Real Estate Matters | Who’s looking after your staff ? Renting a property can be a traumatic experience at the best of times

Juliet Risdon

Juliet Risdon is a Director of JML Property and a property investor.
Having established the company in 1994, JML Property offers Investment Property & Homes. It specializes in managing properties for owners and investors, and providing attractive and comfortable homes for tenants.

When we consider that many people arriving in Macau are also experiencing a high degree of culture shock, the stress levels go off the charts.
It’s hardly surprising that some people have such a difficult experience that they make an immediate decision to leave Macau ASAP. From the moment they set foot in Macau they are already applying for jobs elsewhere.
The cost of finding, enticing, hiring, re-locating and training new staff is phenomenal, and very few companies in Macau are able to discuss staff retention with a smile on their face.
Minimizing the stress associated with housing will not solve the problem of course. However, it does go a long way to making people feel more comfortable in their environment.
If you have lived here for a while, you may have already forgotten the amount of anxiety and stress caused by property related matters. The main complaints from new arrivals are:

1. We don’t have anyone to communicate with who speaks our language.

2. We don’t have bank accounts set up, making it impossible to pay rent, bills and transfer money easily.

3. We don’t know who to contact to arrange repairs or improvement work in the property.

Of course there are many more issues, but these top 3 themes seem to re-occur in almost every conversation with new arrivals.
Many employers have a liaison person now who can help with these issues, but they may still fall short when it comes to property administration issues.
Along with a few other companies, we started offering Tenant Administration services some years ago, helping companies and individuals pay rents and bills and offering an administration back up service.
Despite putting the message out constantly, we still find that corporates and individual tenants are sometimes surprised to find these services exist, and whilst there are not many companies taking care of the administration and bill payments, they are out there.
If you would like more information, let us know by e mail and we will be happy to share what we have with you.

www.JMLProperty.com
info@JMLProperty.com