Hf Leung

Assessing the health and hygiene performance of apartment buildings

The recent global outbreak of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome has aroused public concern on environmental health and hygiene. Develops a practical assessment scheme for assessing the health and hygiene performance of apartment buildings in Hong Kong. The scheme involves assessing a hierarchy of building factors that have a bearing on environmental qualities, and thus occupants’ health. Proposes an index method to integrate the assessment outcomes into a simple and user‐ friendly performance indicator for public consumption. The index can inform the public of the health and hygiene risk of different buildings and facilitate building owners, developers, and government bodies to make more informed and socially responsible decisions on environmental health and hygiene improvement. Although the assessment scheme is tailored for the institutional and cultural settings of Hong Kong, the assessment framework for the development of the scheme is also applicable to other cities.

A survey of the health and safety conditions of apartment buildings in Hong Kong

Abstract A high-density built environment poses challenges to the idea of sustainable development in respect of health (e.g. SARS outbreak) and safety (e.g. fire and structural problems). To examine the seriousness of the high-density problem, this study aims to survey the health and safety performance of apartment buildings in a densely populated city, Hong Kong, using a simplified assessment scheme. An assessment scheme based on a hierarchy of building performance indicators concerning the quality of: (a) architectural design, (b) building services design, (c) the surrounding environment, (d) operations and maintenance, and (e) management approaches was developed. One hundred forty (140) apartment buildings were surveyed and assessed through site inspections, desk searches, and interviews. A performance analysis was conducted to examine and compare the overall health and safety performance of the buildings. We found that there were considerable variations in health and safety conditions across buildings, even though they are located within a single district. Most of the variations in building health and safety conditions were attributed to differences in building management systems rather than building design. Enhancing strategic management approaches (e.g. a better delineation of owners’ rights and duties) appears to be the most critical factor that underperformers should consider in order to improve their buildings.

Effects of building management regimes of private apartment buildings in Hong Kong

Purpose – There has been a growing public concern over the importance of building management in apartment buildings. However, peoples views toward the effects of building management on building performance have long been divergent due to a lack of empirical study. This study aims to empirically test the relationship between building management regimes and the conditions of private apartment buildings in Hong Kong.Design/methodology/approach – An assessment scheme was developed to assess the health and safety conditions of 134 apartment buildings. Multiple regression models were then applied to analyze the effect of building management regimes on building conditions. The optimal functional form of the regression models was selected using Box‐Cox transformation.Findings – The empirical results suggested that the presence of incorporated owners and property management agents (PMA) are significant factors in enhancing building conditions.Research limitations/implications – The sample was confined to single b...

Planning conditions in Hong Kong: An empirical study and a discussion of major issues

Purpose – This paper was motivated by the absence of a government examination of and professional interest in planning conditions as a means of development control in Hong Kong. Proposes to examine this situation.Design/methodology/approach – The research objective is achieved by a field survey and legal analysis of its findings. The field survey of all the 60 residential development projects in Hong Kong under comprehensive development area zoning subject to conditional planning permissions from 1998 to 2000 involving 119 planning applications was conducted to assess factual compliance with planning conditions.Findings – The findings show that, while most physical planning obligations have been duly fulfilled in these projects, the non‐depositing of master layout plans for development poses actual and potential public domain problems of planning enforcement, building permission, conveyancing and property management. The major problems of non‐compliance are property purchasers being unable to fully apprec...

The effect of personal injuries claims as a result of mismanagement of multi‐storey buildings on property investment in Hong Kong

A personal injury claim for compensation is one of the most common kinds of litigation in Hong Kong. In recent years, a number of cases have emerged which involve accidents resulting from mismanagement of buildings and, in particular, in which the unit owners within the buildings were held liable to pay a portion of the damages. The relevant court cases, relating to domestic property, are researched, to find out the amounts of damages awarded, the effects of the compensations on individual unit owners in the relevant buildings and on their return on investment and the factors that may affect the investment. This kind of litigation is likely to grow, owing to the increase in the proportion of old buildings as a result of the downturn in the local property development market. The research results are likely to be of use to other common law countries where multi‐storey buildings are the major form of property for property investment.