“…First, decentralisation by central governments transforms local government to become a large property holder almost overnight (Hentschel and Kaganova, 2007). Second, this transformation is not often followed by an income adjustment to support local government's ownership of the assets (Banner and Gagne, 1995; Berry‐Stolzle, 2008; Bloomberg, 2007; Bovaird and Loffler, 2008a; Buchanan and Musgrave, 1999; Too, 2007). Third, there is a wide gap between demand for public services and availability of assets as supporting tools to successfully deliver these services (Ayuningtiyas, 2008; Bovaird and Loffler, 2008b; Brown and Potoski, 2004; Jolicoeur and Barrett, 2004).…”