This paper aims to investigate the perceived risk after the Tianjin port explosion event and its impact on property value. In addition to focusing on the relationship between homebuyers’ risk perception and property sales price, this paper also considers the risk perception of property sellers via the sale-to-list ratio. By using the difference-in-differences method and the sample from the property agent, we found that the explosion event generated a long-time effect on the public and property market in the city of Tianjin. Relative to those properties far away from the explosion site, the sales price and the sale-to-list ratio of the property near the explosion site were detected to have significant drops for the first six months after the explosion event. The temporal decrease of the relative sales price and the sale-to-list ratio are the evidence of short period overreaction from the public, which decays over time. This study demonstrates an indirect method to estimate the perceived risk of the general public and provides valuable insight into sustainable port management policies.

New towns and housing affordability are the hot topics among city planners, urban researchers, policymakers, and economists in recent years. Yet, whether the existing new town development could mitigate the problem of housing affordability for low-income people is understudied. To fill this important knowledge blank and research gap, this study selects Hong Kong to conduct the empirical analysis. Through examining the data from multiple sources such as Census statistics from the Hong Kong government, market-rate housing transaction records, and private housing transactions from the property agents’ website, we found that new town development mitigates the problems of housing affordability in Hong Kong in general but not for low-income tenants in particular. The low-income people in new towns pay more for living in unsubsidized affordable housing/subdivided units as their last shelters. As more new towns will be developed in the upcoming years, the results also found that the announcement of new development areas increases the housing rent rate by 9.4% in the new development areas. We suggest that the priority of the newly built subsidized housing in the new development areas should be allocated to the local/indigenous low-income people; otherwise, the housing affordability of low-income people may repeat the same pattern associated with the past new towns’ development.

This study examines the impact of anti-social behaviour (ASB) on property prices. By analysing over 14,500 market transactions in Northern Ireland, we find that the prevalence of ASB within a neighbourhood exerts a direct and negative influence on house prices, albeit with diminishing effect at the margin. Furthermore, the dampening effects of ASB are more pronounced in districts characterised by higher population density, proximity to the capital city (Belfast), and lower property values. A thorough analysis of district-level data across a wide range of statistical indicators further indicates that the adverse impact of ASB on property prices is most acute in areas marked by social and economic deprivation, including factors such as income, employment, education, and access to services. Lastly, our submarket analysis suggests that the apartment sector and public housing are disproportionately affected by ASB in terms of price depreciation compared to other property types.