The impact of homeownership on building maintenance in Hong Kong

Abstract

Traditional wisdom says that homeowners will take good care of their buildings simply because homeownership has good effect on building maintenance. Homeowners see their house as important assets and a well-maintained housing units and common parts of the building is definitely an improvement and upkeep of livability. This notion may easily be admitted in Hong Kong as the home prices here are always leading.

However, previous researches to study the relationship between homeownership and building maintenance for the common areas of buildings were less than other factors such as financial assistance, technical knowledge, etc. This research attempted to examine the impact of homeownership and maintenance of multi-storey buildings in Hong Kong through questionnaire survey and face-to-face interview. The research findings showed that homeownership has no impact on building maintenance among homeowners in Hong Kong. It is otherwise found that financial subsidy and concern of legal liability are more important factors driving owners to engage in building maintenance works for their buildings. Hong Kong homeowners are more concerned with the economic sides of owners’ rights and responsibilities than compliance nature of owners’ rights and responsibilities that the government always emphasized. This research is likely to serve as a catalyst for how to refine and review the existing incentive policy, with a view to further raising the attitudes and awareness for maintenance of common area of multi-storey buildings in Hong Kong in the future.