Determinants of operational and maintenance costs of condominiums

It is important to determine the factors which affect the operational and maintenance costs of condominiums in order to minimize them. Furthermore this would assist the building managers in preparing realistic maintenance budgets in respect of each operational and maintenance activities in the appropriate time. Therefore, this study proposes a framework to control the operational and maintenance costs of condominiums built in Sri Lanka by identifying their determinants.A preliminary survey was initially carried out among six experienced professionals from the industry and it was followed by distributing 35 questionnaires also among professionals from the industry. The Analytical Hierarchical Process and the Relative Importance Index were used to analyze the data gathered.The findings of the study show that the dominant factors which affect the operational and maintenance costs of condominiums were ‘Expectations of Tenants’, ‘Building Services’ and ‘Building Finishes’. It was found that ‘Including maintenance standards in the Tenancy Agreement’ and ‘Finding means of increasing service efficiency’ are the main important actions that control the seven determinants that have been identified as the most important.The framework developed through this research enables the identification of the determinants which govern the maintenance and operational costs of condominiums and the actions that control them.