The meteoric rise in Pune's real estate development sector has catapulted the hitherto unfamiliar practice of property management into a highly profitable orbit. And with few players chasing the big property management opportunity, everyone is laughing all the away to the bank. |
The commercial exploitation of the concept, predictably started by the builder community a few years ago, has now become a buzzword as the developers are setting up property management services (PMS) divisions. |
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Though these are largely meant to manage their captive properties, some of them are toying with the idea of spinning off the activity into a new revenue stream. Emergence of commercial complexes, business process outsourcing centres, malls and huge development centres of IT companies has brought this niche service into the limelight. |
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DSK Developers can be easily identified as the pioneer of the PMS concept in the city. It was they who began offering the service of maintaining unoccupied flats in their residential complexes, in addition to handling the upkeep of common areas and infrastructure such as water recycling plant, swimming pool etc. |
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Earlier, builders collected from flat buyers a sum called "One time maintenance charge' and used the money to maintain the housing society till the residents formed a committee and took over the task. |
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Entry of global real estate intermediaries such as Knight Frank truly fuelled the progress of property management as they offered end-to-end services including maintenance and even catering services at the properties managed by them. |
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Identifying properties, marketing them and maintaining them works like a package, feels Aiman Mehta, Knight Frank agency head (Pune and greater Maharashtra). |
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Big ticket real estate developers such as Kumar Builders or Gera Developers have created PMS divisions within their set up, though they focus on captive projects at present. Besides, there are smaller, niche players such as Springtime Maintenance, who are early entrants in the field. |
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Sadhana Luthra, partner of Springtime Maintenance, who has seen the activity grow, said, "Today the organised PMS providers are offering a much needed 'win-win' deal for customers. They take pride in delivering quality services as well as tangible value additions." |
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She also referred to the trend of PMS moving from being labour intensive to technology dependent. |
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"There is tremendous demand in terms of standard, monitoring and reporting as well as making the whole thing objective. Overall, it is a healthy business scenario where we have both customers and PMS providers taking steps that are convergent to the common objective," Sadhana added. |
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Despite the high promise of the PMS business, there are no statistics telling us exactly how big it is. |
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According to Manish Jain of Kumar Builders, "It is difficult to measure the exact size of the PMS business. Usually, the PMS firms undertake property management contract for an area, more than one lakh square feet, for which they charge professional fees on per square feet basis, ranging between Rs 3 to 12," he informed. |
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Observers, however, hazard a guess of about Rs 100 crore market size for PMS in Pune itself, if the fees collected for this activity is accounted for independently. |
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The PMS business seems to be moving to become more organised as developers plan to float dedicated subsidiaries. Here again, DSK Developers are in the forefront. |
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Hemanti Kulkarni, president, DSK Developers, confirmed the move. While the finer details were yet to be finalised, the service might be extended beyond the company's captive projects, she said. |
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According to Rajanish Ayyar, vice-president of Strategic Business Group One - a PMS provider, "The concept has emerged out of the need of non-resident Indians. The PMS business is no longer restricted to housing projects and shopping malls but even hospitals and schools have also started adopting the same practice." |
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According to industry observers, the PMS players can also tap opportunity overseas if they get more organised and adopt global standards. |
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