Benchmarking performance of multi-owned housing management in Hong Kong: A DEA approach

Management of multi-owned housing (MOH) is often complicated for various reasons so it is very common that third-party property management agents (PMAs) are engaged in the management process. However, not all the PMAs perform well. This article aims to develop a protocol for evaluating and comparing the performance of PMAs in managing MOH developments in Hong Kong. Based on the literature reviewed, a two-stage data envelopment analysis (DEA) model was developed for the evaluation of PMA performance. Unlike previous studies which employed input-based or output-based indicators only, the model used a number of input and output items to generate the performance indices for different PMAs. Data were collected through building assessment and structured questionnaire surveys in 37 MOH developments in Hong Kong. All 37 PMAs under investigation had relatively high performance indices in Stage One, indicating that PMAs were skilled in utilizing various resources to prepare their management capacity. Two PMAs had relatively low performance indices in Stage Two. Yet, only eight PMAs were overall efficient. The research findings imply that staff training or development played an important role in determining the performance of PMA. Even when a PMA was good at building capacity for property management, its service delivery might be not satisfactory if its staff were not well-trained.