Business South March 2021

116 | The Bellevue Retirement Village LIFESTYLE The care centre also includes north facing cosy lounges, a library and activities space. A new product from growing property maintenance irm K South Commercial Property Services is set to help investors and landlords in body corporates to ful il their new requirements under Section 84 of the Unit Titles Act, which now requires them to have a maintenance budget and a third party to complete a long-term maintenance forecast. K South Commercial Property Services, started in Christchurch by Kerry Robb six years ago, nowworks alongside developers, property managers, and commercial property owners to provide both proactive and reactive commercial property maintenance, as well as the services the company started out in - programmed maintenance in subdivisions. Kerry took out a $10,000 overdraft to start his business, and K South’s growth has been quick and considerable. “The irst year we turned over $150,000, and now we’re just about to do $2 million,” he says. “We’ve grown substantially and I’m pretty stoked.” Kerry now has a sta of 14 and a tight network of tradespeople and K South provides a one stop shop for commercial property needs between Christchurch and Dunedin, including the West Coast. He has a degree in valuation and property management and has always worked around the construction industry, where he saw a niche in the less glamourous side of the property sector. “I’m just entrepreneurial,” he says. “Growing up I was the kid who was always peddling stu at school. I’ve got a bit of a knack for inding an opportunity.” K South - Commercial Property Services In line with the growth of K South, Kerry has been able to build up his own property portfolio, and K South ful ils all of his own planned maintenance requirements. “It’s the art of leverage. I bought my irst home in Oamaru, also with $10,000, and as the value went up I would leverage o of it. Don’t get me wrong, there were hard times early on, times when there was $6 left in the bank after paying the wages, but it has been a learning curve.” Looking forward with K South’s o ering, and the fact that low interest rates have seen investors pull money out of banks in favour of putting it into more tangible investments, Kerry’s new company KEPT will o er long-termmaintenance forecasting for body corporate members, providing them assurance they are ful illing their legal obligations as well as maintaining their assets. “With more mum and dad investors going into commercial property, KEPT can come in and help that investor who may not have that skill set around maintenance. We can look after the whole property from irrigation and hard space maintenance through to washing down the building, clearing the gutters, ix a leak, get the sparky in to install a plug. That’s what we do and that’s what we’re about.” KEPT can help to make life easier for the investor, keeping them informed as to which maintenance issues are coming up and what e ect they are going to have, so there are no surprises. KEPT will also provide a inance package to help body corporate members to budget for planned maintenance. 021 932 732 kerry@ksouth.nz Commercial Property Services