Abstract:
Residential construction is becoming an increasingly important subdivision of construction industry,
necessitating advanced procurement methods in order to accommodate changing requirements.
Commonly, residential construction demand is met by the informal sector of construction industry.
With the changing environments, a novel trend of package deal contracts is spreading in the context
bringing in formalities to the residential construction projects. Package deal is a developed
procurement method with unique characteristics. However, in selecting an appropriate procurement
method for a specific housing construction project, proper understanding of characteristics of
available procurement options are utmost of importance. Therefore, this research aimed to elucidate
the suitability of package deal contracts for residential building construction, against time, cost and
quality benefits.
Study identified 43 time, cost, and quality related expectations through a comprehensive literature
survey, which residential construction clients would expect to be born of package deal contracts. The
factors were ranked against industry experts' view and further, tested via a survey with a sample of
clients with package deal and informal construction experience. Data were analysed for medians and
standard deviations in to rank the factors considering the reliability. Consequently, experts
appreciated time and cost benefits of package deal contracts over informal construction. Importantly,
projects start quickly with known early commitments under package deal contracts. However, informal
construction offers better quality with attractive finished products. Therefore, the package deal is
suitable for the clients, who are concerned of time and cost benefits, while informal construction is
suitable for the client’s with prime concern of quality benefits.
