Abstract:
The government of Lesotho is experiencing a rapid rate of dilapidation of its dwelling
houses, and if this goes unabated, the government will lose even more in terms of the
expenditure on maintenance and repair, and eventually the houses themselves, thereby
losing a good asset base. The research considers the possible causes of the rapid rate of
dilapidation of the Lesotho government dwelling houses. It draws attention to the level of
effectiveness of the property management structure and or framework of the Lesotho
government.
Further it considers the possible overall effects of the current continued dilapidation on
the management of the property assets by the Lesotho government. The research draws
attention to the present system of property management practiced by the government, and
compares it with that of the private sector, considers the ways in which the government
may have to adapt, and suggests that while the government dwelling houses are neglected
in terms of maintenance, there will be some countervailing opportunities for a more
effective strategic use of the property asset.
A number of respondents drawn from the private sector, two government departments,
and the housing occupants, were interviewed using administered and self-administered
questionnaires for this research.
The hypotheses ‘that efficient property asset management is significantly dependent on a
good property management framework/structure’ and ‘that there is a correlation between
the declining property values and the level of rentals payable to the Lesotho government’
were confirmed. This is seen in the fact that the Lesotho property management structure
lacks the capacity to manage their pool of available housing structure. Moreover, that the
kind of expertise available is not fitting to be able to manage the government houses. The
Lesotho government lacks the required expertise for the management of its housing
assets, and this has led to a rapid dilapidation of the housing stock for the inadequacy in management resulted in poor maintenance of the housing stock, as the management failed
to identify key issues in property management.
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Keywords: Property Dilapidation, Maintenance, Dwelling houses, Government Property
Management.
