Southeast Asia, which has been experiencing rapid economic growth in recent years, has become a popular real estate investment target for foreign investors. With the high housing prices of today and changes to personal finance concepts, the number of renters in various countries is increasing every day. JGB Smart Property is focused on the high demand for long-term housing rentals in Southeast Asia and has developed a comprehensive rental SaaS management platform to provide automated management for real-estate rental companies.
In Taiwan, the Rental Housing Market Development and Regulation Act has been implemented since 2017 in order to provide a stable housing environment for renters and to avoid rental disputes by borrowing complete housing rental systems from other countries. Through the application of new technologies, the Taiwan rental market is gradually implementing professional corporate management like the Japanese, European, and American markets. It is predicted that within three years, long-term housing rentals in Taiwan will develop brands and define the image of the Taiwanese rental market. Furthermore, new branded apartments with specialized units and high-quality services will attract the younger demographic and lead new trends in real-estate technologies. In the contactless economy during the COVID-19 pandemic, JGB Smart has provided a cloud property management system in order to reduce face to face contact between renters and landlords and help renters find suitable housing. Through digital transformation technologies and the strengthening of rental party relationship protection, JGB Smart has rapidly grown its customer base since its establishment.
Joanna Tien, co-founder of JGB Smart, pointed out that rental management companies need to manage dozens of properties and more than half use paper or MS excel to record contracts, property information, etc. Only some large companies use property asset management tools. With the introduction of rental specific laws by the Taiwan government, it is expected that the number of properties managed by rental management companies will greatly increase. With management efficiency and labor costs in mind, these companies must rely on the assistance of a comprehensive property management system. This trend has allowed JGB Smart to develop the JGB Smart Property Management System designed for the real-estate industry based on its in-depth industry experience and mature cloud technology. Traditional rental property management companies can subscribe to the system and utilize the most advanced and efficient management platform for a monthly fee.
Reducing 75% of the steps, saving 70% of the time
The members of the JGB Smart team have extensive international real-estate investment as well as property and facility management experience. By mirroring the rental management industries of Europe, the US, and Japan, which are much more developed, the team has acquired a deep understanding of the traditional processes of rental property management companies and the troubles of property management. On average, property management involves more than 60 steps every month for each property from property development, marketing, moving in renters, current renters, moving out renters, etc. Therefore, the team started with the idea of comprehensive management since the beginning of the JGB Smart Property Management System development cycle. The main focus was to include all property management processes through highly automated mechanisms, and with cloud service payment model, reduce the operating costs of property management companies. JGB Smart analyzed companies who introduced the JGB Smart Property Management System and found that work processes were reduced by 45 steps, and processing time was reduced by 70%.
Tien stated that traditional property management tools are based on the properties and may not be integrated with the company's work processes. The JGB Smart Property Management System pre-integrates the functions needed by the property management companies, investors, third party service providers, and renters to vertically integrate the real-estate rental industry, offering a wide scope of applications. Besides the basic functions of property sources, rental contracts, rent, and repair management, as well as delivery and return, the management system also provides smart door lock functions, smart electricity meters, and an overview dashboard to help companies manage properties with ease. Furthermore, the system supports multiple languages. When a foreigner needs to rent a property, they can also easily understand the content of the rental agreement, reducing the barrier of communication between both parties. Local and international investors can also use the system tool to understand the status of their investments.
TTA connects international resources to enter the Southeast Asia markets
In the next two years, JGB Smart plans to expand the Taiwan market from the greater Taipei area to the whole of Taiwan, in order to attract rental property management companies of different sizes. In terms of the overseas markets, the company will focus on major cities in Southeast Asia, such as Ho Chi Minh City, Manila, Kuala Lumpur, and Bangkok, then expand its services to surrounding cities.
With the help of Taiwan Tech Arena, JGB Smart has successfully secured investments from the National Development Fund and gained access to international markets. Members of the JGB Smart team have also utilized the connections they made in the past when investing in international real estate and have successfully entered the markets of Southeast Asian countries, such as Singapore, Vietnam, the Philippines, and Malaysia. Moreover, JGB Smart has partnered with several technology companies in Taiwan to use software and hardware to further solve the real issues of users. And by integrating AIoT, 5G, big data analyses, and more, create smart cities of the future for the Taiwan market and seize new opportunities in the overseas markets.
(Editor's note: The original article was published in TTA Magazine Issue 10. Read more startup stories in TTA Magazines.)
JGB Smart Property's team
Photo: JGB Smart
