Woschnak cites the increasingly ubiquitous ‘rent generation’, both in Australia and overseas, as evidence of our future as tenants. “For the first time in Australian family evolution, a large portion of this generation actually thinks renting is what they will do for the rest of their lives, despite still aspiring to property ownership. They don’t automatically think they will buy the great Australian dream of a four bedroom, two bathroom house – this is a big difference from ten or twenty years ago.” Furthermore, RENT conducted a survey of renters during June 2011, which showed that almost 57% of tenants are renting because they cannot afford to buy a house, while a further 14% do not aspire to own a house at all (see Table 4 – Rent.com.au ‘Renters Unite and Have Your Say’ survey – June 2011).
A potential impact of the switch to a rental lifestyle could be greater demand from tenants to turn rental properties into long-term homes, through upgrades to features such as kitchen fittings and yards. The upside for landlords and property managers is the security of a long-term stable tenant and guaranteed income. And with Australia’s increasing population and a national rental vacancy rate of 1.7%, it would appear that competition for rental properties is becoming stiffer (see Table 5 – SQM Research National Residential Vacancy Rates).
Another expected impact of Australia’s growing population is an increase in the amount of high-density living, with many of the country’s newest residents already used to living in high-density environments. This will ultimately change our understanding of how many people can live in a home, as it becomes more commonplace for several generations to live under the same roof. Major cities will continue to act as hubs but with urban sprawl moving further out. For Jan Malmstrom, this makes it an exciting time to be in property management. “For instance in Melbourne where I live, there are reported to be 2,000 people a week moving into the city, and even country centres such as Swan Hill, Echuca and Shepparton are growing, which shows that urban sprawl is going a long way,” she commented.
Also, as population numbers surge, the industry’s technology will need to keep pace. Ex-property manager Angus Raine, now-CEO of the Raine & Horne property group, says the next ten years will see an increasing reliance on online services. “Technology will continue to be at the forefront of relationships between property managers, investors and tenants,” says Mr Raine. “To give you an example, when I started as a property manager in the 1980’s, we were using kalamazoo punch cards to run computer programs. Now we’re using iPads and mobile devices.”
Woschnak agrees with the growing prevalence of technology and says we should expect an improvement in the quality of the information available online, with property statistics becoming freely available to investors and buyers. “This means there will be a high degree of transparency in the industry and everyone will have to work harder to stand out. How an agency represents themselves will become more important, and this may result in greater use of videos and mobile applications to focus on the people and services within an agency.”
But with all of this information flying around, Blayney thinks the property management industry should be working harder to use the data it collects. “The number one under-utilised system in every single business I work with, is their database, and to date I have not met anyone who leverages this information to its maximum potential,” she says. “We spend hundreds of thousands of dollars a year on marketing and branding, and we invite all these people to communicate with us through open for inspections, call-ins, and tenant application forms. But we now need to take all this data, put it in a central location, and use that database to communicate.”
According to IBISWorld, other opportunities for property managers include the facilities management arena, with agencies forming joint ventures to look after property services on behalf of government and large corporate tenants, including air conditioning systems, lifts, cleaning, security and grounds maintenance, as well as contracts, leases and relocations. Malmstrom also points to opportunities for the industry to specialise in holiday management and student accommodation, but warns these are huge markets and very labour intensive if not managed properly.
Malmstrom says another trend to watch is the growing need for professional property managers in mining towns. “The mining companies don’t generally have the expertise themselves, and with the mining industry so strong at present, there are opportunities for property managers in areas like Emerald, Gladstone, Karratha and Nhulunbuy,” she says. “However, this is a very different type of management, with only one landlord and a lot of reporting and asset management. But I do believe this area of property management will grow, with the value of mining to our country.”
However, while new property management avenues can provide opportunities for businesses to build on the industry’s organic growth, history shows that reinvention will be an equally important factor. Just as a handshake has been replaced by a legal document, and punch cards with iPads, the next generation of property managers is likely to revolutionise the industry in many more exciting and unimagined ways.
Andrew Harrington
