Aussie property manager exodus deepens, 5300 jobs vacant

6 days ago 4

Property manager jobs are being advertised with six-figure salaries in Victoria as the state’s rental crisis and regulatory requirements grow.

Victoria’s landlord exodus is extending to the people managing rental homes with jobs being offered for more than 1000 such roles across the state.

Real estate agencies are offering up to six-figure sums to attract property managers to handle rental homes amid a worsening rental crisis and almost monthly changes to rental regulations.

Industry members have warned they are concerned the regulatory changes to compliance requirements and the emotional weight of the job could soon erode the workforce so much it impacts tenants and landlords.

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New analysis of job listings on Seek by the team behind Kolmeo, a property management software firm owned by billionaire Paul Little’s Little Group, has found 5300 vacancies for property management roles being advertised at present across Australia.

One in five of them, 1100, were in Victoria which has had the nation’s most extensive rental reforms.

Job ads show multiple salaries being offered up to $110,000, with one offering $120,000 for a senior property manager.

Taking on the role in Victoria requires an about 18-month Certificate IV in Real Estate Practice.

With nation-leading rental reforms Victoria and Melbourne-based property managers have faced the biggest range of changes to their requirements and responsibilities.

Kolmeo’s chief executive Scott Bateman said they had looked into the numbers after repeated feedback from real estate firms looking for any software advantage to help them retain staff.

“One of the things that has caught us by surprise was about how much the conversation was shifting towards ‘whatever we do, we can’t lose a property manager’,” Mr Bateman said.

“So we looked at Seek and there were 5000 vacancies there.

“And wages have increased significantly since 2022; that shows that throwing money at the problem isn’t resolving it.”

They noted that the average property manager looked after roughly 150 properties, meaning that with 5000 job vacancies there could be as many as 800,000 properties around the country that were under-represented.

“It appears to be a growing problem and it’s not one we have seen any indication that it’s slowing down,” Mr Bateman said.

“The data for the moment suggests it’s a bad problem that is getting worse.”

He said while many of the property managers were renters themselves and appreciated many of the Victorian government’s reforms, ensuring implementation of all the different changes was proving difficult.

Scott Bateman - Kolmeo - for herald sun real estate

Kolmeo chief executive Scott Bateman says the data suggests the property manager employment issue is getting worse.

“And you are trying to handle hundreds of people associated with those homes, and then dealing with the 130 changes since 2021, and that’s creating an effect where there’s so few people to do the work that it’s a worse situation with the changes that set out to protect renters,” Mr Bateman said.

“The average career timeline is (now) about one year.”

Real Estate Institute of Victoria former president Leah Calnan, who operates Metro Property Management as a dedicated property management firm in Melbourne, said while she did not think there would be more than 5000 genuine roles vacant, there was a problem in the industry that was getting worse.

“It’s been problematic for the past five years, and continual regulatory changes from government are heightening the challenges,” she said.

“The concerns will be that there won’t be enough qualified and experienced property managers to be able to handle the day-to-day operations within real estate offices.”

Ms Calnan said she believed $100,000-plus packages were being pulled back from, with $80,000-$90,000 more common — but business owners were looking for non-financial ways to retain their staff.

“I don’t think it’s about the dollar figure, it’s more about having the support and having them want to do the role,” she said.

Ms Calnan says expectations for property managers have been rising.

The property management professional said she believed most were spending closer to a few years in the industry, many were giving up on careers early in response to a mix of rising demands from government regulation and increasing expectations from renters and landlords.

“People have much higher expectations from response times to communications style, and when they want something fixed, it’s now,” Ms Calnan said.

In Victoria, where there has been more than 150 regulatory changes and more coming, Ms Calnan said the complexity of the job was increasing and that it was now a long way from the entry-level role it was viewed as 30 years ago.

Real Estate Buyers Agents Association of Australia president Melinda Jennison said she too was hearing concerning feedback about the difficulty of retaining property managers around Australia, and that she believed $100,000 job offers were still being made.

Ms Jennison said it would be concerning if experience was lost from the industry as it was a vital role, particularly amid growing demand for interstate investment.

REBAA president Melinda Jennison is also concerned about what further losses to property manager roles could mean for investors.

“And the quality of that management could fall away if we don’t continue to encourage people to stay in the industry,” she said.

Mr Bateman said one of the trickier things to navigate now was the emotional load of the job.

“There’s a market now that’s desperate for housing,” he said.

“You might have 20 or 30 people inquire for a property and then you can only have good news for one or two. And all that emotion can weigh pretty heavily on a property manager who has to give the bad news.

“There’s a considerable burn out risk there. And there’s a considerable impact to mental health and wellbeing.”

He said while software firms like his could help find ways to speed up the work of property professionals via automation and streamlining, there were limitations being set on what the technology could do by older legislation.