International Journal of Real Estate Studies, Volume 11 Number 2 2017 IMPORTANCE OF RESIDENTS’ ASSOCIATIONS IN GUARDED NEIGHBOURHOODS: A REVIEW Nurulliza Salleh 1 , Ainur Zaireen Zainudin 2 and Norhidayah Md. Yunus 3 1,2,3 Department of Real Estate, Faculty of Geoinformation and Real Estate Universiti Teknologi Malaysia 81310 UTM Skudai Johor, Malalysia Email:nurul0505@yahoo.com.my Abstract This review paper covers the important role of a residents’ association in governing a guarded neighbourhood. Nowadays, offering a guarded neighbourhood scheme has become a trend in the housing industry. There are two ways in establishing a guarded neighbourhood; that is through the developer or the residents. The developers attract the buyers by providing the elements of safety and security, while the residents in a housing area choose to secure their neighbourhood to prevent crimes. Problems arise in the establishment of a residents’ association due to the absence of legal provision that focuses on guarded neighbourhood management until it invites problems for the residents’ association to govern their neighbourhood. This aim of this paper is to determine whether there is a need for the residents’ association to govern their guarded neighbourhoods. Accordingly, using the residents’ association as a platform, this study will review some research conducted by other researchers regarding this issue. Thus, the findings show that the roles of the association are focused on managing safety, maintenance and care of common interest in the neighbourhood guarded. Therefore, in order to strengthen the role of community associations, there is a need for better cooperation and communication between the residents’ association with stakeholders such as residents and local authorities. It was found that the roles of residents' associations should be given more focus with more clarity. Keywords: Residents’ associations, Guarded neighbourhood, Residents 1.0 INTRODUCTION The demand for safety and security is trending in the housing industry. Having a house is a key necessity in life. The increase in the number of houses in Malaysia shows that there is a demand from the society regardless the income level. Now, most buyers are more sensitive in choosing housing environment that has security elements such as gated community or guarded neighbourhood. In fact, when deciding the location for their property, home buyers do not only prioritize on safety. But they also prioritize on freedom zone, where residents are free to use the facilities provided in the neighbourhood (Barton and Silverman, 1989). Moreover, for the future, concept of guarded neighbourhood is able to add value to the neighbourhood because of the element of sustainability (Tan, 2011). Ying and Shamsudin (2016) describe that as for the existing neighbourhood, the safety element is much needed to reduce fear among the residents and they regard safety as a form of exclusivity as compared security, which is usually offered by the government for its people (Gruszczak, 2010). Normally, the form of security offered is in a form of defensible space, which is the entrance control as an active access control (Berkoz, 2009) in a neighbourhood. Indirectly, the family, the property and the neighbourhood can be protected from unwelcomed intrusion that cause disruption to the neighbourhood (Hadi et al., 2014). Good neighbourhood consists of good governance and governance must be viewed in the perspective of an organization or association (Gruszczak, 2010). At the same time, the residents' association will carry out their role in maintaining the existing