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Experts working across property management and proptech spaces have put their heads together in a bid to improve the experience of those working within the industry.
At a roundtable brokered by Proptech BNE founder Isaac Coonan and Real Estate Industry Partners (REIP) chief executive Sadhana Smiles, property management representatives from networks across the country spoke candidly about the tech issues facing them day-to-day, while proptech players also laid out their own limitations, highlighting concerns regarding their ability to be innovative and their capacity to compete in the property management space.
With better collaboration, Ms Smiles believes there is the potential for “better tech, better relationships, better service, and better engagement in the long term”.
In turn, the CEO expects this could go a long way in solving the business problems facing property managers the country over — increasing automation, efficiency, wellness, staff engagement, and increased profitability.
One of the questions that were considered by the group centred around the idea that if technology-based property management solutions are now here to stay, “what systems [and] processes are we putting in place to drive that collaboration?”
The meeting was first proposed following the writing of an opinion piece by Ms Smiles on REB, titled Epic proptech fail – for me anyway.
What followed publication, according to Mr Coonan, was an “automatically defensive” tone of voice that came from the technology community.
“Something that was meant to be a simple ‘hey look, this is some great feedback from an industry thought leader’, turned into a bit of finger pointing,” he recounted.
REIP CEO Ms Smiles is the first to admit that in years gone by, there were many property managers that did not want to implement “all of the great technology that was coming our way”.
“And then COVID hit, and we were all forced to move forward quite quickly and quite rapidly,” she said.
“Now, I think the tide has changed.”
She believes the industry now wants more from its proptech providers, which has led to the development of new friction points between industry and tech.
“My fear is that I don’t want the technology to hold me back in terms of my business development, my profitability, my service to my customers,” she said.
Outlining that the value chain — “the amount of money that we make from a property” — isn’t as high as people would assume, Ms Smiles said that the continual tech additions and the costs they incur “starts to impact the profitability of the business”.
The event, held in person at Deloitte’s Brisbane office with a number of individuals also joining online, saw action items proposed by both proptechs and the property management sector, with the group pledging to reconvene in the final quarter of 2022 to discuss progress on pain points.
For Ms Smiles, the process was about increasing the engagement between property management teams and the proptech companies servicing them: “This was about collaborating, coming together so that we could understand your frustrations as a proptech industry and what can we do more to adopt and integrate your products into our businesses — and the other hand, understand some of our frustrations.”
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Grace Ormsby
Grace is a journalist across Momentum property and investment brands. Grace joined Momentum Media in 2018, bringing with her a Bachelor of Laws and a Bachelor of Communication (Journalism) from the University of Newcastle. She’s passionate about delivering easy to digest information and content relevant to her key audiences and stakeholders.
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