As 2022 draws to a close Colin Stokes, Managing Director of Adiuvo looks into his crystal ball to predict what the Property Sector will see in 2023
One of the biggest issues we foresee coming next year is issues availability of contractors and their cost. Call outs have generally increased in line with materials and fuel prices, and we expect this to be exacerbated by a possible recession, if this occurs then without doubt some contractors will unfortunately fail leading to less availability and quite probably further price increases. Such increases may leave tricky decisions for property managers and landlords preventative maintenance not being instructed upon in order to reduce costs but then resulting in higher reactive call outs.
We expect to see an uplift in emergency calls as a result next year.
The deployment of more technology is one possible weapon against increasing costs for those instructing on works and includes remote video triage, drone surveys and IOT sensors all of which we expect to see utilised more and more to ensure repairs are cost effective especially remote video maintenance which we predict will grow exponentially this year as property managers look for suitable alternatives (and in trials such services have permanently fixed around 20% of reported issues at a fraction of the price.
Outsourcing across the board always increases during a slowdown (again as people look to offset costs) and this will apply to property management companies and give opportunities to services that can solve issues, replace departments or processes whilst improving or at least keeping the same level of customer service. This could be anything from sales progression and viewings in lettings to outsourced maintenance desks across the industry.
2023 will also see the continuation and implementation of further regulation across all facets of the sector via both RoPA and The Building Safety Act especially will have operational for everyone working within the industry and that will put more responsibility and pressure on agents as well whilst providing real opportunity for those agents that act correctly, understand all new rules and can prove how they have implemented them.
It is definitely going to be an interesting year.
