A study on examining homeowners’ willingness for self-management in Housing Authority-managed home ownership scheme courts

Abstract

Homeownership is always a top target for Hong Kong people but most of the owners paid little attention and effort on the management and maintenance of the common areas and facilities after their purchase. This situation does not only exist in aged buildings but also the newly built Home Ownership Scheme (HOS) Court, a typical subsidized sales flat provided by Housing Authority, with homeowners not taking up the housing management responsibility from the developers. There are many studies focusing on the importance of housing management and factors affecting owners’ participation, but few discuss the factors affecting their willingness to achieve self-management. This study aims to explore the determinants in affecting homeowners’ willingness for self-management and participation in relevant activities. It begins with the literature review on the importance of housing management and relative issues, followed by a conceptual framework and methodology to construct a questionnaire for collecting information from the HA-managed HOS Court owners. Through the aid of the statistical tool, correlation among different determinants and willingness for self-management and relevant participation were analyzed. It is found that their willingness for self-management is positively affected by the selective benefit and group-efficacy, but negatively correlated to proxy efficacies of HA and property management companies. The participation of owners in the issues pursuing self-management is shown to be positively linked to homeowners’ self-efficacy, group-efficacy and selective benefit for the action but will be adversely affected with the increase in personal income. Based on the result, suggestions and recommendations were made in order to assist the promotion of homeowners’ participation in housing management of HA-managed HOS Court.