The characteristics of refurbishment projects in Malaysia

PurposeThe main objectives of this paper are to identify general characteristics of refurbishment projects and problems arise in Malaysian context.Design/methodology/approachQuantitative and qualitative approaches using postal questionnaire survey and semi‐structured interviews were used in data collection. A total of 1,552 questionnaire sets sent to professional architects.FindingsThe results show that the majority of refurbishment projects in Malaysia involved residential and office types of building with contract value less than RM500,000.00 (USD 150,000.00). Some of major problem in refurbishment projects are inconsistence in client's needs, refurbishment projects exceed targeted costs and times.Research limitations/implicationsThe literature search and survey results showed that systematic studies into the refurbishment were relatively sparse. Therefore, more detail study gear towards refurbishment area is needed for Malaysian construction industry in the future. The findings provide general overview of refurbishment projects in Malaysia, which could help intrested researchers to have indications on the refurbishment activities.Originality/valueSurvey results provided important information about the general profiles of refurbishment projects in Malaysia. This will helps other researchers who are interested to identify focus area that needs further investigation in refurbishment works.