Rockend will mark 40 years in business in September.
This is an impressive milestone for any technology company, especially when you consider the internet only became widely available to Australians and New Zealanders in the mid-90s.
Reaching this milestone lends itself to looking back on how much the real estate industry has changed over the past four decades.
As a technology company, Rockend is privileged to have shared this journey with more than 5,500 real estate businesses, large and small, franchised and independent.
In the past 12 months, we have seen significant shifts in the Australian and New Zealand property sectors.
There has been the rise of automation and artificial intelligence, but also the need for transparency and concierge-like services.
These changes are not only related to market conditions and legislation, but also the changing expectations of customers.
What customers want and how they want it is evolving quickly. Technology is playing a large role in solving these new expectations.
Looking to the future, we are working hard at imagining what’s next in our industry.
As business becomes more competitive, with changes in market conditions, managing the bottom line is increasingly more challenging, with fees declining rapidly to as low as five per cent.
We believe adjacent property services will provide revenue opportunities for property management agencies.
According to Macquarie Bank Perspective report, for every dollar earned in property management fees, $27 will be made on services.
Taking utility connections as an example, this $15 billion revenue stream is the second largest opportunity for agencies.
At Rockend, we have seen customers expand their revenue streams by referring new tenants to utility connections services like Movinghub (via Property Tree) or Direct Connect (via Rest Professional).
Recently Rockend announced a 20 per cent increase for all referral fees for electricity and gas connection with Movinghub via Property Tree.
This is good news for agencies looking to supplement revenues. In the next 12 months and beyond, we will continue to partner with more trusted application service providers across more categories – maintenance, inspections, smoke alarms, bond finance and more.
They are all available today on the Rockend Marketplace, an online destination where businesses can browse, select, sign-up and activate property services that sync with their favourite Rockend software.
As we integrate with more solutions, we believe we can simplify the way property management teams work across multiple systems – enabling the data to sync across systems, reducing manual data entry and errors, and saving valuable time.
But most importantly, these new services can ultimately enhance the landlord or tenant experience, naturally helping property management businesses provide more value to their clients.
The Rockend Marketplace also presents agencies with new revenue-generating opportunities, a critical ingredient in today’s evolving business models.
