This book is a good reference book for city planners, architects and civil engineers involved in the conceptualisation, design and building of urban habitations, who aspire to increase the liveability of their cities. It introduces the Singapore Green Plot Ratio (GnPR) as an Urban Planning Metric to promote the widespread and intensive use of greenery for new and existing buildings in towns and cities like Singapore - a former third world city that has transformed into one of the world's most liveable metropolises.Increasing urban greenery has been observed to enhance the quality of our built environment, and in turn, the quality of life of its inhabitants. The book shows readers how to do so using the GnPR, which it presents as an important urban complement of the leaf area ratio (LAI) concept, through an in-depth discussion of three key aspects of the GnPR. It proposes optimal levels of GnPR for various land-use types and how these levels are benchmarked against current levels of greenery provision; stipulates the greenery quantum which encourages the concentration of some plants, especially native trees and certain local species; and advocates the development of ecological or natural landscapes over manicured gardens. The book also discusses the impact of various levels of GnPR provision with the inevitable capital and maintenance costs of greening built environments, and how they affect the application of the GnPR guidelines.

International Real Estate: Asia's Potential from a Research Perspective considers real estate market analysis in the context of economic theory pertaining to market disequilibria, utilising data from major cities in Asia as case studies. This framework makes it possible to determine what defines an Asian real estate sector: What is being measured? How does it behave (in terms of price and non-price factors)? How it is structured? How effectively does it achieve sustainable total returns? And how does it manage real estate market uncertainty?Real estate market uncertainty originates from both the demand- and supply-side of the market. The market responds to structural macroeconomic and microeconomic factors that in turn are affected by related public policies. These elements interact to affect Asian real estate in unique ways since the Asian currency crisis of 1997. David Ho's analysis shows that while the details of real estate market analysis are different for the various Asian cities (and their real estate sectors) owing to their different stages of maturity, underlying principles nevertheless apply. He also looks at managing real estate market uncertainty at the portfolio level through the analytical techniques of real estate asset allocation, real estate value-at-risk (VaR), real option analysis and pricing.