| 33 Aspire Property Management REGIONAL DEVELOPMENT T T Karen Phelps Transforming property management Established in 2012, Aspire now manages close to 1200 residential and commercial properties across Auckland, Hamilton and Tauranga. Aspire Property Management is embracing artificial intelligence in a way few New Zealand businesses have attempted, with founder and managing director Mike Atkinson developing a proprietary platform designed to transform the way rental properties are managed. The Auckland-based company has spent the past nine months building and refining a new system, known as Aspire Intelligence, an AI-powered layer that sits across the software the company already uses, and automates many of the time-consuming tasks traditionally handled manually by property managers. “For years, every property management company in New Zealand has been working from the same toolbox,” says Mike. “Everyone uses the same platforms for trust accounting, maintenance, applications and listings. They’re good tools, but they have limits. With Aspire Intelligence we are really doing something no other property management company is doing. It’s about using AI to make things better for landlords and tenants.” Instead of waiting for software providers to innovate, Mike began building solutions himself with the help of AI coding tools. The result is a system designed to act like an intelligent assistant working alongside every property manager in the business. One of the platform’s key functions is monitoring communication. Aspire Intelligence reads incoming emails, identifies urgency or frustration, and prepares draft responses before flagging important issues to staff. At the end of each day the system also produces a company-wide digest highlighting accounts or conversations that may require attention. “What this means is a small issue doesn’t sit there for three days before someone notices it,” says Mike. “The AI helps surface problems early so we can respond faster and communicate better.” The platform is also capable of reading and interpreting large volumes of paperwork, including tenancy agreements, applications, tribunal orders and invoices. Information is automatically extracted and organised, allowing staff to spend less time processing documents and more time making decisions. “The property manager still makes the call,” says Mike. “But they’re making it with the document fully understood, not skimmed.” Another major advantage comes from the way Aspire Intelligence pulls information together from multiple systems. Traditionally, property managers have needed to manually search through separate databases for maintenance records, payment histories, emails and tenancy information. Mike says the AI can now assemble comprehensive property briefings in minutes. “A human is always in the loop, but they’re a human reading a complete briefing instead of a human chasing fragments,” he says. The system is also helping Aspire provide more evidence-based rent reviews by searching live market data from rental and real estate websites to compare local pricing trends. “When we recommend a number, we can show owners exactly why,” Mike says. While artificial intelligence has raised fears in some industries about jobs being replaced, Mike says Aspire’s focus is on enhancing staff performance, rather than removing people. “Property management is a business of thousands of small details every month,” he says. “Aspire Intelligence doesn’t replace our property managers. It gives every one of them a research analyst, a copywriter, a document-reading assistant and a coach running in the background.” Established in 2012, Aspire now manages close to 1200 residential and commercial properties across Auckland, Hamilton and Tauranga, with the business recently recording its biggest month ever after signing more than 50 new customers in April. Mike believes Aspire Intelligence will be a game changer for his firm and is only beginning to see what it can achieve. “We are totally embracing AI technology to make people’s lives better. That’s what a property management platform looks like when AI isn’t just a feature. It becomes the foundation.” Trusted by Property Managers Responsive and reliable Covering the greater Auckland area 0800 426 444 info@watertightplumbing.co.nz watertightplumbing.co.nz NEED A RELIABLE, VERSATILE PLUMBER IN AUCKLAND? FROM NEW BUILDS TO RENOVATIONS, WE ARE YOUR ONE-STOP PLUMBING AND GASFITTING EXPERTS CONTACT US 022 064 4317 admin@bluelineplumbing.co.nz Residential Plumbing and Maintenance Commercial Plumbing and Gasfitting Gas Applicance Conversions Drain Maintenance/Water Main Repairs Solar Hot Water Installation and Maintenance Underfloor Heating and Radiators
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