Exit, voice, loyalty and neglect : Private housing residents’ responses to poor housing management in Hong Kong

Owing to various reasons, the private housing market in Hong Kong has been predominated by high-rise multi-owned housing (MOH). Management of the MOH in high-rise cities is often complicated for highly fragmented ownership rights, so it is very common that homeowners form their homeowner associations and third-party property management agents (PMAs) are engaged in the management process. Although homeowner associations and PMAs may ease residents’ burden in housing management, not all these agents perform well in reality. Residents’ responses to poor housing management have not been examined in the literature. The current study applied the “exit, voice, loyalty and neglect” (EVLN) framework to investigate how the perceived impact of poor housing management, self-efficacy belief and sense of community influence residents’ responses to poor housing management. A structured questionnaire survey was conducted on private housing residents in Hong Kong, with 647 complete questionnaires returned. The findings show that how the residents perceived the impact of poor housing management on property prices and life quality would affect their likelihood to take the options of voice and exit. Besides, if the residents thought that they could not make a change in housing management performance, they would opt for loyalty/neglect. The research findings have significant practical implications for MOH management.