Dec 12, 2007
Western Australia has been experiencing an unprecedented boom in
the property market over the past few years. And while many
believed the market was ready to stagnate or even decline for some
time, recent data from the Real Estate Institute of WA (REIWA)
shows otherwise. REIWA reported a 2.4 percent increase in
Perth and a 3 percent increase in Bunbury for the September 2007
quarter, showing that both metro and regional areas are still
growing.
While this continued property market rise means different things to
different people, one thing is for sure—it’s meant huge demand for
property maintenance and services companies, such as The Airlec
Group of Companies, which was founded on providing air
conditioning, electrical and general building maintenance
repairs.
Airlec Air Conditioning and Electrical was the original speciality
for The Airlec Group, with the team providing all AC and electrical
requirements to the commercial, government and residential sectors
since 2000. The team soon carved out a niche for itself in
the property services market, steadily building an impressive list
of real estate and property management companies as it serviced the
electrical and AC requirements for rental properties under the care
of firms like LJ Hooker, Ockerby, The Professionals and Raine &
Horne.
In response to demand for similar high-quality work across a
broader range of general building and maintenance areas, The Group
expanded to include Airlec Property Services, which comprises a
team of experienced, licensed trades people such as plumbers and
carpenters in addition to the AC and electrical team. Now
Airlec also provides general building and property maintenance
services to these same property management firms.
Sustainable growth
With more people turning to property as their key investment
strategy, the demand for property maintenance services is enormous
and still growing.
“The property services division of Airlec has really moved up over
the past 6-12 months,” said Mr. Robert Hewer, Director of Sales and
Marketing with The Airlec Group of Companies. “However we
must manage our growth carefully, as while there is plenty of work
out there, we have to ensure we have the right number of trades
people to perform the work—and they must be highly-experienced and
licensed. We’ll never let our standards slip and we don’t
promise something we can’t deliver.”
Indeed WA’s currently tight labour market and unwavering demand for
trades people is one of The Airlec Group’s biggest challenges as it
seeks sustainable growth for its WA-based business. With many
of its property management clients being large national companies,
coupled with the bigger pool of available qualified trades people
in the Eastern States, The Group may consider opportunities outside
its home state of WA at an appropriate time.