Factors affecting housing maintenance management cost in Kakamega municipality, Kenya

Abstract

Maintenance costs cover the overall cost or budget, which is allocated to keep the building to its best performance, or to retain the building in good condition. It has been noted that the main objective of maintenance management organization is to ensure the required or acceptable standards and level of services provided in the building continuously at the minimum cost. This research sought to establish the factors affecting housing maintenance management cost in Kakamega Municipality, Kenya. The study objectives were to establish the effect of building characteristics on maintenance management costs in Kakamega Municipality; to establish the effect of tenant factors on maintenance management costs in Kakamega Municipality; to establish the overall effect of maintenance factors on maintenance management costs in Kakamega Municipality and to establish the effect of political factors on maintenance management costs in Kakamega Municipality. The study adopted a descriptive survey design. The target population consisted of 62 employees from Kakamega Municipality and 16 employees from the Ministry of Housing. A sample of 78 respondents were used. Stratified random sampling was used to categorize the Kakamega Municipality and Ministry of Housing while purposive random sampling was used to select the key informants. The tools used in data collection were the questionnaire and interview schedules. The collected data was analyzed using descriptive statistics and presented in form of means, standard deviation, frequency tables. The results will be useful to policy makers, researchers, practitioners, academicians, professionals in the County as well as stakeholders in the Ministry of Housing in Kenya.