Theoretical and Methodological Foundations of Pricing for Apartment Building Management Services

Abstract

The article summarizes the methodological foundations of pricing in the housing sector (with the allocation of prices of services for the management of apartment buildings). During the historical analysis of methodological approaches to pricing in the housing sector, the authors identified a directive and market approach. The directive approach describes the procedure for setting prices and its problems, manifested in the fact that attempts to centralize the pricing process on the part of the state have led to overestimation of the cost of services by management companies. Modern approaches with manifestations of a directive approach are described: sequential and compensatory-targeted. The pricing mechanism within the framework of the market approach and its problems are described. The main problem is that high transaction costs create unequal conditions for market participants, which leads to the absorption of small and medium-sized management companies with the subsequent formation of an oligopoly or monopoly in the market. The market approach also has a number of disadvantages in terms of the influence of individual consumer interests on the price. Housing services for the management of apartment buildings in the assessment of consumers of services have different utility, but the assessment of the usefulness of services by an individual consumer is suppressed by a collective assessment of utility. The process approach to the management of the organization and the cluster approach to the organization of housing and communal services are considered as ways to reduce the cost of providing services for the management of apartment buildings. It is proven that the process approach is applied in practice in the case of hotels, while the cluster approach remains a theoretical construct. A set of tools for online and offline marketing communication is offered for increasing the income of management companies (by increasing the number of houses they serve): development of the management company’s website and mobile application, creation of social networks and using messengers, launch of targeted advertising, introduction of autonomous communications. The authors substantiate the necessity of further specialized research and development of a methodological approach to pricing adapted to the modern conditions of the housing services market in Russia, based on standards, laws of production organization, marketing, firm economics, financial management and marginalism.