LähiTapiola

INTRODUCTION

LähiTapiola Real Estate Asset Management chose Falcony in late 2018 to support the quality management of the properties it owns. Based on his experience, Environmental Manager Eero Kokkonen can recommend the system to other similar organisations.

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“Tenants are increasingly expecting responsibility and more accurate quality from landlords. We wanted to meet the need with the right management tools. Falcony helps us to manage quality more proactively, and in the end, the increase in the overall appearance of the property is reflected in tenant satisfaction”, Kokkonen says.

At LähiTapiola Real Estate Management, real estate audits and inspections are performed by both their own personnel and the employees of the service provider Realia Management. In addition, the measures revealed during inspections, which are the responsibility of maintenance companies or other parties, are also monitored directly within the system.

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COMPANY‍

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LähiTapiola Real Estate Asset Management is one of Finland's largest property owners, managing more than EUR 2.5 billion in real estate assets. It is part of the LähiTapiola Group, which consists of LähiTapiola P&C Insurance, regional companies, LähiTapiola Life and LähiTapiola Asset Management.

LähiTapiola Real Estate Asset Management serves the tenant customers of more than 50 commercial properties and more than 100 residential properties. They have approximately 50 own employees that work in close collaboration with the outsourced real estate management provided by Realia Management. The company's goal is to be the most responsible real estate asset manager in Finland.

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CHALLENGES BEFORE FALCONY

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“For as long as I can remember, the real estate industry has lacked a systematic way to look at the quality of maintenance. Too often, quality culminates in the response time to maintenance measures, but that doesn't tell the whole truth: only the tip of the iceberg comes as fault reports and the quality experienced by customers can differ much from the quality implemented by maintenance”, says Kokkonen.

Ideas for quality development in the real estate industry are rooted in how better maintenance quality should also improve user satisfaction, leading to longer leases and better rent levels in an increasingly competitive environment.

‍"Our goal was to have a systematised and harmonised process to monitor the quality of maintenance so that we could involve our service providers by making it easy and meaningful for them to collaborate", Kokkonen continues.

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IMPLEMENTATION

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After comparing several options, LähiTapiola Real Estate Asset Management decided to choose Falcony due to its mobile features and coverage of reporting. "Examining such a large real estate mass emphasizes both ease of use in the field and the flexibility of reporting up to the portfolio level", says Kokkonen.

The essential requirements of LähiTapiola Real Estate Asset Management included the easy introduction of new audit templates and the adaptability of existing ones due to the diversity of the real estate portfolio. "The forms we currently use include inspections of the handover and acceptance of leased premises, an overview of the property, from which we can track much of the non-traditional quality aspects, and an annual audit to monitor the more technical aspects of the property and ensure that legal obligations are met."

RESULTS AND BENEFITS

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LähiTapiola has been satisfied with the usability of the system and the reporting possibilities it brings, so Kokkonen recommends the tool to other property owners and service providers: "The system provides easy access to reports that can be filtered by site and the nature of the inspection, and also by premises and housing sites, helping to compare and monitor the overall quality."

The versatility of the platform has quickly come to the fore with its use, and LähiTapiola has plans to add new templates to the system, from housing inspections to service providers' self-monitoring and self-assessments. “Best of all, deficiencies in all different inspection forms are directly attributed to maintenance companies and other important stakeholders. The turnaround time is reduced and the progress of the process can be monitored from the beginning to the end with photographs and additional information”, Kokkonen ends.