Yosuke Hirayama is Professor of Housing and Urban Studies at Kobe University, Japan. He is engaged in a wide range of research and has published widely, with particular interests in the housing system, urban restructuring and neighborhood development. His current projects include researches on housing experiences in post-war Japan, on housing and insecurity in urban Japan, and on cross-national comparison of housing systems in the globalizing world. As for book publications in English, he contributed to Housing and Family Wealth: Comparative International perspectives (edited by R. Forrest and A. Murie, Routledge), Comparing Social Policies: Exploring New Perspectives in Britain and Japan (edited by M. Izuhara, Policy Press), and Housing and Social Change: East-West Perspectives (edited by R. Forrest and J. Lee, Routledge). He is a member of Housing Committee of the City of Kobe, a director of Japan Housing Council and a member of the Steering Committee of Asia-Pacific Network of Housing Research. He was awarded academic prizes from City Planning Institute of Japan, Architectural Institute of Japan, Tokyo Institute of Municipal Research and others.

Dr Marja Hoek-Smit is the Director of the International Housing Finance Program, of the Wharton School Zell / Lurie Real Estate Center, and an Adjunct Professor in the Wharton Real Estate Department and the Department of City and Regional Planning of the University of Pennsylvania. She has worked closely on the development and teaching of courses for officials from Indian, Indonesian, Thai, South African, Brazilian, Caribbean and Russian housing finance institutions.

Dr Hoek-Smit's research interests include housing market analysis, housing, land, urban development and housing finance policy and subsidy reforms, reforms of housing finance institutions and instruments, and the development of monitoring and evaluation systems for urban housing programs. Her consulting activities complement her research interest. She has consulted with clients including the World Bank, USAID and the UN Center for Human Settlement, the Inter-American Development Bank and directly for several governments and private financial institutions. Recent consulting activities include the development of a comprehensive housing strategy and / or subsidy systems for the Governments of Indonesia, Brazil, Mexico, Barbados, Trinidad & Tobago and Suriname, urban housing market studies in Thailand, South Africa, Botswana and Tanzania, and the development of participatory approaches for urban and housing development for the Governments of South Africa, Sri Lanka and Indonesia. She also prepared national strategies for housing finance training for the Governments of Pakistan and India.

Dr Hoek-Smit's is on the editorial board of Housing Finance International, and a member of the Working Group on Urban and Housing Research of the World Bank. She is on the Board of OMG Center and Catalytic Communities, two non-profit organizations involved in community development activities. Dr Hoek-Smit completed her doctoral degree at the University of Amsterdam in 1971. Prior to teaching at the University of Pennsylvania, she taught at the University of Nairobi, Kenya. She has numerous scholarly publications to her credit.

Dr. Hui is an all-round professional---Chartered Surveyor and Chartered Builder---with diverse experience in research and consultancy projects. At Hong Kong University, Dr. Hui obtained his BSc (first class honours) with "Chan Kai Ming Prize" and "Building Management Prize. At the University of Cambridge, UK, he finished his MPhil in Land Economy (first class) with a Commonwealth Scholarship. With another Commonwealth Scholarship, he completed his Ph.D. at the Department of Land Economy, University of Cambridge, UK, where he is a fellow of the Cambridge Commonwealth Trust.

His expertise and principal research interests include land economics and finance, urban and real estate economics. He is active in research and has more than 120 scholarly articles over the past few years. He currently teaches land and construction economics and housing. He is now a fellow (honorary) member of the HK Institute of Real Estate and honorary research fellow at HKU; & academic adviser and external examiner on various property courses in Hong Kong. He has been invited to deliver public talks and keynote speeches both locally and overseas. He was a visiting professor at International Center for Land Policy Studies and Training in Taiwan; visiting fellow at Lincoln Institute of Land Policy in Cambridge, Mass. USA; and visiting scholar at Department of Land Economy, University of Cambridge, UK; and visiting scholar at the Division of Urban Land Economics, Faculty of Commerce and Business, University of British Columbia, Canada.

Professor Francis Wong is currently an Associate Head of the Department of Building and Real Estate, and the Deputy Director of the Research Centre for Construction and Real Estate Economics, of the Hong Kong Polytechnic University. He obtained his BSc (Hons) in Building from the Brighton Polytechnic, MSc in Architecture from the London University, and the PhD from the South Bank University. He is a fellow of the Chartered Institute of Building, a fellow of the Hong Kong Institute of Construction Managers, and a fellow of the Hong Kong Institution of Engineers (HKIE). He was the Deputy Chairman of the HKIE Community Services Committee and the Past Chairman of the HKIE Safety Specialist Group. Professor Wong is currently the Deputy Chairman of the Construction Safety Sub-committee of the Occupational Safety and Health Council. His research interests include affordable housing development, construction safety management, and reduction of construction solid waste.

Steven Humphrey is a quantity surveyor by profession and has been working for Davis Langdon & Seah International for over 17 years around the world, including the UK, Middle East and most recently in Hong Kong. Steven heads the research and development department within DLS Management Ltd and focuses on research related to the construction industry and regional markets. In the last three years Steven has carried out a number of specific research studies and projects in the field of sustainability and in collaboration with the University of Hong Kong is involved in leading the development of quantified sustainability assessment tool for the Hong Kong construction market. Steven specialises in the economic impacts of sustainability in particular life cycle costing and he has also recently completed a study for the Environment, Transport and Works Bureau of the Hong Kong government on developing a policy for the wider adoption of life cycle costing practices and approaches.