Real Estate Investor Magazine South Africa May/ June 2020 | Page 22

MANAGING
How to juggle a multitude
of responsibilities
The value of sub-metering in real estate
W
hether it’s modernising existing infrastructure,
building richer customer relationships or
streamlining admin, sub-metering solutions are
increasingly recognised as powerful solutions in the real
estate industry.
Their blend of reliable technology with accessible digital
tools and robust visibility has made them an invaluable
resource. Using modern and relevant sub-metering solutions,
real estate owners can improve how utilities are managed and
controlled without impacting on tenant delight.
“As the owner of any slice of real estate, you’re expected to
juggle a multitude of responsibilities, perfectly,” says Michael
Franze, Managing Director at Citiq Prepaid.
“Mistakes can not only cost you time, but reputation and
tenant happiness. One area that often gives real estate owners
a headache because it always takes a lot more time than it
should, is utilities. You have to ensure that bills are paid on
time, that the lights stay on, and that invoices are sent out
on time. You have to do all this while managing the vagaries
of municipality billing and tenant payments. Sub-metering
effectively solves all these problems in one.”
Investing into a reliable sub-metering system that’s easy to
use and install will immediately change the way you approach
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MAY/JUNE 2020 SA Real Estate Investor Magazine
and manage utilities. The tenants will take control of their
usage and spend which not only reduces the risk of non-
payment, but of them contesting charges. Instead of utility
usage split across different users, tenants are only charged for
what they use which makes a big difference. This means less
time spent managing complex tenant non-payment cases,
but also makes the way for far better relationship building.
“Our sub-metering platform offers the real estate owner
access to an online dashboard that provides them with instant
insight into meters, reports and payments,” says Franze.
“This offers you exceptional visibility into meter status and
payments with reports that can be fine tuned to suit your
specific requirements. This layer of transparency is extremely
beneficial in terms of building tenant trust but it also assures
of far more granular insight into utilities and potential
problems.”
Prepaid meters not only minimise admin and stress, but
maximise efficiency, transparency and payments. With Citiq
Prepaid, real estate owners gain access to an ecosystem
of prepaid meters, services, support and online data that
are designed to streamline processes and transform utility
management.
SOURCE Citiq Prepaid