A leader in property management training has said outsourcing services is "the way of the future" and will allow property managers to concentrate more on their core strengths.
Leading Property Managers of Australia (LPMA) director Darren Hunter said the “fear and stigma” attached to outsourcing is diminishing, and in the next 10 years the industry is going to see all kinds of outsourcing going on.
“It is the way of the future,” he told Residential Property Manager.
“Trust accounting services, property management assistance work, inspections and maintenance will all be outsourced in the same way, shape or form, since getting quality staff is going to become harder and harder.
“It will allow property managers to work in their core strengths and takes the pressure off businesses to find people with all of these skills.
“Basically, if you can get another company to do [a service] for a lot cheaper than you can, whether it’s per project or per hourly rate, and they can do just as good a job, then you would be silly not to do it," he added.
Mr Hunter said he believes that sometime in the future property managers will also be outsourced, and will be under contract to manage certain clients.
“Even more extreme than that, property managers may be based in Sydney, for example, but may be managing property all over Australia and they have got people on the ground they have outsourced to go and do inspections, take videos, take photos of property and be the eyes and ears on the ground,” he said.
“One thing I cannot see is property managers themselves being outsourced overseas; I don’t see that in the Australian property management industry.”