Identifying the critical factors affecting schedule performance of public housing projects

With the increasing demand for public housing, the Singapore government decided to reduce the waiting time of future public housing owners, which requires these projects to be completed on time. As a result, this study aims to identify the critical factors affecting schedule performance of public housing projects in Singapore, compare the factors affecting schedule performance of public housing projects and other building projects in Singapore, and provide recommendations to respond to these factors. The survey conducted with 36 industry experts revealed that "site management", "coordination among various parties", and "availability of laborers on site" were the top three factors affecting schedule performance of public housing projects performed in Singapore. In addition, the results of the Spearman rank correlation coefficient implied that there was statistically significant agreement on the ranks of the player-related factors between HDB and other building projects. Furthermore, based on the interviews conducted with experienced practitioners, recommendations to deal with these factors are proposed. The findings from this study will help practitioners involving public housing projects to take measures to assure the achievement of project schedule objectives. (C) 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.