MAINTENANCE EFFICIENCY : PUBLIC VERSUS PRIVATE - A MAINTENANCE COST COMPARISON OF PUBLIC AND PRIVATE RESIDENTIAL BUILDINGS

Abstract

This dissertation serves to fill in the research gap with regard to the maintenance of housing estates in Singapore, making a comparison of public and private housing estates with focus to the maintenance costs as an indicator of the maintenance efficiencies of these estates.

The research methodology to achieve the objectives as stated above is that of secondary research literature review, followed by the confirmation of information gathered in the literature review by that of interviews to relate the information to the public and private housing estates in Singapore.

The organizational and social factors contributing to maintenance costs policies of the estate maintenance management were identified and brought into the context of Singapore through information gathered from the interviews conducted with the Town Council of the HDB housing estate and Managing Agent of the private estate.

It has been found that the maintenance costs of the public estate is lower and possibly due to the extensive economies of scale enjoyed by the HDB estates due to the scale of contracts awarded despite other organizational and social factors to be considered.

The results of this dissertation are limited by the availability of information during the process of information gathering and the sample size of estates studied due to time constraints. However, it provides an insight into a missing field of research into the public and private housing estates of Singapore.