Strategically Measuring Quality of Existing Building Stock

Dutch housing corporations generally have two methods of assessing the strategic value of existing housing stock. The first is by calculating the financial return on investments with a life expectancy of fifty to sixty years. The second method is to balance the technical quality against maintenance and renovation planning. A Dutch housing corporation needed a integrated method, so in a single case study, a new method was developed based on research on how to monitor the technical and financial assets better. Four problems were detected- (1) the existing strategy did not seem to be resilient to future changes, (2) there was no instrument for measuring progress, (3) there was no way to translate strategic data to individual estates and (4) there was no instrument for monitoring the results of improvements set off against the strategic goals. With one integrated tool to fix these four problems, an integrated approach to a closed asset management strategy and policy would be available. Such a tool would make it possible to make adjustments to the strategy based on facts gained by measuring the results of former adjustments to the strategy. The goal of this paper is to present the research supporting the design of a new model. The result, the so called Return Matrix, is a fully elaborated model. It supports the management team in decision making about strategy (five years) and vision (twenty years) development. It creates insight into and support for the outcome of the strategy among policy professionals, staff and colleagues. And finally, it creates understanding among the tenants, it s understood and supported by the civil servants and gets approval and agreement of cooperation from the municipal executives. With the knowledge gained by this study, it will not be difficult to compose the instrument for other cases too.