Real estate in recent years has undergone a great process of renewal. In particular, we have witnessed the emergence and spread of new community trends-both residential and working-such as Co-living, Cohousing, Senior Housing, Coworking.
These models, which have found rapid success through the use of innovative technological and digital solutions and the ability to remodel/adapt spaces, are now bringing out the potential inherent in community management.
The high level of interest on Community Management stems precisely from the realization of how the proper management of a real estate product brings great benefits to the property and the end users.
For investors, it means a momentous shift from the “concept of real estate” that included only “building,” to projects that broaden the concept to “build and manage.”
Today, property management is no longer seen as an activity to be avoided, but on the contrary to be implemented, because it is capable of making the most of the real estate asset, optimizing the offer to make it ever closer to the needs of the end user and at the same time increasing the revenue possibilities for owners.
Community Manager: the key figure in the new Real Estate Trends
The Community Manager is the role that emerged as a result of the spread of new community models and the consequent need to have a figure capable of dealing with the management of the housing complex, interfacing with both the user community and the property.
New trends in Real Estate base their success on the concept of community, flexibility, integration of services, and adaptability-aspects that it is essential to preside over and manage as best as possible.
Because it is management that enhances all the previous work of designing and building the property and allows it to remain profitable for a long time.
A Community Manager who can perform his or her duties well ensures the development of a more stable community, which results in more security for investors.
With his input he contributes greatly to the success (or otherwise) of a real estate project, making him a figure as much in demand in the marketplace as he is still rare to find.
The difficulty in finding Community Managers depends not only on being a new profession, but mainly on the fact that people with high organizational skills, attention to detail, ability to have an overall vision of the project and empathize with the different needs of clients and owners are sought.
The Community Manager’s Role for Users
Models characterized by a high level of sociality and space sharing meet people’s new needs for places to live and work, free from long-term constraints (such as a mortgage) and with great autonomy and flexibility of use.
And within a community space, the presence of a reference figure reassures users, who feel their needs are heard and can request improvements and new services.
Preserving the value of the housing project is the goal of the community manager, pursued in addition to listening skills through various other tasks:
- management and administrative support
- Detection of infractions and monitoring of compliance
- Management of periodic and extraordinary maintenance
- collection of feedback and complaints
- Problem taking and problem solving
- replacement of unsatisfactory services
- Activation of new services according to expressed needs.
The Role of the Community Manager for Ownership
New trends in real estate base their success on three key elements:
- A building realization already projected into the future, fully embracing the PropTech
- A design that, even when dealing with real estate, manages to provide for a wide range of dynamic spaces, making them more flexible and capable of meeting needs that change over time
- Management capable of constantly enhancing the value of the real estate asset.
It is on this last point that the community manager plays a crucial role, directly impacting the success of the project.
His main task is to break down the distances between parties by observing how users (customers) use spaces and listening to their requests, becoming the “eyes and ears” of the property, to whom he can point:
- problematic situations that need rapid intervention, so as to keep user satisfaction high and minimize the possibility of space abandonment;
- needs and requirements expressed by users, so as to expand and diversify the services offered, increasing revenue sources.
Moreover, when supported by the right technology, the impact of the community manager can become extraordinary.
Optimizing Real Estate Project Management
As we said at the beginning of the article, innovative and smart technology solutions have a fundamental impact in the success of real estate projects related to shared spaces.
Integration between the digital systems used in the building and an intelligent software platform allows for control and management that only a few years ago would have seemed like science fiction.
And everything that happens in the housing complex can be converted into data that support the Community Manager to:
- Keeping the property secure without limiting its flexibility of access and accommodation
- Reduce user friction in space utilization through both easy-to-use interfaces and tools suitable for remote assistance
- Have a view of what is happening in the short and medium term and make predictions for the long term
- Develop strategies to continuously improve social management and perceived service quality while increasing and optimizing revenue streams for the property
- keep consumption under control
- Adopt predictive and, in case of emergency, timely maintenance actions
- Interpret numerical values by combining them with one’s direct experience, adding meaning and weight to the “pure” data” (e.g., in a coworking space, if the data indicate low utilization of a meeting room, one might consider converting it to other spaces…but if one does not keep in mind that that room is used by the company that rents most of the workstations, one risks losing a vital customer).
A good community manager who has complete and centralized data is able to make a significant contribution to achieving an excellent level of management and optimization of the entire project.
The future of new business models in real estate
We are going through a period of great challenges and changes, with the general economic situation threatening heavy repercussions in Real Estate as well.
Conversely, the very real estate models we have seen in this article, characterized by shared space, ample flexibility, and designed to be best managed, are the ones that have the most growing demand and offer excellent opportunities for investors.
The Community Manager, with his or her interpersonal and observational skills and supported by a large data base, plays a significant role inextending the life of the project, keeping it profitable and earning full user satisfaction.
Digital tools enable the community manager to work with the property and provide accurate guidance on space utilization, any situations that need to be kept under control, services that users require or do not require, optimize the offering, satisfy the customer more, and thus increase the customer’s lifetime value.
Sofia Locks has developed innovative and continuously updated technology solutions in recent years, distinguishing itself as a partner of excellence in design, development, and management possibilities specifically for new business models in Real Estate.
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