Challenges to the Adoption of Smart Building Systems: A Property Management Perspective

The implementation of smart building systems has become a focus on across the globe to achieve improved energy conservation and sustainability in the building. Yet the pace of implementation of smart building systems in Malaysia is slow due to certain challenges. This research aims to recognize the key challenges to adopt smart building systems by property management professionals. Primary data were obtained through a questionnaire survey administered to 100 respondents who were the property managers in Johor Bahru. Data were processed by the SPSS software and ranked with Relative Importance Index (RII) method to determine the challenges with higher impacts. Results indicated that the highest rank of challenge were high cost of smart building system installation (RII = 0.942) and past habits and preferences (RII = 0.930). On the other hand, the challenges of lack of legislation and policy frameworks (RII = 0.764) and the privacy and security concerns (RII = 0.774) were among the least significant problems raised. In conclusion, this study emphasizes that these challenges must be addressed comprehensively to ensure the successful implementation of smart building systems in Malaysia. The implications of the study suggest that policymakers, industry practitioners, researchers, and end users should collaborate to develop cost-effective solutions, enhance technical knowledge, improve IoT infrastructure, and establish clear policy and regulatory frameworks. Such efforts are important to increase the penetration of smart-building systems and address the national agenda for sustainability.