Property Managers are Awesome

by Hayden Groves

As the Albanese government looks to address the labour shortage across Australia with its Jobs and Skills Summit getting underway, the real estate sector hopes some meaningful solutions come from it.

Although, industry is not expecting much as the Summit is mostly aimed to serve the benefits of the ‘big end of town’ with large corporates and unions the main participants. This is disappointing given everyone knows that small to medium enterprises are a significant driver of our local economies. Corporation and taxation laws have been designed to cater for the large corporates with under-resourced small businesses bound by the same rules, so we should have better representation at the Summit. Perhaps next time.

The real estate sector employs about 140,000 Australians working for around 44,000 real estate offices around the nation. 99 percent of these companies are small businesses. These small businesses conduct property transactions worth $350 billion per year and collect about $50 billion in rents. The collective value of residential property in Australia is $9.95 trillion, two-thirds larger than the ASX and superannuation pool combined. For a small business sector, real estate carries a lot of economic responsibility.

In the current tight labour market, it is difficult to attract people to work in the real estate industry. Property Managers are in short supply with 5,000 jobs on offer across the nation. The shortage is especially acute in Victoria where, off the back of prolonged COVID-19 lockdowns, property managers came under enormous pressure from both landlords and tenants as they navigated rental and eviction moratoriums. The negative feedback loop combined with recent changes to tenancy laws proved too much for some and many left the industry. 

In many parts of Australia, the work of property managers is about to get harder. Pending changes to tenancy laws in Queensland and the ACT (and possibly here in WA), will turn more investors away from owning residential property. This is a trend already underway with a national vacancy rate of 1.1 percent and stock levels plummeting in recent times. For example, there are 26.6 percent fewer properties on the market for rent in Melbourne now than a year ago. The rate of investors selling versus investors buying is also accelerating since first crossing over in 2018 when the threat of changes to negative gearing laws loomed large.

Property Managers do much more than collect rent. They are a pivotal part of housing millions of Aussies, housing 27 percent of all Australian households. They are problem solvers, the unsung heroes of property, often working after-hours to open a door for a tenant who’s lost their key, re-light a hot water service, clean an oven for an incoming tenant and a host of other examples. 

Property Management can be a tough job, but it is also rewarding. Bringing property owners and tenants together, affecting positive outcomes, housing the community, working as a team are all great features of the role.

Unfortunately, Property Managers are often undervalued by clients, tenants and some agency bosses. They do difficult and essential work and are thoroughly deserving of our respect and support.