Australia is a world leader in property management
Recently I spent a few weeks in America and attended the annual National Association of Realtors (NAR). NAR is the largest real estate conference in the world and had more than 19,000 people attend. The delegates come from far and wide and whilst there were only a few Aussie', I met delegates from Canada, Brazil, Asia and England.
When you think the largest Australian real estate conference has been 2,000 and 3,000 delegates – this is one mammoth event!
As this was my first time of attending the conference, I wanted to look at how other countries ran and operate their property management companies and departments. Along with seeking new ideas that could be implemented within the Australian market, to see how they have implemented technology into their businesses and hear about what hasn't worked during the past 12 months.
The American realtors have had an enormously tough market in the past few years, however did you know that up until the end of October there have been more than 4.1 million sales so far for the year? That equates to 13,452 per day and is an increase of 11.3% from the same time last year. Furthermore, in 2012 they expect real estate sales to be in excess of 6 million.
What I found amazing about these figures was the media fails to share this. Surely this information is a good sign of a country working albeit slowly to a recovery in the real estate market?
Property management is undertaken very differently throughout America. Similarly to Australia, every state of America has different legislation to abide by. In some states, the property manager isn't legally allowed to attend court to claim a tenant’s bond, or take action for rent arrears. The property manager prepares the file but the owners must employ an attorney (or solicitor as we know it) to present the case.
Some of the other differences I noted were: many companies still only disburse monies to owners once a month. Tenants all pay their rent on a common due date, the agency management fee is somewhere between 8% and 10%, and most of the agencies own the maintenance businesses that undertake the repairs for the owners.
Over the past 10 years in Australia we have seen the growth of stand-alone property management businesses. They specialise and are seen as experts in their field – yet in the States, many of the businesses are struggling to grasp the technology available, have systems and procedures to follow or to be seen as a true expert!
I am very proud to say property managers in Australia are certainly well ahead of the rest of the world.
Leah Calnan is the director of Metro Property Management in Victoria and is the chairwoman of the REIV Property Management Chapter.
