1,720,959 research outputs found
Demographic Shift and Housing Market: Evidence from Italian Metropolitan Cities
No full textDemographic trends have a profound impact on various aspects of society, with significant implications for the property market. This paper explores the relationship between demographic shifts and the real estate market. A comprehensive literature review underlines the global significance of demographic change and highlights its impact on housing demand and prices. The research seeks to identify the impact of demographics on the Italian property market and to establish a quantifiable relationship between the two variables. The study covers three timespans (2018-23, 2012-23, and 2004-23) and focuses on fourteen Italian metropolitan cities. The models identify the quantitative relationships between the rise and the decline of population and housing values. The results show a relationship between population dynamics and housing market values. The hypothesis of a positive relationship between population growth and house price increases is confirmed with an impact that is consistent with other major international research. Given these findings and the ongoing demographic trends, the paper highlights the need to consider the impact of demographic change on an asset class that is essential to the wealth of Italians and other Europeans
Assessing Quality of Life and Walkability for Urban Regeneration: The Piave Neighbourhood in Mestre-Venice
Get PDFUrban regeneration works on the tangible and intangible assets of a city or part of a city. The research aimed at formulating an assessment methodology that allows for the simultaneous consideration of the tangible and intangible aspects that constitute the qualities of a part of a city. The theoretical frame of reference identifies conceptual frameworks to guide the assessment. Quality of life (QOL) and walkability (W) are chosen as the intangible and tangible dimensions, respectively. The methodology designed had to take summary variables into account for tangible elements. Similarly, walkability was summarised in complex variables carried over to observable and measurable variables. Finally, the QOL and W variables are considered in their dialectical and dynamic relationship. The statistical tools used to assess quality of life and walkability were different. The assessment of QOL and walkability was carried out using the tool of confirmatory factor analysis (CFA), which can estimate latent variables from observed variables. The interaction between the variables was investigated using structural equation modelling (SEM). The sample surveyed to investigate the quality of the Piave neighbourhood, in the mainland part of the city of Venice, consists of 169 people. The results of the models highlight the relevance of the method used, given the satisfactory statistical indexes obtained. The results are also relevant from an empirical point of view. The study highlights the fact that the significant quality of the space that ensures high levels of accessibility is far from being matched by the quality of social relations, deemed problematic by the majority of those interviewed
Classifying Human Activities in Urban Spaces with a Multimodal AI: Towards a Massive Assessment of Urban Affordances
No full textWe present a tool that leverages a Multimodal Large Language Model (MLLM) for the automatic classification of human activities from images of urban scenes. Starting from an image of spaces populated with people, the tool is capable to classify them according to five features: age group, sex, bodily posture, activity level and social configuration. The tool implements a sequential pipeline consisting of Faster R-CNN for person detection, followed by postprocessing and two consecutive applications of GPT-4o models for refined image description and information extraction. In the paper we also present an experimental test used to preliminary validation of the tool, comparing the ground truth on 24 images of urban scenes with the estimates provided by the tool, yielding a good degree of alignment. The tool is part of the wider research programme of massive assessment of urban affordances, within the framework of the capability approach
Is the Energy Transition of Housing Financially Viable? Unlocking the Potential of Deep Retrofits with New Business Models
Get PDFThe transition to energy-efficient buildings is a priority of the European EPBD (Energy Performance Building Directive) and requires deep retrofits to reduce consumption and emissions. However, their financial viability remains underexplored. This research assesses the financial feasibility of deep retrofit interventions through innovative business models, focusing on the Managed Energy Services Agreement (MESA), which is considered the most effective for residential buildings. Additionally, we integrate off-site production from the Energiesprong model, which optimizes costs and time through long-term contracts and industrialized retrofit technologies. The analysis targets two investment profiles—owner/tenant and developer/entrepreneur—in Italian urban contexts with different market dynamics. A static analysis evaluates retrofits based on existing costs and technologies, while a dynamic analysis considers future profitability improvements because of cost reductions enabled by off-site production. The results indicate that, under current conditions, residential retrofitting is not financially sustainable without public subsidies. However, cost reductions driven by off-site technologies improve profitability, making large-scale retrofits feasible. Moreover, real estate market characteristics affect financial sustainability: in smaller cities, deeper cost reductions are necessary for retrofit interventions to become viable
Urban Disparities in Energy Performance Premium Prices: Towards an Unjust Transition?
Get PDFIn recent years, numerous studies have explored how energy and environmental performance impact property values. Superior energy efficiency is the basis for value disparities in real estate markets. However, measurements of these variations vary significantly. This research aims to investigate the relationship between market size and vitality and market value differences. This has significant implications for the nature of the energy transition, potentially determining fairness or inequality. The study considers the real estate market in six Italian cities: three metropolitan (Milan, Turin, and Florence) and three medium-sized cities (Padua, Mestre, and Bergamo). The sample includes 2935 properties. In metropolitan cities, hedonic pricing models confirm the relevance of energy performance in market value formation, highlighting a potential depreciation in property values by up to 30% between properties belonging to the highest energy class (A) compared to the lowest (G), and 14% between class D and G. Such premium gaps are halved in medium-sized cities. Conclusions foresee a scenario of socially and economically unjust transition that must be considered in policies aimed at improving the energy efficiency of existing buildings, with a specific concern for the nature and characteristics of the real estate markets involved
The economic value of sustainability. Real estate market and energy performance of homes
Get PDFThe energy transition and decarbonisation require a
major transformation of the housing stock. Responsible
for around 40% of fossil fuel consumption and 30% of
CO2 emissions, the built heritage must be upgraded in
terms of energy performance. The issue is particularly
sensitive for Italy, where seven out of ten homes are in
the worst energy classes according to the classification
introduced by the EU.
The research aimed at investigating whether, and to
what extent, energy-efficient homes command a
premium price on the market compared to less efficient
homes. The study focused on three medium-sized cities
in northern Italy and developed three hedonic models
based on more than 900 ask prices.
The results confirm the stratification of the market in
terms of energy efficiency levels. Estimates converge in
absolute and relative terms between different cities.
Particularly significant is the average gap found between
properties in the highest efficiency class (Class A) and
those in the lowest efficiency class (Class G), with
values of around thirty percentage points, while the gap
is around fourteen percentage points if we consider
properties in Class D compared to Class G.
The conclusions are in line with European studies on
the subject, but show a trend towards an increasing gap
between the market values of properties with different
energy performance classe
Going Beyond Counting First Authors in Author Co-citation Analysis
Get PDFThe present study examines one of the fundamental aspects of author co-citation analysis (ACA) - the way co-citation
counts are defined. Co-citation counting provides the data on which all subsequent statistical analyses and mappings
are based, and we compare ACA results based on two different types of co-citation counting - the traditional type that
only counts the first one among a cited work's authors on the one hand and a non-traditional type that takes into
account the first 5 authors of a cited work on the other hand. Results indicate that the picture produced through this non-traditional author co-citation counting contains more coherent author groups and is therefore considerably clearer. However, this picture represents fewer specialties in the research field being studied than that produced through the traditional first-author co-citation counting when the same number of top-ranked authors is selected and analyzed. Reasons for these effects are discussed
Variations on the Author
Get PDF“Variations on the Author” discusses two of Eduardo Coutinho’s recent films (Um Dia na Vida, from 2010, and Últimas Conversas, posthumously released in 2015) and their contribution to the general question of documentary authorship. The director’s filmography is characterized by a consistent yet self-effacing form of authorial self-inscription: Coutinho often features as an interviewer that rather than express opinions propels discourses; an interviewer that is good at listening. This mode of self-inscription characterizes him as an author who is not expressive but who is nonetheless markedly present on the screen. In Um Dia na Vida, however, Coutinho is completely absent form the image, while Últimas Conversas, on the contrary, includes a confessional prologue that moves the director from the margins to the center of his films. This article examines the ways in which these works stand out in the filmography of a director who offers new insights into the notion of cinematic authorship
Appropriate Similarity Measures for Author Cocitation Analysis
Get PDFWe provide a number of new insights into the methodological discussion about author cocitation analysis. We first argue that the use of the Pearson correlation for measuring the similarity between authors’ cocitation profiles is not very satisfactory. We then discuss what kind of similarity measures may be used as an alternative to the Pearson correlation. We consider three similarity measures in particular. One is the well-known cosine. The other two similarity measures have not been used before in the bibliometric literature. Finally, we show by means of an example that our findings have a high practical relevance.information science;Pearson correlation;cosine;similarity measure;author cocitation analysis
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