CEO Niall McGann on what the future looks like for property management
Posted Monday, December 7, 2020
Futureproofing the business means investing in the right tech
As a group, we expect to see considerable expansion, even during these trying times. Due to increasingly tight regulations and the changing requirements of the property market, the group is expected to be able to rise to the new challenges of the market and benefit from the likely reduced volume of smaller competitors who may struggle to comply with modern regulations and expectations of a managing agent. This will see the organisation expand both rapidly and sustainably over the course of the next few years.
We’re looking to double in size in the next five years and already have a significant pipeline for a number of developers pledged to us over the next three to five years. Beyond that, we can see a lot of consolidation that will happen as regulation increases and that will lead to a lot of our smaller competitors ceasing to exist. People are starting to realise the type of infrastructure and professional services you need in-house to be able to manage a building effectively, which is leading to this rapid consolidation and where we see the future of the industry. It does mean there will be fewer, but larger players out there operating on a tighter margin, but with a focus on volume.
Along with these aspirations for business growth, the group is also actively looking to invest further into technology, but also critically assessing the usage of technology and data management in a way that provides tangible benefits for the end-customer. The focus for us is not data for data’s sake and PropTech is definitely a hard sector at the moment, but I think it’s about understanding the use-case for the data that has been collated. For us using the data for safety and compliance is key, and there is regulation coming down the track to have a stronger digital thread of the information behind each building, right through from how it was constructed to being maintained in the present day. We will need to be able to lay our hands on the relevant information much more quickly as to the last time each property was maintained.
Key areas of technological innovation will include on-site QR codes and functionalities which will enable operatives to immediately access web-based portals and resources, including everything from essential documentation through to maintenance reports and regulatory requirements. How and where these innovations materialise is something we eagerly look forward to reporting further on in the near future.
