In this article, we are going to explore how property management software development streamlines operations, enhances tenant experience, and boosts profitability for real estate owners. Plus, you will get a detailed guide on how to build a property management solution to perfectly fit your business needs.
Highlights:
- The property management software market size, valued at $5.51 billion in 2023, is expected to grow with an 8.9% CAGR until 2030.
- Property management software development helps drastically reduce administrative costs and minimize errors.
- Thanks to centralized communication, you will enhance tenant satisfaction as well as get faster issue resolution.
Building property management software (or shorty PMS) from scratch is no easy task. Without the right tools, business owners oftentimes face rising costs, missed opportunities, and dissatisfied tenants, which impact profitability. What’s more, real estate businesses often opt for ready-made solutions that may lack the necessary features and, thus, don’t provide the needed business value. Unlike them, custom property management solutions are built with your business needs in mind, making them a great fit for your company.
At Mind Studios, we know the issues property owners face, having worked with numerous clients in this industry. What’s more, we have the expertise to build custom solutions to meet their pain points head-on. For example, Mulki is a property management software we built for the MENA region.
Working with us means not only getting top-notch property software development and final product, but also enjoying a well-organized and professional working process. As one of our clients said:
“Their services are extremely fairly priced for the quality of the development you’re getting. They’re truly top-notch. They kept me in line the entire time and did a good job of prioritizing certain tasks over others.”
Interested in optimizing your property management and looking for a reliable software development company? Contact us today to start building a custom solution to fit your real estate needs.
Why a property management system is essential
A typical property manager spends about 20 hours a week on administrative tasks and 10 hours on financial ones. Sounds like a lot for a single person, right? Among the growing number of responsibilities are:
- Satisfying tenants’ needs. Each of your tenants is unique, having different preferences and needs. So, coordinating communication with all your tenants might feel like a full-time job itself, especially if you manage multiple properties.
- Overseeing all maintenance and repairs. Unfortunately, maintenance and repair requests never come at a convenient time. Still, they require you to act quickly to keep your tenants satisfied and to not turn manageable issues into major problems.
- Handling all properties effectively. Managing multiple properties adds to your tasks, including leasing, maintenance, and tenant relations. Plus, when the number of properties grows, so does the complexity of managing them.
- Balancing admin work. Focusing on admin work, which may take about 20 hours a week, as we found out, takes you away from focusing on strategic planning as well as growth opportunities.
- Making informed decisions. Without insights into your occupancy rates, cash flow, and maintenance costs, it’s very difficult to improve overall efficiency. What’s more, gathering the data manually is error-prone and time-consuming.
So, how does property management software implementation can tackle these and many other challenges and streamline operations? And what are the true advantages of the property management system?
Here is why implementing a well-designed property management system is crucial in 2024:
- PMS eliminates the hassle of scattered information as you have everything, from tenant details to lease agreements and payment schedules, in one place.
- It automates key processes that usually require lots of time and energy, namely invoicing, maintenance requests from tenants, lease renewals, and more. As a result, you handle tasks consistently, on schedule, and error-free.
- Property management systems improve accuracy in transactions and enable real-time financial tracking.
- They also allow you to stay connected with your tenants, thus enhancing their happiness and satisfaction.
- PMS gives you visual insights into your operations so that you can make data-driven decisions and optimize your business.
“The real estate sector is evolving rapidly, so many property owners search for ways to manage their portfolios more effectively. And the right software can make all the difference. After working with numerous clients from this industry, we've seen how custom software not only resolves most of the real estate owners' challenges but also unlocks growth potential as well as cost savings for the real estate business. The key to building a property management system that brings lasting value is to design a solution that adapts to the client’s needs and scales together with your business.”
— says Dmytro Dobrytskyi, the CEO of Mind Studios.
Key features to include in your property management software
Now that you know the importance of such systems, you are probably wondering what PMS capabilities, or rather, what features you should add to your property management solution. Spoiler alert: The key here is to include those that would help you tackle your common business issues.
Here is a list of key functionalities that will skyrocket your efficiency:
| Tenant and lease management | Allows the centralization of tenant data, lease agreements, as well as payment schedules in a single place. |
| Automated rent collection | Integrating payment gateways allows for automated invoicing as well as late fee calculations. This will save you time and enhance payment accuracy. |
| Maintenance management | A built-in maintenance module allows your tenants to submit requests directly, thus you get real-time tracking of the status. As a result, this significantly reduces the administrative workload and speeds up issue resolution. |
| Property listings and vacancy management | With this feature, you will be able to list your vacant property on multiple platforms simultaneously, as well as update availability in real time. |
| Reporting and analytics | Get insights into the occupancy rate, cash flow, or maintenance expenses with customizable reports and analytics. This helps a lot in making informed decisions. |
| Communication tools | In-app messaging and notifications can greatly improve tenant-landlord interactions, making communication more transparent and effective. |
Advanced features Mind Studios recommends adding
If you want to build a comprehensive and effective property and tenant management app, we recommend adding some of the following advanced features during PMS development:
- Auto compliance tracking. Ensures your properties always stay compliant with local laws and regulations by automatically tracking such information as inspection dates, safety standards, as well as document renewals.
- Virtual property tours. This feature allows your potential tenants to view listings remotely, thus accelerating the leasing process.
- Smart maintenance scheduling. With the help of IoT integration and data analytics, you can predict maintenance needs and enable proactive scheduling of repairs.
- Integrated energy and utility management. You can monitor and optimize energy usage with built-in tools for tracking water, electricity, or other utilities.
- Blockchain-based contract management. Employing blockchain allows for more secure and transparent contacts and lease agreements.
Mind Studios’ insight: We always follow the data-driven approach when prioritizing which features to add to a PMS. Thus, we analyze business challenges and conduct user research to align each feature with the user’s objective.
For example, when our client Ibrahim Said came to us with the idea of creating Mulki, he knew exactly which pains and problems local real estate owners in Saudi Arabia had and saw a huge opportunity in property management software development.
Together, after thorough research and surveys of real estate owners, we came up with a number of features that would aim to facilitate the lives of local business owners, namely:
- overview of the property portfolio
- smart scanning for standardized local contracts
- auto calculation plus calendar for expected payments
- support of the Islamic Hijri calendar
- notifications
- robust analytics
Moreover, we focused on creating a mobile app as there was little competition even though the local population was mainly mobile.
Don’t know which features your custom property management solution will need to better suit your pain points? Contact our tech team for a free consultation.
Let’s discuss
your tech
needs
Contact Mind Studios
Types of property management systems: Which one will fit your needs?
Each property type comes with a unique set of features and challenges. But with so many options out there, how do you know which PMS will fit your needs better?
Let’s find out what each type of system has to offer.
Residential property management system
Who it’s for
Property managers/owners of apartment complexes, condos, or single-family homes
Key features and challenges it addresses
Such systems are aimed at helping with the daily tasks of managing residential properties. Thus, they mainly focus on tenant relations as well as rent collection. Here, you will find such functionality as easy access to lease agreements, automated reminders for rent payments as well as lease renewals, and maintenance management.
Commercial property management system
Who it’s for
Managers/owners of office buildings, mixed-use spaces, or retail outlets.
Key features and challenges it addresses
Such systems are built to handle more complex lease agreements as well as multi-tenant billing. Among the features they have are lease management of long-term contracts, automated invoicing, Common Area Maintenance (or CAM) calculations, advanced reporting, as well as tenant billing.
Industrial property management system
Who it’s for
Managers of logistic hubs, warehouses, or manufacturing facilities.
Key features and challenges it addresses
Such PMSs focus on managing large inventory as well as spaces, ensuring compliance with safety regulations, and monitoring utility consumption. They usually come with features like space utilization tools, inventory tracking, equipment maintenance scheduling, plus compliance management.
Hospitality property management system
Who it’s for
Hotel owners, rental hosts, or serviced apartment operators.
Key features and challenges it addresses
Apart from having basic property management, such systems feature guest services and room management. There, you can find such functionality as reservation systems, billing, guest check-in/check-out, and housekeeping management. Some additional features may include event management, loyalty programs, or revenue optimization.
Co-living property management system
Who it’s for
Co-living spaces, communal housing projects, or operators of student accommodations.
Key features and challenges it addresses
Such systems handle the unique needs of shared living spaces, so their features include roommate matching, room allocation, flexible lease terms, and communal area management.
Mind Studios’ recommendation: Choosing the right type of PMS is all about understanding the unique needs of both your business and tenants. We recommend following our 3-step framework: first, identify your biggest pain points (managing tenants’ communications, handling complex lease agreements, or something else), then think about the features that will bring the most value to your business. Lastly, keep in mind scalability — your PMS shouldn’t only solve your current challenges but also scale alongside your business.
If you are not sure what kind of PMS will fit your business best, you can contact our team, and we will help you choose an optimal solution that will meet your business needs.
Development process for property management software
There are several key stages you should be aware of when you develop property management software. Here is our step-by-step overview of the process.
Requirements gathering
The first and probably the most important step is understanding your business needs. During this stage, we always closely collaborate with our clients to understand their pain points and, thus, required features. This is also a stage when we create user personas and flowcharts to visually map out the functionality of the software and interactions between different types of users.
For example, when we were working on Mulki, our client had an idea to automate data transfer from contract to the system — in Saudi Arabia, they follow a standardized template for real estate contracts, as defined by the law. This feature, coupled with conversion to the Hijri calendar, became the unique value proposition for our new product in the market. For feature selection for this project, we also conducted a project scoping to better prioritize the requirements and to be able to create a solid development roadmap.
Prototyping and design
Next comes the creation of design, which plays a critical role in the effectiveness of a property management system. We strive to make PMS intuitive for all the parties involved, namely property managers, tenants, landlords, and maintenance staff. As Bohdan Bushuiev, UX/UI designer at Mind Studios, says:
“A seamless UX/UI is paramount when it comes to creating intuitive software that users enjoy interacting with. However, I am not speaking only about making it look good, but rather about understanding user behavior while anticipating their needs. When the design flows are made naturally, users do not think twice about where to click — they just know what to do. Such simplicity helps reduce friction, minimize training time, and, what’s more important, increase overall satisfaction.”
Our Mulki project focused on creating a mobile-first app for a target audience accustomed to working with web/desktop services. So, we strived to create a highly effective yet simple solution that required minimum taps for basic actions like contract creation, property adding, etc. We also created a brand identity for this project from scratch, considering that the Arabic language has a right-to-left writing system, meaning we had to mirror the interface elements.
Development
When the design is ready, the application development stage starts. At our project, our tech engineers usually employ a scalable tech stack for secure and flexible architecture that can grow easily in the future and opt for cloud-based infrastructure for real-time access to data.
We also prioritize native product development to ensure high performance, seamless integration, as well as consistent user experience. Plus, it allows us to fully leverage the features of each platform, either iOS or Android, meaning you get better responsiveness, security, and a more intuitive user interface. For example, for Mulki, we employed Kotlin technology for Android and Swift for iOS, while for the backend, we used Ruby on Rails.
At Mind Studios, we specialize in custom development, and here’s why:
| Aspect | Custom development | Ready-made solutions |
|---|---|---|
| Flexibility and customization | + | - |
| Scalability | + | - |
| Upfront costs | - | + |
| Time-to-market | - | + |
| Integration with other systems | + | +/- |
| Long-term ROI | + | +/- |
| Maintenance and support | + | +/- |
| Security and compliance | + | +/- |
| User experience (UX/UI) | + | - |
| Advanced features (AI, ML, or similar) | + | - |
| Mobile compatibility | + | +/- |
| Reports and analytics | + | +/- |
| Updates and feature adding | + | - |
| Read-time data access | + | +/- |
| Low-code capabilities | - | + |
Conclusion: Choosing the right development path depends on your operational needs, growth plan, and budget. Both options have their pros and cons. Custom development is about tailored solutions that fit your business requirements like a glove, while off-the-shelf solutions may provide you with a much faster and more affordable option, which, however, may lack flexibility and scalability.
Testing
Testing is a mandatory stage that ensures that your property management software functions seamlessly under real-world conditions. Our testing process is comprehensive and includes performance, security, and functionality testing. Our quality assurance specialists also simulate real-world scenarios to find and fix any potential issue and ensure your app is reliable.
Deployment and support
Continuous support is vital for smooth operations. That is why, even after development, we collect user feedback, monitor your system’s performance, and make updates if needed. This allows you to easily accommodate future needs and property management software trends.
Mind Studios’ recommendation: Are you interested in creating property management software but do not know where to start? We suggest starting with a Minimal Viable Product (MVP) that allows you to test your ideas by adding the basic functionality. If you don’t know what to begin your MVP development with, contact our tech team, and we will provide you with a detailed estimate and action plan.
Integrating your property management software into a full ecosystem
Today, property management software is not just a standalone tool but a part of a broader ecosystem. This means that if you want to unlock its full potential, you have to seamlessly integrate it with other technologies and tools you use.
Here are just a few integration capabilities that we recommend establishing for your PMS:
- Accounting software. Managing financial data accurately is vital for any business. Integrating your PMS with accounting software ensures that your expenses, rent payments, and financial reports are fully synced, saving you time and improving overall financial transparency.
- CRM integration. Being a custom-centric business, property management needs integration with a CRM system for tracking tenant interactions, streamlining all communications, and providing better customer service.
- Payment gateways. For rent collections, you must have secure and flexible payment solutions. By integrating payment gateways, you will be able to offer your tenants multiple payment options, as well as fully automate invoicing and reminders.
- Marketing platforms. Integrating marketing platforms (like Zillow or Realtor) can help you optimize your property listings together with vacancy management, as you will be able to automate updates and expand your property’s visibility across various channels.
- Integration with IoT devices. The use of IoT in real estate is growing annually, making devices such as smart locks, sensors, or thermostats pretty standard features. With them, you can easily monitor everything remotely, enhance security, as well as employ predictive maintenance.
At Mind Studios, we always highlight the importance of building a connected ecosystem by adding different modules. Here is an example. These days, 85% of property managers use a background check to screen their tenants, sometimes doing this manually. Knowing this, for our Rentorr project, we created a unique verification functionality with the help of the South African bank's API. The verification process was quite easy — the tenants had to upload their personal details, and then the bank would verify their solvency by analyzing different data, such as income statements, credit history, etc.
As a result, a tenant was given a credibility score, which allowed the landlord to see and make informed decisions on the tenant's application. Such integration helped us create a streamlined tenant screening process while also giving the landlord real-time and reliable data, thus significantly reducing the risks.
Why security and compliance matter in your property management software
When you deal with sensitive tenant information and financial transactions, security and compliance are non-negotiable. Having been working for years in PMS development, we know firsthand that a robust property management system must always include advanced security features, and here are just some of them:
- Data encryption. We always use data encryption to protect tenant and financial data, even if intercepted. This helps prevent unauthorized access to highly sensitive data such as payment details or lease agreements.
- Secure data storage. Secure data storage for us means employing cloud storage for data, as it helps mitigate the risks of breaches and ensures any sensitive information is fully protected.
- User authentication/Role-based access. Multi-factor authentication (MFA) and role-based access (RBAC) allow you to control who gets access and can modify or view specific data. This way, only authorized personnel are granted access to interact with sensitive data.
- Granular permission settings. This is a more flexible and detailed type of access that allows you to control exactly (on a granular level) who can access, view, or modify specific data. For example, you can restrict access to your financial information so that only accounting personnel can work with it or specify that only senior specialists within the division can get access to it.
Compliance with local regulations
Compliance with local laws and regulations is crucial to any property management. A robust PMS system will ensure you always stay compliant with the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and local data encryption laws.
In Saudi Arabia, it is mandated by law that real estate contracts must follow a standardized template. This strict format made us, together with our Mulki client, devise an idea of automating data transfer from each physical contract to the system with the help of machine learning for text recognition. The users could just scan the contract with their phone, and that's it. This way, we wanted to minimize the manual data entry and ensure faster and more accurate compliance with local contract requirements.
Property management software development cost
Undoubtedly, investing in custom property management development may feel like a significant financial commitment. However, the benefits of property management software in terms of its effectiveness, enhanced tenant satisfaction, and reduced admin workload often result in a strong return on investment (ROI).
So, which factors influence the cost of developing property management software?
- Complexity of features. The more advanced features you need, the higher the cost of development. Of course, some basic features like rent collection or lease management would be relatively inexpensive to add, but more complex ones like IoT integration or blockchain contract management will increase the price.
- Integration with third-party tools. As we already discussed, integrating your PMS with other systems adds to the overall cost. However, if we consider the long run, they can reduce operational expenses and save you lots of time.
- Choice of platform (Mobile/web). The price would be much higher if you develop property management software for multiple platforms. Native mobile development tends to be more expensive, but it provides better performance, security, and user experience compared to hybrid apps. If your target audience is mostly mobile-based, like in the case of Mulki in the MENA region, investing in native app development will bring you better long-term results.
- Customization and scalability. Custom development is usually much more expensive than off-the-shelf solutions. However, such solutions are more adaptable to specific business needs and overall business growth. In fact, investing in scalability from the very start can save you lots of money in the future when your business expands, or when you need new features.
Curious about the cost of building a custom PMS that will fit your business needs? Reach out to our tech experts for a personalized cost estimate.
Contact us
for a project
estimation
Contact us
Property management systems in action: Mind Studios’ experience
Our main goal at Mind Studios is to create property management solutions that help real estate businesses meet their specific industry challenges, improve overall efficiency, as well as allow them to stay ahead of the competition. That's exactly why, among other reasons, we always recommend opting for custom development to ensure long-term growth and success.
Take Mulki, for example, a property management solution that fully streamlines the manual processing of legally required standardized rental contracts across the MENA region. Before the app’s development, this process was slow and error-prone, while also carrying significant compliance risks for the property managers operating within Saudi Arabia’s regulatory framework.
Here are the list of features we added to the Mulki’s app:
- Smart contract scanning. With the help of ML-backed text recognition, we made it possible for property managers to scan physical contracts with the help of their phone cameras and automatically add all the necessary data to the system.
- Hijri calendar conversion. Since Saudi Arabia uses the Hijri calendar for legal documentation, our tech team developed a conversion tool to ensure all the contract dates comply with the local legal standards.
- Mobile-first design. We knew that mobile usage was prevalent in the region, even though it wasn’t popular among property managers. So, we created a mobile-first design that was intuitive and easy to use, even for property managers who were used to working with web/desktop applications.
- Custom notifications. We added custom notifications for payment due dates, contract renewals, as well as maintenance requests for better property management communication.
- Analytics. We also added advanced analytics and reporting capabilities to help property owners get real-time insights into their property portfolio, occupancy rates, as well as cash flow and tenant behavior.
After we launched Mulki back in 2022, we’ve seen great results, namely steady increase in both the overall number of users and active monthly users. Plus, the app is evolving, and soon it won’t only have functionality for the landlords but for tenants as well, meaning more profit for a company.
Wrapping up
Surely, property management is more complex than ever — it’s no longer just about collecting rent or handling maintenance requests. The daily task list seems endless, and managing multiple properties can be stressful. The bottom line here is simple: a robust property management system helps solve lots of real estate issues as well as drive growth, reduce costs, and improve your operation. The return on investment is undeniable, whether through saving time, eliminating mistakes, or keeping your tenants happy and loyal.
So, why keep managing your properties the hard way if a custom solution can make it effortless? Write to us, and we will discuss how our property management software development services can help build an optimal property management solution for your business.
