Communication

We have a local team of property managers who are used to dealing with clients and being very active to queries. They’ve also got a really good technical grounding, particularly with the TPI exams they’re all undertaking. Coupled with that, we’ve got experience around them in terms of a compliance manager, accounts manager, health and safety manager, and head of maintenance from a surveying background. Having quality, intelligent people and surrounding them with technical specialists has been great and we’ve definitely over resourced the business so that communication is key and no one feels overloaded.

Proactive Block Management

This is all about doing five-to-ten-year plans for a building. Essentially working out the roof needs doing, the painting needs doing, the scaffolding is obviously required, grouping works together over a longer-term horizon. Then saying what’s the best use of the funds we’ve got today and doing a realistic, conservative budget from now to the end of that period where the board are on board and the owners know what’s going on. Having that proactive plan enables you to get better contractors and tender their prices down. The planning takes the stress out of decisions and buyers love it because they know exactly what they’re buying into.

Value for Money

The proactiveness translates into value for money. It’s also about getting locally non VAT registered contractors from window cleaning, gardening cleaning, and on the major works, where the big costs are, tendering aggressively and making sure the client’s getting the best value for money for that particular spec, not compromising on quality.