question, and probably the most important one, seeks to understand the motivations for real estate companies to offer and implement energy-efficient real estate products in Santiago de Chile’s private housing market. This research identifies the motivations of real estate development companies in the opinion of their managers collected in personal semi-structured interviews conducted during fieldwork. Based on the thematic analysis of the abovementioned interviews, four categories of motivations for offering and applying energy efficiency were identified based on the company managers’ opinion. These categories, in order of preference are: 1) Market Differentiation Strategies (Competitiveness and Trending); 2) Company Policies (Client-Oriented Policies, Innovation Policies, and Environmentally-friendly Policies); 3) Resource efficiency (Reduction of Household\'s Expenses and Concerns for Energy Scarcity); and 4) Government Incentive Schemes (Subsidies to the Use of Renewable Energy). Briefly, the main motivations for adopting energy efficiency measures in the private housing offer are related to marketing strategies. In general, real estate companies operating in Santiago de Chile are looking to distinguish themselves from their competitors by offering energy-efficient housing products. This is mainly because real estate companies are following a trend that is driven by several factors such as: local energy shortage periods, the international influence of green buildings in the real estate market, and the growing demand for international certifications in the Chilean context. What types of energy efficiency measures are real estate companies adopting? As mentioned earlier, this research identifies real estate companies offering energy-efficient housing in the private real estate market of Santiago de Chile who implemented a diversity of energy efficiency strategies in their housing supply, as the empirical evidence shows. Although the motivations for implementing energy efficiency measures are diverse (as described previously), energy efficiency measures are mainly implemented in order to reach a comfort temperature inside the dwelling, making all possible efforts to ensure that energy is used efficiently. In the case of the residential buildings, this means looking for the optimal use of energy for space heating or cooling, lighting, hot sanitary water, and ventilation. In general, depending on whether there is the need to make an additional energy effort in order to achieve optimum indoor comfort conditions, the energy efficiency measures implemented in the private housing sector in Santiago de Chile can be grouped into two main categories of energy efficiency strategies: passive design strategies and active design strategies. On the one hand, passive design strategies refer to what real estate developers are doing to reduce the energy consumption of their housing buildings. Such strategies include: 1) improving the overall thermal performance of the building envelope; 2) the use of renewable energy, mainly solar thermal and photovoltaic technology, for hot sanitary water and energy conversion respectively; and 3) bioclimatic design and construction principles. As it was mentioned in Section 6.1, a basic characteristic of passive design strategies, distinguishing them from active design strategies, is that in order to operate they rely on the building site and the inherited thermal properties of the building materials used in the different housing building typologies. On the other hand, active design strategies refer to the technological innovations implemented in order to maintain an optimal indoor thermal conditioning and to reduce the energy used in the different buildings’ systems; namely, 1) illumination systems; 2) heating systems; 3) centralized control systems; and 4) air conditioning systems. In general, real estate developers adopted active design strategies as a complement to the use of passive design strategies. Not surprisingly, real estate developers have mentioned the improvement of the thermal envelope as the most commonly used residential energy efficiency strategy. This results from the fact that internationally and in Chile, regulations in the housing sector were implemented in order to improve the thermal behaviour of dwellings, and therefore, their energy efficiency. Finally, a third type of energy efficiency strategy adopted by real estate developers in Santiago de Chile is the result of a public-private partnership between the Chilean Government and the Chilectra, the local electricity utility. The initiative is called “Chilectra – Full Electric Buildings” and it offers an optional electrical energy tariff for residential consumers. This strategy is further explained in Section 6.3. Which barriers to further implementation of energy efficiency exist? Based on the opinion of the various key stakeholder involved in this research, this research shows that most barriers to energy efficiency in the private housing sector in Santiago de Chile interact and strengthen each other. The classification of barriers to further implementation of energy efficiency is not straightforward. Nonetheless, in the opinion of real estate companies’ managers, the barriers to adopting energy efficiency measures in the private housing market in Santiago de Chile revolve around the specific characteristics of the local social system. These barriers are: 1) market barriers; 2) organizational barriers; 3) institutional barriers; and 4) behavioural barriers. In relation to the categorization of energy efficiency adopters identified in the first sub-question, the empirical evidence seems to indicate that, not all the barriers play the same role for all adopter categories. In general, market barriers are most relevant to the innovators group. Although most of the real estate developers mentioned that even today the local market and the local construction industry are not ready to provide adequate support (both in the availability of products and services) for further development of the market for energy efficient construction, the deficiency was greater 20 years ago, when the innovators first started to implement residential energy efficiency measures in the private housing sector. Moreover, the other barriers encountered (namely organizational and institutional barriers) are transversal to the adopter categories. This seems to drawn from the organizational and institutional characteristics of the context in which private real estate companies operate. The context remains constant over time and their internal relationships are also maintained, homogeneously affecting all adopter categories. Finally, barriers related to end users and/or clients’ behaviour are mainly listed by early majority adopters, which comprises developers who implement residential energy efficiency measures recently (after 2000). Apparently, this results mainly from the fact that end user are lacking information about the benefits (general and local) to be gained from implementing residential energy efficiency measures.

Includes bibliographical references
Affordable housing in Cape Town tends to be located far away from economic opportunities, social facilities and public transport infrastructure, which serves to reinforce inequality, burdening poor households and the City. This dissertation explores the current challenges in bringing well-located, affordable housing units to market in Cape Town; the opportunities for greater private sector participation; and the public interventions required in order to enable actors to overcome these challenges and capitalise on the opportunities. These issues were gradually refined from a global scale to a local area, beginning with a review of the relevant urban development and housing economics literature in order to form a theoretical framework, followed by an overview of the local housing market and national housing policy. Precedent, interviews and a workshop were then conducted with participants from the private and public sectors, NGOs and academia in order to explore the key challenges, opportunities and potential solutions in Cape Town. Finally, these challenges and opportunities were investigated and interventions proposed in a particular context, namely Parow train station precinct within the Voortrekker Road Corridor (VRC) in Cape Town. While a comprehensive review of national housing policy and funding is required, the focus of this dissertation is on the many city-scale interventions which are possible within a short- to medium-term, which tackle inefficiencies in the market and regulatory system in order to leverage the power of the private sector towards the goal of well-located affordable housing. The findings for Cape Town indicate that the greatest challenges for developers are the limited availability of well-located land at affordable prices; lack of depreciated, higher-density buildings for redevelopment; excessive parking ratios; delays in the development process; and a lack of nuanced market demand information. Fortunately, there are many opportunities, including a capable and facilitative municipality in Cape Town; growing private sector interest in affordable housing; the power of small-scale landlords and innovative design; a shift from ownership to rental; and potential synergy between affordable housing, transit-oriented development (TOD) and urban regeneration (provided policy and public spending are aligned). Key recommendations for public intervention, applicable both city-wide and to the Parow Study Area, are: firstly, to urgently develop programmatic (national and city scale) and area-based (precinct scale) strategies which position affordable housing (including social housing) as a catalyst for urban regeneration and TOD, and align public investment in order to incrementally densify appropriate areas; secondly, to protect and package public land for affordable housing and other public benefit uses; and thirdly, to remove obstacles to private sector provision of affordable housing by both institutional and small-scale actors (for example, by reducing parking requirements and restrictive development parameters (potentially through affordable housing overlay zones), making market data available and fast-tracking approvals). An essential institutional intervention is the creation of an inter-departmental 'affordable housing task-team' within the municipality to champion and facilitate such interventions.

Thesis (M.S. in Management)--Naval Postgraduate School, September 2003.
Thesis advisor(s): Joseph G. San Miguel, Rodney E. Tudor. Includes bibliographical references (p. 81-83). Also available online.

This study emerged from existing literary evidence that planning and building regulations affect the supply of housing and research in this area usually takes a very descriptive route that lacks an explicit theoretical framework that can guide stakeholders for better research outcomes. The rationale is based on the context that despite the many initiatives introduced by successive post-apartheid governments to improve the housing situation in South Africa, not much has been achieved to improve the enormous housing backlogs. Affordable housing, being one of the strategic mechanisms used by the government for housing delivery is laden with problems. Many factors have been attributed to the challenges among which are land use policies and building regulations, administrative bottlenecks, budgetary constraints, and so on. To effectively manage these challenges, a more proactive private sector participation has been advocated. However, this requires that proper regulatory frameworks are put in place to ensure that developers deliver housing that meets necessary safety and quality standards and still have some return on investment. Unfortunately, legislative structures which should ideally be supportive, instead, hinder development and create barriers for private developers The study thus investigates three related questions. Firstly, what are the main planning and building regulations that impact on affordable housing by the private sector? Secondly, how do the planning and building regulations affect the total cost of affordable housing development by the private sector? Thirdly, what scope exists for the change and would, relaxing these regulations, enhance the supply of affordable housing developments by the private sector in South Africa? Corresponding to these questions is the first hypothesis which states that planning and building regulations impose a significant cost on the developers and thus deter the supply by the private sector. And secondly, relaxing some of the planning and building regulations could improve affordable housing development by the private sector. The study employed a qualitative approach to gather empirical data using household surveys and semi-structured interviews from developers and consultants on five case studies together with key informants’ interviews from government officials. With the main theoretical tools of Institution Analysis and Development, this study developed a conceptual framework that determines the main planning and building regulations that impact on affordable housing supply by the private sector. And by employing insights from New Institutional Economics tools, these regulations are treated as institutions through which development rights are obtained. The study reveals; that even though planning and building regulations are affiliated with better quality housing products, they significantly affect cost, affordability and location outcomes. That no national policy tool exists to guide affordable housing implementation processes; the current city’s policy instruments are contradictory to the propagated concepts meant to enhance housing supply. The study discovers that the government has huge land parcels for different intentions, but makes it available only to a developer whose objectives align with theirs and developers lack adequate funding and incentives to motivate them. Finally, the study reveals that even when case studies are located outside the urban core of Cape Town, dwellers are happy and satisfied with the location and careless about the system’s inefficiencies and there is no direct relation between planning and building regulations and location other than the fact that regulations contribute to the bad location of developments.

This research paper aims to explore the use of project finance to fund urban infrastructure in order to aid the development of affordable housing. This is due to the high rate of urbanisation in developing nations, leading to the challenge of providing adequate shelter and the requisite infrastructure. Although South Africa has been lauded for making observable strides in housing and infrastructure provision, infrastructure is still required. There is reluctance to bring private finance into infrastructure development in developing economies because full recovery of invested capital is not easy to achieve. Project finance is recommended to improve the rate of shelter provision as well as to catalyse the eradication of slums. Project finance was investigated through interviewing selected participants, based on their role in the infrastructure provision sector. The outcomes indicated that project finance is an appropriate tool due to its characteristics.

Colorado is facing demographic changes as the senior share of the population rapidly increases. Simultaneously, Denver residents are not prepared to age in place. Their homes do not include accessible features, such as those incorporated into universal design or visitability standards, which support an individual’s ability to stay in the home as their capabilities decline over time. Furthermore, there are no legal requirements to provide accessible features in single-family homes to support residents aging in place. To investigate this problem, the study explored why Denver residents, along with design and construction professionals, are not adequately preparing homes for aging in place. The study assessed and compared levels of aging-in-place design feature awareness, implementation, knowledge of associated costs, and support for policies of the features in single-family homes from the perspective of the residents and professionals. The author administered two online surveys for Denver residents and design and construction professionals. The resident sample size was 177, a response rate of 15%. The professional sample size was 71, a response rate of 6%. The resident survey found 93% of the respondents wants to live independently, but only 33% of the residents were familiar with aging in place. The professional survey found 94% of the surveyed professionals recognize the importance of living independently, but only 46% of the professionals are extremely/very familiar with aging in place. Despite the lack of awareness, both groups expressed high levels of support for universal design and visitability features in new construction. Nearly 68% of the residents and 80% of the professionals support universal design in new construction homes. A bivariate regression analysis revealed there was a statistically significant relationship between the number of accessible features in the resident's home and the resident's satisfaction with his/her home as a place for older adults to live as they age. The researcher makes recommendations for the City and County of Denver in order to further integrate universal design and visitability in new construction and remodeled homes.

Kuwait is planning for huge infrastructure and development projects through long term strategies and visions from 2007 until 2035 to overcome the needs for the welfare housing and to move the country to be the region’s top commercial and financial hub. These goals wouldn’t be achieved without having a strong partner (private sector) to drive the economy by participating in construction mega projects. Public-private partnership (PPP) is the framework which engages both parties to successfully achieve long term plans to deliver what the country and citizens need. To attract the private sector to participate and provide the services needed with the expected high qualities and techniques, the public sector needs to improve the environment to facilitate PPP implementation. This research investigates the existence of critical success factors of PPP project in construction sector of Kuwait: Effective procurement, Project implementability, Available financial market, Government guarantee and Favorable economic conditions and give recommendations to focus on improving them to achieve successful PPP projects.

This thesis critically examines the geography of the growth in the private rented sector (PRS) in England, changing living arrangements and how living in the PRS affects feeling at ‘home’. It moves beyond the grand narratives and individual anecdotes of the ‘housing crisis’ to explain what it means, for whom and where. An integrated mixed methods approach using quantitative analysis of 2001 and 2011 census tables, 2011 Census microdata, the English Housing Survey 2010-11 (EHS) and qualitative data collected through semi-structured interviews was combined to address the four key research questions:• How have tenure and household type changed nationally, regionally, at local authority and neighbourhood level between 2001 and 2011?• Who is moving into the PRS and why? What are the characteristics of households living in the PRS?• Do different household types in the PRS tend to live in particular neighbourhoods? What are the characteristics of these neighbourhoods and households?• How do people who live in the PRS feel at ‘home’?The growth of the PRS has led to spatial concentrations by household type and tenure in local authorities across England and changing living arrangements. This was particularly reflected by the concentration of other households with and without dependent children in London and some other areas. At neighbourhood level this revealed spatial polarisation by household type and tenure and the emergence of new urban landscapes caused by housing market constraints which were most likely to affect younger households and those who had migrated both from within and outside the UK. The EHS showed that the majority of newly formed households had moved into the PRS suggesting that it would continue to grow, the PRS was regarded as the least desirable tenure with the majority living in it planning to move, mostly into ownership, in the future and that the PRS led to high levels of relative poverty after housing costs exacerbated by higher fuel costs for some and poorer material conditions including higher levels of overcrowding, particularly for other households with dependent children, damp and cold. Despite these financial and material disadvantages there is evidence that households living in the PRS overcame tenancy constraints to enjoy the emotional, cognitive and social aspects of feeling at home and to engage in home improvement and home-making. As well as these substantive contributions to knowledge this thesis provided both methodological and policy contributions. The use of facet methodology provided critical insights from a number of different quantitative techniques that enabled the substantive contributions on the changing geography and demography of the PRS, residential decision making and feeling at home, and together the innovative of spatial econometric techniques to housing, into the emergence of new urban landscapes. The policy contributions are underpinned by the need to recognise the universal right to a home which: requires market interventions to rebalance landlord and tenant rights; provide a strong case to ensure that no household is forced to live in relative poverty after their housing and fuel costs have been taken into account; and that spatial planning needs to be based on a commitment to meet local housing needs and restrict the power of developers to deliver schemes that lead to gentrification, displacement and spatial exclusion.