Periods and demand for private sector housing refurbishment

Aikivuori, A (1996) Periods and demand for private sector housing refurbishment. Construction Management and Economics, 14(1), pp. 3-12. ISSN 01446193

Abstract

This study is written to illuminate the role of durability failures as primary reasons for the decisions to carry out refurbishment projects. The refurbishment project is seen as a commodity that can be obtained from the market at a certain price and accordingly the reasons for the decision to initiate a refurbishment project are seen as a basis of the demand. The phenomena causing refurbishment are classified into five categories as follows: failure in the building due to deterioration; change in use; optimization of economic factors; subjective features of the decision maker; and change of circumstances. The significance of each category as a primary source of demand for refurbishment projects is quantified by the use of empirical data. In the empirical findings, only 17% of the refurbishment was initiated primarily on the grounds of deterioration. Obsolescence was found to be an overwhelmingly more important basis for refurbishment than deterioration. The pleasure seeking aspirations of the decision maker are an especially important source of the demand for refurbishment projects. According to the empirical findings, obsolescence based refurbishment clearly occurs earlier (on average after 20.6 years of use) then deterioration based refurbishment (which occurs on average after 28.7 years of use).

Item Type: Article
Uncontrolled Keywords: durability; performance; refurbishment; requirements; service life
Index terms: housing refurbishment, deterioration, economic factor, refurbishment project, obsolescence, durability, private sector, service life
Subjects: economic concepts, infrastructure engineering, renovation and retrofit, industry analysis, asset management, material degradation and durability
Topics: Design Practice, Business Strategy, Research Practice, Engineering Principles, Construction Materials
Descriptive scope: 2 PC

N.B. Descriptive scope is a count of how many of the five facets of empirical research are indicated by the words used in title, abstract and keywords. It is not intended as a judgement on the research; merely a count of the kind of word we would expect to indicate Phenomenon, Concepts, Theoretical framing, Empirical techniques, Analytical techniques. If all five are present, then a code of “5 PCTEA” will indicate this. If you feel the coding for this record is questionable, we welcome discussion around the terms we matched or the way we categorized them. The facet you would expect may not be coded, or a facet may be coded inappropriately. This can also bear on a larger question, of which facets should be treated as defining in construction management research. Please get in touch, and we will look at it. More details here