Does owner heterogeneity matter in the management of multi-owned housing?

During the past decades, the question of how user heterogeneity has an impact on common pool resource (CPR) management has been receiving increased attention. However, this issue has not yet been fully discussed in the field of multi-owned housing management which is of paramount importance to the sustainable use of housing stock. To straddle the research gap, this paper first provides a brief review of the theoretical and empirical work on the relationship between user heterogeneity and collective action in CPR management. It then discusses which aspects of owner heterogeneity may affect owners' collective actions in the management of a multi-owned housing development. Using survey data from 72 apartment buildings in Hong Kong, it found that the overall owner heterogeneity - in terms of knowledge level, age level, tenure mode, and length of time living there - posed significant but negative impacts on owners' collective actions, ceteris paribus. This paper not only has implications for the formulation of housing-care policies but also lends support to neighbourhood homogenization.