This month marks thirty years since Duncan Rendall and Matt Rittner founded their residential property management company, Rendall & Rittner.
It has grown to become a market leading independent business, responsible for a growing portfolio that currently stands at 70,000 units.
Over the past three decades, the property management sector has expanded and evolved, as its requirements have become more complex and wider reaching, now encompassing diverse asset types including build to rent and retirement living.
In an industry where the majority of businesses are small – 80% of ARMA (Association of Residential Managing Agents) member firms manage fewer than 4,000 units – Duncan and Matt spotted a gap in the market to scale up a business that focused on delivering consistently outstanding levels of service to its clients and lessees, as well as striving to offer best value for money.
Duncan Rendall commented:
“There was no guarantee that the business would be successful – Matt and I came from different backgrounds but we trusted each other and had similar outlook on things, which is one of the strengths of the business.
“We’ve always gone the extra mile to solve problems for clients and thirty years on, here we are.”
The results speak for themselves – last year Rendall & Rittner received client income in excess of £300M and its portfolio includes many of London’s largest and most prestigious new developments such as Royal Arsenal, Chelsea Waterfront, St George Wharf and Greenwich Millennium Village.
The business has also focused on significant growth outside of London and manages some of the most notable developments including Beetham Tower and Leftbank in Manchester and Ocean Village Marina in Southampton.
The fundamental principle of the business from the outset was to take a people-centred approach to property management and invest heavily in staff.
With 480 employees within head office and over 1,500 on site, they are the company’s most valuable asset and through a clear commitment to investing in training and trusting them to do their job, Rendall & Rittner has created a strong culture that values the contribution of individuals.
Matt Rittner explains:
“We have employed some of the best people in the industry, we pay them well, and we have numerous staff benefits and excellent training.
“This has allowed us to develop a team with outstanding experience, we offer them excellent career progression within the company and in turn, we can guarantee the highest levels of service to our customers and stakeholders from staff at every level.”
Another key characteristic of the way the company operates is its innovative approach to solving any problems in its way.
When Rendall & Rittner wanted to find a way to attract new talent to the business, it launched the first ever apprenticeship in Housing and Property Management through the Government’s Trailblazer scheme, alongside its thriving graduate programme.
At the other end of the staffing spectrum, in order to give the hands-on senior management team more insight, the directors undertake regular ‘back to the floor’ days giving them give them first-hand experience of staff roles.
In recent years sustainability has risen up the agenda and Rendall & Rittner has embraced it in its widest sense.
It has introduced many initiatives to promote greener living across its developments including an £11.5 million contract with Ecotricity, Britain’s greenest energy provider, to supply 100% renewable electricity to over 80% of its property portfolio.
But it is also committed to the sustainability of its communities and has developed a market leading community engagement programme with a dedicated Community Engagement Manager creating tailored events to drive neighbourliness and fellow feeling within each individual community.
Duncan Rendall:
“If anything, resident expectations are higher than ever so we are always looking at ways to add more value.
“Our Residents’ Club is an excellent example of how we are going above and beyond in our offering.
“It provides access to exclusive events such as West End theatre trips, but is also a way for people to socialise and build connections with their community, which is something that so many people value.”
As the business moves forward, investing in the latest technology will also be key to improving residents’ experience and enabling staff to do their jobs as well as they can.
The company uses a comprehensive online resident portal to make communication and administration straightforward and efficient, providing transparent updates to the customer, for example, live data on maintenance requests.
During lockdown technology has played an even more important role in the way staff have done their jobs.
Guided by the company’s clearly defined values and mindset and backed by a strong team, Duncan and Matt are confident that their experiences and successes of the past 30 years will allow the business to continue to develop and thrive.
These the companies charging crazy lease prices? Wonder if the tenants love them.
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Customer reviews 1 star 29% on ‘Trust Pilot’ seem to suggest when it goes pear shaped, they ignore responsibilities.
1 star 77% reviews on ‘All Agents’ go along the same lines and theme ……
The most appalling company I’ve ever encountered – avoid at all costs! Rendall & Rittner charge an extortionate management fee and to me as a resident have offered no value whatsoever. They don’t respond to phone calls or emails or make contact when they say they will and take no responsibility for seeing projects through. A have had water damage affecting my property for years with no action or resolution on their part – only corporate apathy with absolutletly no knowledge of their own projects or any semblance of professional conduct. They have wasted hours of my time and have left me feeling very frustrated and stressed that I’m not able to fix this issue despite contributing to their hefty fee.
Considering the number of awards they claim, that is a big surprise or should one be asking how many agents they competed with in those competitions and were they actually managing agent related?
Those with experience in lettings industry will soon work out how many members of staff you would need to service that large 70,000 units prortfolio and I doubt many have ever heard of them.
Noticeable is there has been a declared loss in key personnel in their accounts 2019 and this story on PIE has a strong whiff as a recruitment advert.
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Felt compelled to reply on a couple of points with the caveat I used to be a Managing Agent and now work as a supplier to this company and multiple others throughout the sector whether lettings, block or commercial managers.
Firstly there is, in the review you quote, a huge misunderstanding common amongst many leaseholders – whilst they do pay the managing agent a large sum per annum (anywhere up to 10k a year depending on location and services onsite) the average fee the agent charges for themselves is around £300 per flat per annum with a range of £150 to maybe £500. The rest of those monies cover the buildings insurance, concierge and cleaning staff or contracts, M&E contracts, Fire Assessments, communal electricity, sinking fund contributions, all repairs etc, etc. Industry average profit margins are 8%. Managing agents suffer from this lack of understanding and lack of provided knowledge to potential buyers from many sources whether it be developers or especially conveyancers (who should take them through their lease extensively prior imo).
Secondly, you refer to knowing how many staff it takes to run 70k lettings portfolio but the two are nowhere near analogous; a good block property manager would usually be responsible for around 1000 flats (as that responsibility is the common parts only) over multiple sites; actually the less sites the higher that number can be as it is far harder to manage 100 sites of 10 than 10 of 100.
Within the block management industry in the UK these are probably the 3rd or 4th largest players in the market and a well-known name in an industry that is not really well known at all. I have been a sponsor, entrant and attendee at some of those awards and although the specific sector is less well known than other parts of the wider property market most categories would have 10 to 20 entrants who combined collect and manage well over a £1 billion pounds of service charges a year.
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The only misunderstanding by leaseholders is they don’t like parting with money and not get the service promised. It is made perfectly clear before they sign the lease …. it is in the lease!
70,000 units is still 70,000 units that require management however one dresses it up with staff levels. To suggest one manager can cope with 1000 units … no problems with communal areas = not manageable with hours in the day. With problems = jobs don’t get done and seems in-line with the poor reviews.
“……… a well-known name in an industry that is not really well known at all”. Trying to work that one out! Shouldn’t that read not well known name, in a well known industry? and that brings me back to the hurrah over awards …. selective and limited interest, only of value to not really well known industry.
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I am not sure if you have been a Block Manager before but 1000 units is exactly the target for most in the industry to run. Done over, for example, 10 sites that is perfectly reasonably and like a Lettings Manager looking after circa 90 properties due to the remit. That does pre-suppose suitable admin, PMA or inbound support. The issue is those companies that unfortunately expect a lot more – sometimes upto 1800 units that cause the issue.
My experience over 15+ years is that most do not understand their lease and thats why we, for every site used to produce a precis of it and building guide that was far more detailed than conveyancing advice. Every day now we get calls with leaseholders believing that the Managing Agent is responsible for internal defects in their flat so there is definately an educational gap for a high percentage of flat purchasers.
I don’t understand your comment about not being not well known – Block Management isn’t that well known a part of the wider property industry despite its importance and looking after billions of pounds of assets but everyone in the industry knows of the company in this article. I think the work managing agents do should be valued much higher given expertise required in multiple facets but obviously I would say that.
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