MANAGEMENT OF HIGHRISE PRIVATE APARTMENTS - WITH SPECIAL REFERENCE TO HIGHPOINT

Abstract

Private interest in the building of houses, the number and kind to be built, and the ways in which their building should be financed, may be said never to flag. The management of housing has attracted less widespread and less continuous attention. Yet it is the good or bad management of housing through the many decades of their occupation which will go far to determine their value to the owners. Housing management being part of the wider concept of estate management must necessarily involve "the direction and super¬ vision of an interest in landed property with the aim of securing the optimum return; this return need not always be financial, but may be in terms of social benefit, status, prestige, ..... or some other goal or group of goals. In this definition, "management" embraces both "direction" or the overall control of policy, and "supervision" which entails its implementation." Its success is measured, not only by the extent to which it achieves its aims, but also by the economy of effort, money and material with which these aims are secured. / While an inquiry has been made into the management of public housing in Fingapore in the past, there was no inquiry carried out to look into the management practices of private hous¬ ing, especially those of highrlse developments. This dissertation thus sets out to examine the principles of management of highrlse private apartments and at the same time illustrates their application in one of the more recent developments in Singapore — HIGHPOINT, a twenty-two storey luxurious apartment building, situated in a high class residential district of the city. As the scope of housing management is very wide, the writer will delwe only into the more general aspects of the pri¬ nciples and practices, covering such areas as layout and design assistance, selection of tenants, tenancy supervision, office administration, maintenance and repairs, and other management matters. In order that the reader may appreciate more fully the present management practice in Highpoint and the problems faced, a brief chapter on the development, its occupants and the current management set-up is included. The role of management has been divided into two parts, viz. before and after occupation of the flats. The problems arising under each aspect of management will be discussed in the light of good housing management principles. Recommendations will be made wherever appropriate.