Nobody Notices a Good Lift. Everyone Notices a Bad One.
Tenants never mention a lift that works and always notice one that does not. What a poorly performing lift costs in satisfaction, retention and asset value, and a simple test for yours.
- Published
Quick summary
Tenants never comment on a lift that works well. They always notice one that does not. The cost of a poorly performing lift extends well beyond the elevator maintenance invoice — it affects tenant satisfaction, lease retention, asset perception and the building’s long-term commercial position.
There is a reliable test for whether your building’s lift is performing well#
Nobody mentions it.
Tenants do not send emails about a lift that arrives promptly, stops accurately and has doors that open without hesitation. They use it and get on with their day. When the lift is performing poorly, the situation is entirely different — and the costs extend well beyond what appears on the maintenance budget.
What poor performance actually costs a commercial building#
In a commercial office building, wait times above the Property Council of Australia’s recommended 30-second interval during morning up-peak add minutes to every vertical journey each working day. Over a year, this compounds into hours. At lease renewal, it becomes building friction — the kind that influences outcomes even when tenants do not name the source explicitly.
Property managers often frame lift performance as a maintenance issue. The more accurate frame is a commercial asset issue. A building whose vertical transportation consistently underperforms against benchmark is less competitive than an equivalent building where it does not. That difference shows up gradually — and then suddenly, at the lease renewal conversation, at the valuation, at the point a prospective tenant chooses between two otherwise comparable buildings.
For strata and residential buildings, chronic reliability problems carry as reputation and affect the quality of prospective buyers and tenants willing to consider the building at all. For hotels and healthcare facilities, the impact is immediate — guests and patients experience the lift directly and their feedback is public.
The gap between operational and performing well#
| Performance indicator | Benchmark | What underperformance looks like |
|---|---|---|
| Wait time at peak | Under 30 seconds (PCA commercial office) | Consistently 45-60 seconds during up-peak |
| Levelling accuracy | ±6mm (AS1735.2) | Noticeable step at floor stop; trip hazard |
| Ride vibration | Within AS1735.2 tolerance | Shudder on acceleration; vibration during travel |
| Fault frequency | Fewer than 2 unplanned call-outs per year | Weekly or monthly fault events |
| Door operation | Smooth open/close; immediate response | Hesitation, reversal, slow close |
A lift can be technically operational — not generating a shutdown, not on a prohibition list — while consistently failing against every one of those benchmarks. These are not failures. They are performance deficits. And they are precisely what a targeted elevator modernisation or structured lift upgrading programme addresses.
Not by replacing the entire system. By identifying the specific components responsible for the performance gap and resolving them through a planned, independently specified and competitively tendered programme. See our article on repair, modernise or replace: how to make the right decision for how that decision is correctly framed.
What good vertical transportation looks like#
When a lift system is right for the building — properly specified, maintained under a reviewed and enforced elevator maintenance contract, operating within its designed parameters — it is completely unremarkable. Tenants move. Floors are served. Nobody thinks about it.
That is the standard. For most buildings it is achievable through an independent performance assessment followed by a clear, costed programme of works.
ILCPL provides independent lift performance assessments, elevator modernisation specifications and lift upgrading programme management for commercial, strata and institutional buildings across Australia.
Call 0417 784 245 to arrange an independent performance assessment.
