The study of perception of the practitioners of housing management on the licensing of housing management sector in Hong Kong

Abstract

A licensing regime is introduced to the housing management industry of Hong Kong since the Legislative Council passed the ‘Property Management Services Bill’ since May 2016. According to this regulation, a new statutory body, namely the ‘Property Management Services Authority’ (PMSA), will be established for the promotion and issuance of license of the housing management company and its practitioners. In particularly, a two-tier system of licensing regime is introduced under this legislation. The practitioners worked at the managerial and/ or supervisory level in relation to housing management must obtain license onwards. Under the regulation, the practitioners should meet several requirements in various aspect, including academic, working experience and qualification of professional membership. In this connection, it has created hot debate in the industry as numbers of practitioners are afraid of not eligible to the licensing regime and may be eliminated in the industry. The purpose of this research study is understanding the perception and response of the practitioners among the introduction of licensing system, finding out the factors affecting their concerns, and seeking suggestion of the improvement of licensing system to the government. Questionnaire research and interviews are conducted in this study. The findings indicate the anxiety of practitioners to this system. They are worried that the uncertainty of licensing may lead to a high resign rate of the experienced practitioners who do not have academic qualification, and thus would affect the stability of the whole industry. This study has recommended the government to: 1) provide consultant services for the practitioners to make an own life-long learning plan; 2) introduce a third-tier of license which has terms and conditions for the exception of academic requirement, for senior and experienced practitioners only; 3) enhance the transparency of PMSA; and 4) to promote the regime via social media.