THE RAPIDLY EVOLVING and increasingly competitive estates management market calls for new human resources and innovative management practices to stay ahead of the pack.
This is because customers tend to make up for the small size of their flats by living in luxurious developments with clubhouses and swimming pools, and as a result have become very demanding as far as services go.
Sino Estates Management aims to provide clubhouse services on a par with those of a five-star hotel, with the additional warmth and friendliness of a home.
'We are looking to provide a lifestyle, a warm environment, a friendly environment,' said Nicole Arnoux, senior manager of club and recreation. 'Some clubhouses, or even hotels, are very polite, yes, but they can be cold. The difference is not obvious but you feel it through your experience when you come in.
'With hotels, the guests come in perhaps once a month or once a year. They are business people. Here we see the residents more as friends, as family, because they live here,' she said.
The increased demand for estate management services was partially the result of changes in the property market, Ms Arnoux said.
A few years ago, flat owners often saw their properties only as a means to make money, but the scenario changed when prices fell.