WHERE LIFE FINDS YOU

Managing a diverse portfolio of properties is no easy feat, but LOAMS – DAMAC’s community management arm – does an outstanding job

A host of sporting facilities are available in the master communities

Keep the little ones entertained at the Pet Farm

Earlier this year, DAMAC Properties’ community management arm, LOAMS (Luxury Owners Association Management Company), was recognised by the Dubai Land Department (DLD), through the Real Estate Regulatory Agency (RERA) for its outstanding level of service. The long list of accomplishments included the department’s initiatives in managing its communities and buildings, working closely with RERA to implement community rules and regulations, ensuring minimal complaints are received from customers as well as prompt, efficient and appropriate action towards customer concerns. The team’s approach to communicating regularly with property owners and relevant committees through meetings and consultations as well as continuous engagement across all properties in the DAMAC portfolio was also acknowledged.

While the recognition is part of the DLD’s efforts to encourage best practices and service excellence among facilities management companies in Dubai, Said ElHaouasli, Vice President –Facilities Management and General Manager of LOAMS, explained: “We are delighted that our work is being recognised by the DLD and RERA; however, awards are not our ultimate objective; customer satisfaction is.”

LOAMS currently manages and administers 107 JOPs (jointly owned properties), including 61 buildings and 46 clusters across the master communities in the DAMAC portfolio – DAMAC Hills and DAMAC Hills 2 – exceeding 39,000 units.

“In 2014, we implemented a yearly customer satisfaction survey, which is now an ongoing process. This gives us an indication of what is working and what is not. In our most recent survey, we had 11,000 participants, while this year, we are targeting 20,000, which is quite good as it gives us a fair indication in terms of community representation. And I can proudly say that we usually achieve 85 per cent and above in our customer satisfaction rates. Of course, there are always areas for improvement and our team works hard to find solutions to overcome any challenges.”

Residents enjoy access to a skating park

A WORLD OF AMENITIES

LOAMS’ high customer satisfaction rates can be attributed to the team’s efforts in efficiently managing every aspect of community life. “Our goal is to add life to the community. In essence, we make the community come alive through various initiatives, amenities, activities and events,” explained ElHaouasli.

“Across DAMAC’s portfolio, we provide a range of unique amenities that one may not find elsewhere. For example, in our master community of DAMAC Hills, residents will find a petting farm, artificial lakes for fishing, jogging tracks, skating parks and sporting facilities for football, handball and volleyball. We offer a range of activities to cater to residents’ various needs. We also have Malibu Bay, the first wave pool to ever be built in a residential community in the UAE, which, for residents, means that a beach experience is just a few steps away from their homes.

“In the DAMAC buildings that we manage, residents also have access to the lounges for meetings or private events, available for free upon booking. Then, to cater to even the most basic needs, we have supermarkets and pharmacies within easy reach.

“Such facilities are an important part of any community. It is critical to investors as it helps maintain high occupancy levels and it is great for residents as it is these amenities that keep them engaged.”

To complement these unique features, LOAMS also has a dedicated events management team in place to add an element of entertainment to community life. The team is tasked with organising a year-round calendar of events to cater to different interest groups. This means that residents can participate in a host of activities, including Zumba classes, yoga sessions, sporting tournaments and special workshops for junior residents.

“We are lucky to have a great events team in place and I’m proud to say that we are the only community management company that has an active events budget as part of our service charges structure. Also, we follow a participative approach to organising events, which means that we take suggestions from our residents and schedule our calendars according to their feedback.”

Clearly, this is a winning formula, given the customer satisfaction ratings of residents in the community. “When you look at our communities, about 10 per cent of the units are occupied by owners; the remaining are all tenants. When our tenants are happy, they stay longer. Our records show that most of our tenants have stayed with us for up to seven years. This is testimony to our unique facilities, good services and the quality of our residential projects. What ultimately makes us happy is when these tenants convert to become owners – and we have a lot of such cases.”

The LOAMS team at the IRECMS awards

BEHIND THE SCENES

While managing these facilities, amenities and events is an integral part of community management at LOAMS, ElHaouasli said that this is just one component. “Community management needs to be seen from different perspectives. From the developer’s perspective, you are perceived as the post-sales service team, as the services provided by the facilities management team add value to the developer’s brand.

“Once the product is delivered by the developer, the service on that product lasts nearly a lifetime with the homeowner and that is what makes it very important. This could include everything from making provisions for cleaning and lift maintenance to implementing visitor management systems. Of course, there are services that are mandatory and there are others that add value. But if you look at any DAMAC property, we follow consistency in the way we deliver these operations. This is why when someone visits one of our properties, they instantly know it’s a DAMAC property.”

ElHaouasli added that legal conformance and compliance is yet another important aspect of community management. “There are different rules and regulations that apply based on the location of the property and, at LOAMS, we have to ensure that we are in compliance with those laws. This usually governs our costing models, service charge models as well as our invoicing methods.

“Each of these aspects is significant. Compliance is important to the legislators you work with. The post-sale aspect is important to bring life to the developer’s product and, finally, the quality of our services is what keeps residents and tenants happy. In fact, people choose DAMAC as their developer because we manage to tick all the boxes, in terms of the quality of the product, the quality of our amenities, our well-established legal procedures and the standards of community management that we follow.”

TRANSPARENCY TO IMPROVE CUSTOMER CONFIDENCE

A few years ago, the Dubai Land Department introduced an online system – mollak – to ensure transparency for joint property ownership in real estate. The aim was to create transparency in owners’ associations, enable registration of maintenance companies and keep track of their escrow accounts and service charges. Under this system, unit owners can now pay service charges directly into the portal to avoid any chances of impending conflicts or inconvenience.

“In November 2019, a new law made provisions to form committees within the community encompassing resident owners. And this has positively impacted transparency within the community as it gives the committee members the chance to witness the services that they are paying for and also judge the quality of these services. This also gives them the opportunity to participate in reviewing and signing off on budgets.

“At DAMAC, we have always provided the results of the financial audits to the committee. Also, we became the first management company to register the clusters in our master communities in mollak. While others use manual methods, in the case of DAMAC Properties, homeowners receive invoices directly from mollak. All of these changes combined have made a good impact on our operations and the new law only adds an extra layer of transparency.”