A research team comprising Professor K.W. Chau, Dr Daniel C W Ho and Dr Kelvin S K Wong developed a model of estimating the cost of basic building maintenance works1 for buildings older than 30 years. The model requires minimal information that can be easily supplied by lay users and is intended to give users a rough preliminary estimate of building maintenance cost before engaging a professional consultant. The model is one of the outcomes of a research commissioned by the Independent Commission Against Corruption (ICAC) of the HKSAR Government. The purpose of the research is to increase the transparency of price information and reduce transaction costs in the building maintenance market. The research is based on building maintenance cost data of 426 Operation Building Bright (OBB) projects that were managed by the Urban Renewal Authority (URA) and Hong Kong Housing Society (HKHS) between 2009 and 2013.
A dedicated website, which includes an interactive building maintenance cost estimator, has been launched to disseminate some of the findings of this research.