Abstract:
Despite efforts to raise the performance of public buildings, little emphasis is placed on
maintenance works and related factors affecting maintenance costs of public buildings, which
are often high. This study seeks to examine factors and areas affecting maintenance costs of
public buildings in Tanzania. This was a cross-sectional study involving a total of 387 tenants
and 29 employees (experts) from public buildings agencies. Data were collected using
questionnaires and analyzed using Stata version 16 – descriptive statistics feature reporting
absolute numbers and frequencies. Findings: Findings from tenants and experts, the
identification and ranking of factors affecting maintenance costs were similar whereby four
out of the six most dominant factors were the same and these were; building age, poor quality
control, building material used, and inadequate financial resources. However, findings from
areas contributing to high maintenance cost showed wide variation between tenants and
experts with only plumbing and engineering installation which was common: Findings of this
study provide an insight on identification and ranking of factors affecting maintenance cost
and providing a framework which will inform stakeholders on minimizing maintenance cost.
Further research is needed to assess actual costs of various maintenance works conducted in
public buildings including analysis of timeliness and completeness of maintenance works.
