Our property management team has managed to bring vacancy rates for BresicWhitney rental homes back down below 1% creating a seamless environment for investors again. But it wasn’t easy.

In the past year, we heard a lot about ‘The Great Resignation’ and for anyone working in the leasing spaces, an industry exodus was happening around them.

Depending on whose statistics you read, around 1 in 4 property managers have left or intend to leave the industry. The Real Estate Institute of Victoria has put the number a little higher at 30%.

Another concerning piece of data reported 53% of property management professionals identified mental health and managing stress as one of the most difficult aspects of the job.

The shakeup of the recent 2 years has attracted some exceptional people to BresicWhitney Property Management. While this brand wasn’t immune to change, it somehow emerged stronger on the other side, home to some of the best names in the industry.

BresicWhitney now manages more properties than ever before, regularly leasing homes in numbers that weren’t achievable previously.

 

In the middle of the pandemic, the team looked for direction from Head of Property Management, Chantelle Collin.

She didn’t have all the answers but leaned on years of experience as an experienced and dynamic leader, recognising that this era required agility.

“It was a hard job before COVID and incredibly tough during the pandemic,” Chantelle says.

“We were thrust into the middle of highly charged emotional conversations about people’s livelihoods and homes.

“We had just started to heal from the height of COVID, when suddenly we had floods, wet weather events and Omicron taking out half of our own work force.

“You could see those new to the industry thinking “if this is what it’s like, I’m out”, while some of the industry’s most seasoned property managers were thinking “that’s it! I can’t do this anymore”.

“The statistics concern me but they don’t surprise me.”

 

The PM team at BresicWhitney leaned on new technology in the past 2 years, ensuring they could be as agile as possible at times when the workflow outpaced the available human resources. This now integrates into all management processes, playing into the philosophy that there is always a more innovative way to manage their clients’ biggest assets.

With new processes comes more simplicity for their people. Recognition of stress has become easier to identify, teams are better trained to support to manage those stresses, and information is communicated faster between colleagues.  

Chantelle says the PM team now report greater flexibility and more work/life balance on the other side of what’s been the most demanding time the industry has ever seen.

“We’re now in the next phase, the new normal, and we’re equipped for whatever comes next,” Chantelle says.

“We know that a human connection between our people and clients will always be paramount.”

BresicWhitney.com.au