Comparative evaluation of facility management services for housing estates

Urbanised areas are increasingly developed with housing estates. Further to their design and construction, the services provided for managing the estates' facilities are crucial to the living quality of numerous habitants there. Holistic study findings on the importance, performance and cost-effectiveness of such facility management (FM) services, especially those between like estates, have yet to be seen. For bridging this knowledge gap, a study was conducted, under which the main aspects of the typical services namely security, cleaning, repair & maintenance, leisure & landscape, and general management were identified in the first stage. In the second stage, the costs of FM services in two comparable estates and the users' perceived importance and performance of the services were collected. The responses drawn from their consistent judgments, after processing by an analytical hierarchy process, were examined against a performance-importance evaluation matrix. Statistical tests were applied to identify the services with different qualities, and a set of weighted performance indicators was computed for representing the cost-effectiveness of the services. Comparisons made between these indicators informed which service or aspect was provided in a more, or less, cost-effective way. Wider adoption of this evaluation approach would facilitate performance benchmarking across estates, which is conducive to attaining quality and cost-effective services. (C) 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.