INTERVIEW
Seeing the
Opinion
BIG PICTURE
leSley DaviS
talks to Jonathan Smith, Managing director of one of the UK’s largest property managers, Trinity Estates Jonathan Smith iS a relative newcomer
to the leasehold sector. A professional background in accountancy brought him to property via insurance, contract cleaning and IT, where he worked for a range of mediumsized companies turning over between £15m - £60m per annum. “This gave me the benefit of being involved in the overall structure of companies and an insight into how they operate both within their own industry and the wider market,” he explains. Having worked briefly for Christie & Co, Jonathan’s first real exposure to the property industry was when he joined Trinity in 2004. Initially responsible for developing the accounting and operational functions - which soon expanded due to rapid growth he was appointed managing director in 2008. “I steadily became involved in all areas of the company and soon realised that residential management was very much a developing industry where we as a company could make a positive contribution and so could I by steering that company.” Trinity was very much in its infancy when Jonathan joined, with just over 3,000 units under management. Eight years later the company is managing 40,000 homes. So to what does Jonathan attribute Trinity’s success to-date and what has driven its exponential growth? “Our success is down to hard work and actually listening to client requirements” he says. “We have made some big mistakes but we were quick to realise them, learn from them and prevent them happening again. We were also big enough to admit to those mistakes, which goes a long way in this market.” Trinity’s directors also realised that property management was their core business. “Unlike some others we took the commercial decision not to diversify into other disciplines and so have avoided distractions from the job of providing a professional management service,” Jonathan explains. A recent change within the structure of the company has been for Trinity to merge a number
of sites previously managed by London-based property managers Chainbow into a Trinity Chainbow brand soon to be rebranded as ‘Trinity London’. The thinking behind this decision was that although Trinity has a very strong regional presence elsewhere in the country, there was a need to strengthen the client base in London. “This enables us to attract more proficient managers and provide a better service to our residents and developer clients, fully tailored to life in the capital,” Jonathan explains. In some instances property management can be a
Jonathan Smith: property is our core business
numbers game and the more sites you have in a given area the more cost effective and responsive you can be, he says. “By acquiring the Chainbow sites we have a greater capacity to deliver an improved service more effectively.” Trinity is one of the largest managing agents in the country but Jonathan Smith doesn’t regard it as operating like a big company and is keen to provide a friendly and professional local service to clients. “Although we deliver a service to 600 sites across England and Wales and run a back office function from our head office in Hertfordshire, we actually operate seven regional business units which allow us to
Seven business units...allow us to deliver our services at a local level deliver our services at a local level,” says Jonathan. This enables Trinity to employ local staff who operate from a home office and can source local contractors. Despite this focus on ‘localism’, there are instances when Trinity is able to use its
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