ISO 9000 AND PROPERTY MANAGEMENT - BENEFITS AND DIFFICULTIES

Abstract

For the past five years, the ISO 9000 certification has been enjoying rising popularity in the local property management industry. The various factors contributing to this phenomenon are namely the local government's increasing emphasis on ISO accreditation, clients' growing emphasis on quality management and the steep competition among the local property management giants. There are currently eleven local firms which have received ISO 9000 certification for their property (or estate) management services. Eight of these certified property firms were selected and interviewed for the purpose of this dissertation The benefits and difficulties experienced in maintaining the ISO certification by these local firms were assessed. Upon application of a technique similar to that of Cost-Benefits Analysis, it was found that the benefits derived by six firms from their ISO certification have outweighed their difficulties in maintaining the certification. For the remaining two firms however, the difficulties they have encountered in maintaining the ISO certification have outweighed the benefits which they have derived from the certification. Last but not least, the various ways to minimise or to overcome the difficulties encountered by the eight firms in maintaining their ISO certification were assessed. Firms which have attained ISO certification have a good head start as they have in place a systematic way of managing customer-oriented and production-based processes. From there, they can be nurtured into firms with world class practices