Vertical living satisfaction of homeowners in a medium-cost residential building in Klang Valley, Malaysia Zairul Nisham Musa, Wan Nor Azriyati Wan Abd Aziz, Zafirah Al Sadat Zyed, Noor Rosly Hanif and Ainoriza Mohd Aini Department of Estate Management, Faculty of Built Environment, University of Malaya, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia Peter Aning Tedong Department of Urban and Regional Planning, Faculty of Built Environment, University of Malaya, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, and Abdul Ghani Sarip Department of Estate Management, Faculty of Built Environment, University of Malaya, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia Abstract Purpose – In Malaysia, a vertical residential building (VRB) is still facing challenges associated with property management. The lack of experience in property management resulted in the management, acting unprofessionally that cause a lot of problems to the homeowners and their properties. The findings demonstrated that maintenance of the facilities and common areas in a VRB is essential to ensure its optimal performance over its life cycle. This has to be carried out efficiently and professionally by the qualified property manager. Unfortunately, not every property manager can perform all the tasks efficiently and professionally. Thus, this leads to an increasing number of complaints by unsatisfied homeowners’ particularly on the maintenance and management of the buildings and facilities. To satisfy the homeowners, the issue of transparency is one of the area concerns that need to be emphasised in the property management system practiced in Malaysia. This case study area of Klang Valley poses as one of the urban areas that has the highest number of vertical buildings, especially the medium cost of VRB. The purpose of this study is to explore the satisfaction level of homeowners towards the management system, maintenance services and facilities provided by the management of the medium cost VRB in the Klang Valley. Design/methodology/approach – The study adopted a quantitative approach. The survey method was used as an appropriate method for inquiry of the data. Face to face survey was conducted with respondents at a medium-cost residential building in Klang Valley, Malaysia. Findings – The findings demonstrated that homeowners living in medium-cost VRB in Klang Valley are satisfied and faced issues with the management system, maintenance service and services provided by the management of the medium-cost VRB. The only issue confronted by the homeowners with the medium-cost VRB is the commitment of the management towards their involvement in organising the activities, problem- solving and taking action on residents’ reports or complaints. Practical implications – The findings suggest that appointing qualified property managers who understand property management has increased the performance of the management team. Most importantly, This research is funded by the National Property Research Centre (NAPREC), Valuation and Property Services Department, Ministry of Finance, Malaysia. Medium-cost residential building Received 24 January 2020 Revised 3 May 2020 Accepted 5 July 2020 Journal of Facilities Management © Emerald Publishing Limited 1472-5967 DOI 10.1108/JFM-01-2020-0004 The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available on Emerald Insight at: https://www.emerald.com/insight/1472-5967.htm