A forward-thinking Approach to Student Accommodation Properties

Having taken note of the shortages of student accommodation in South Africa, Eris Property Group researched the sector and decided to expand its services into this area. This culminated in the development of a new sub-brand - RISE Student Living. 
As Eris began to investigate opportunities, it become clear that there is a need in the market for more than new student accommodation developments, but also property management services. Eris has therefore been leveraging its existing skills in property development and management to meet this need, as well as developing new teams, technological approaches and other offerings to cater specifically for the student accommodation market.  
"We're doing things a bit differently to the traditional property management model," says Aadil Moosa, Property Management Operations Support at Eris. "Conventionally, you'd have an asset manager with a property manager, property administrators and a plug-in finance team. With our student accommodation property management, we've put together a projects team comprising of young, tech-driven, agile individuals with an understanding of both the student market and the property market. Our team understands the property management aspect, the finance aspect and the IT aspect and brings it all together to provide a solution that is both streamlined and efficient. This is complemented with a tech-driven platform that allows for innovative ideas, such as online leasing. We believe this is the first of its kind in the industry - where the entire student accommodation leasing process, encompassing every stakeholder involved, happens digitally." 
The technology links various systems, from leasing to financial reporting, and even student online check-ins. Processes like payments, collections and allocations have also been automated and streamlined. Every step of the process is therefore up-to-date and visible to the Eris team at any point, from the moment a student applies online, signs a lease, pays a deposit and walks through the door of the development for the first time, right through to the reporting aspect allowing for viewing of real-time occupation and vacancy rates and generating accurate property financial reports for asset managers and/or investors.  
Johan Janse van Vuuren, Property Development Manager at Eris, says there is increasing appetite for property management services within the student accommodation sector, and Eris is well positioned to meet this demand, not just within Eris-developed buildings, but as an outsourced facilities management partner for other developments too. "Yes, we've only expanded into student accommodation recently, but we've been building onto our existing capabilities and systems in property management, where we have real expertise already," he says. "We've used that foundation, and already seen results. In our Units on Park development in Hatfield, Pretoria, we achieved over 90% occupation in the first year, which is well above industry standards. This is partly because of the systems we've put in place that allow us to react and process things more quickly." 
By partnering with a competent property management services company, developers and investors can de-risk their student accommodation projects and properties, which is why more finance institutions are requiring property management as part of their student accommodation funding agreements. 
"We can get involved in any or all of the property management components involved - leasing and administration, facilities and operations management, as well as management systems and technology," says Moosa. "We can also assist with things like setting up websites and linking of back
end management systems, ultimately allowing us to offer a management system solution to the market as well." 
For more information, visit the RISE Website. www.risestudentliving.com