Adoption of technology for efficient property management in Kampala

Abstract

This research aimed at assessing the adoption of technology for efficient property management in Kampala. The research gave an analysis of different property management technological tools and applications which included digital technologies like social media and websites, software like MDA property management systems, Turbo-tenant, Let-Hub among others. The study included assessing the rates at which the technologies had been adopted i.e., budgeting and forecasting software were adopted by 18.5% of property managers, lease tracking software by 25.9%, tenant portals by 33.3%, mobile applications by 25.9%, social media by 70.4% and websites by 74.1%. The rate of adoption of technology by property managers during and after the COVID-19 pandemic period was also assessed which revealed that 44.4% of respondents reported some improvement in technology adoption. Questionnaires and reviews of different literature were used to collect information pertaining the technologies and their levels of adoption by different property managers. The study considered 45 property managers as participants which in turn gave 27 responses making a 60% response rate. Quantitative and qualitative research approaches were used since the findings required both numerical and theoretical data. The descriptive approach was used to interpret the findings. Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) was employed to assess efficiency in technology-enabled property management in cases where similar technologies were employed by different property managers basing on the most efficient property manager in the group. The study revealed that adoption of technology improves efficiency in property management. 46.2% of the respondents believed that if more technology is employed, there is a likelihood to have a competitive advantage over their counterparts with less technology adoption in performance of property management tasks. It was recommended that adopting more sophisticated technologies like Building Information Modelling (BIM) and Virtual Reality (VR) should be taken into consideration. Practical training in the technologies preferably at graduate school level was another recommendation. Further research in property management technology and property technology in general was also recommended.