The COVID era has certainly provided unique challenges in the property management industry. Here are the key challenges.
1. Social Distancing and Capacity Rules
With stringent SOPs introduced by the government, property managers have to ensure that social distancing and capacity rules are applied and communicated to tenants. Even more importantly it has to be enforced effectively.
2. Contact Tracing
To cut the chain of COVID we all have to play our part in keeping up with contact tracing guidelines provided by the authorities setting up any temperature check equipment, code scanning, and visitor logs.
3. Property Cleanliness and Disinfection
People are now more wary of a property’s cleanliness and feel more assured when they see cleaning and disinfection regimes increased. Although it does come at a cost, it’s a small price to pay for the peace of mind of tenants.
4. Property Viewing Requests
As the world goes digital and people wanting to stay safe prospective tenants are starting to open up to the idea of virtual property viewings. Property managers thus have to ensure that they have good internet connections and a decent smartphone on hand to showcase the property to prospects. For more advanced tech, some have even opted for 360 VR capturing of the properties.
5. Renewal Policies
As economies shrink, businesses struggle to stay afloat, and employees facing pay cuts or retrenchment property managers have been reviewing their renewal policies to keep their tenants under the roof during these challenging times and some have even revised down their rents.
6. Delinquency Policies
Property managers are also reviewing their delinquency policies, some relaxing their policies during these challenging times. This fosters goodwill and loyalty in tenants who appreciate the due consideration.
7. Digital Communication
As face to face meetings are on the decrease, it’s important to maintain a good line of digital communication especially when it comes to important announcements or reminders for payment collections. So it’s essential to ensure that property managers are equipped with good property management systems who have SMS or Email capabilities to reach their tenants directly.
COVID has definitely shaken the industry, there will be changes in people’s habits that will be here to stay, like interactions going digital where people access and receive the information that they need digitally.
