Wong Kit-loong, director of property management at the Hong Kong Housing Society, said cost and quality were the future key drivers for all service providers.

He said clients of property management companies were more critical of rental fees now than they were five or 10 years ago, when management fees represented only a small part of their salaries.

'When everybody is trying to reduce their costs, customers expect a higher-quality service. You have to provide better quality services, but you also have to make sure the cost is competitive enough among all the service providers.'

Two years ago, the housing society received ISO 9001 certification from the Hong Kong Quality Assurance Agency (HKQAA).

The society has a mixed portfolio of rented, subsidised and private housing comprising more than 56,000 units, accommodating families with middle to low incomes. Mr Wong said the system helped the organisation look at quality issues in a more structured manner and direct its focus on ways to continue to improve its services.

'Previously, we had business plans, some targets and our own objectives, but these were not so focused on quality,' he said.

One requirement set by the ISO 9001 certification was that a company must carry out a customer survey each year.

The society previously conducted infrequent and less systematic surveys.

Customers benefit from this new system and have assurance the organisation will work to improve its services.

'We understand customer expectations and we really build on that particular issue and obvious improvement is seen ... Only through this sort of system requiring us to have regular feedback from customers can we really identify their dissatisfaction,' Mr Wong said.

The society also has ISO 14001 certification for environmental management protection. It has been a green organisation for years, and regularly organises activities such as tree planting and collection of recyclable materials within its estates.

Environmental certification gives the company a clearer picture of its achievements and its targets. 'Next year I'm going to raise our recyclable materials by 5 per cent, reduce our paper consumption by 2 per cent and our power consumption by 5 per cent,' Mr Wong said. 'These are quite clear indicators for us. We can do this without the system, but with this system someone outside the organisation helps us monitor the progress.'

Service providers across the sector would need to make better use of resources and have the right range of services and smaller teams to meet market demands.

As well as providing basic services such as security, cleaning and maintenance, property management companies had to look at value-added services that integrated the whole community, he said.

Providers needed to help keep costs low but maintain a high-quality service. That included investing in information technology which, in the long-term, would save on manpower.

Mr Wong said the flat job market would make it easier for property managers to find quality staff to help meet the challenges the industry faced.

'We are riding on these advantages and we could employ many energetic young people in the industry. I think this is quite a good indication,' he said.