How the shortlist works

The shortlist uses only public data, and the same rules apply to every firm. No firm can pay to appear or to rank higher.

It answers one question: which firms are worth asking for a quote? It doesn't measure service quality. Only proposals, interviews and references can tell you that.

The signals

SignalWeightWhat it measures

Each signal scores 0 to 1 and is weighted. When a signal can't be measured, it is left out and the other weights are scaled up. For example, size isn't used if we don't know how many units your development has. The match score is the result out of 100. Your current agent is left out unless you choose to include it.

Only firms that manage at least 3 condos are suggested. Many names that appear for just one or two developments are developers, owners or individuals running their own building. Every firm is still listed under Agents, and you can invite any of them from their page.

Condos only

StrataMatch is for condos. BCA's list also has offices, shops and factories, and running those is a different job, so we leave them out everywhere: in the shortlist, in each firm's counts and in the Agents list. Condos with shops below, and other strata homes such as apartments and cluster houses, stay in.

BCA's list doesn't say what kind of building each MCST is, so we work it out from the zoning at its postal code on URA's Master Plan land-use map. Commercial, hotel and business park zones count as offices and shops, and Business 1 and 2 zones as industrial. If the map point lands on a road or park, we use the zone beside it. If there's no zone at all, we go by the name, for example "Plaza" or "Industrial Building". A name like "Residences" or "Condominium" always keeps a development in.

Similar size only

Choose "Similar size to ours" under "Developments to compare with" to count only condos with between half and twice your number of strata lots. Each firm is then judged on those alone: the nearby count, the portfolio size and the 3-condo minimum all count only similar-size condos.

Where the data comes from

Limits to keep in mind

Spotted a mistake? See corrections.