The effects of building management practices on residential property prices in Hong Kong

Abstract

Building management and maintenance has gained its importance after a series of disastrous building-related incidents in Hong Kong. To facilitate the management of an apartment building, homeowners usually form an owners ' association among themselves and / or appoint an external property management agent (PMA) to manage the building on their behalf. Empirical studies found that the involvement of these bodies was conducive to a better-performing built environment, and that premium was added to betterperforming properties. Yet, these studies often took the formation of owners ' association and engagement of external PMA in a building as dichotomous variables in exploratory models, and thus ignored the variations in the adopted building management practices in different buildings even with the same building management setting. Making use of the data collected from two previous research projects, a hedonic price analysis was carried out to study whether specifi c building management practices added value to the properties concerned. The analysis results indicated that properties in buildings with good documentations (eg keeping of as-built architectural drawings and incident records), thoughtful emergency planning (eg presence of emergency plan and regular fi re drills) and property-all-risk insurance coverage were sold at a premium, ceteris paribus . Policy and practical implications then follow.

Willingness to Participate in Collective Action: The Case of Multiowned Housing Management

“…Proper upkeep of housing is conducive to the safeguard of occupants’ health and safety, and the preservation of asset value for owners (Yau & Ho, 2009). As evidenced by Wilhelmsson (2008), the price difference between a well‐maintained 40‐year‐old property and an unmaintained property of the same age amounted to 13%.…”

Evaluation of Property Management Agent Performance: A Novel Empirical Model

“…In addition, whether specific practices (e.g. documentations and thoughtful emergency planning) are taken when managing a property can indicate PMA's performance [43].…”

How Does Communication Influence the Perceived Performance of Maintenance Services in Multi-Storey Public Housing?

“…Recently, building owners and residents are increasingly aware of sustainable living environments, and one of the key aspects that enables them to achieve sustainability is having a proper maintenance system so that the building they reside is in good condition (Yau, Ho 2009;Yau 2010). Building maintenance is systematic: supervised actions in the repair activity attempt to maintain or restore the building elements and facilities to an acceptable standard of building performance (Chew et al 2004;Kangwa, Olubodun 2006) and appropriate use (El-Haram, Horner 2002).…”

“…In most cases, building maintenance is performed after the defects have occurred, particularly when the residents could no longer bear the problem (Yau 2010). This form of maintenance, which is reactive in nature, has been the practice in many countries despite the fact that studies have proven that investing in a proper or systematic maintenance system results in benefits to building owners and residents (Siegert 2004;Yau, Ho 2009). According to Brackertz and Kenley (2002), Brackertz (2006), and Batagan and Pocovnicu (2011), when managing public prop-erties, high quality maintenance service will result in better physical performance of public facilities, which subsequently will produce better service outcomes.…”

“…In addition, the role of residents is equally important. Although maintenance management staffs must regularly inspect the house and regularly interview the residents about their current house condition (Chew et al 2004;Hills, Worthing 2006), to continuously keep the house in good condition and lengthen the building, residents are also expected to actively participate in the housing management, such as reporting the defect, attending meetings and participating in some maintenance activities (Hui 2005;Yau, Ho 2009;Yau 2011a). A study by Ho et al (2006) found that a committed residents' association will lead to better building conditions.…”