Corporate housing is one of the few growth markets in this challenging economic environment. The corporate housing sector has seen growth where the rest of real estate has remain stagnant or shrunk. It’s part if the industry that is, right now, supporting the rest of the property industry.

When corporate housing first became popular in the late 1980s, many companies decided to buy their own properties and run them themselves. They soon learned that this involved way too much time and expense and sold them just as quickly.

Large corporations thought it logical that running their own properties for staff to use was the most cost-effective way of managing accommodation. They thought that by controlling it themselves, they could also control the cost and management of their assets. Little did they know how wrong they were.

Ask any homeowner, ask any landlord, a home isn’t a one-time transaction. Our homes are a constant drain on our resources. They have running costs, maintenance costs, repair costs and there is always something that needs doing.

It isn’t just the obvious things either, a furnished apartment is going to need regular cleaning and decorating. The furniture will wear over time and will also need managing. Then there is the minutiae like plates, cutlery, laundry, soft furnishings and all the little things that make a corporate rental a home away from home. All these things need a dedicated and experienced eye to manage effectively.

Whether its waiting for hours for the cable guy, or answering an emergency call at 2:00am to fix a leaking pipe, property management is a full-time job. Many companies found it was too much drain on resources and didn’t offer much advantage over using a professional corporate housing specialist.

In addition to the time and effort involved in corporate housing, there also are a lot of hidden costs involved with owning and managing a property. Organizations have to provide a down payment or cash price for the building, or pay a security deposit when renting one.

They also may have to sign a long lease and pay rent each month regardless of whether there is staff in the apartment or not. The company must also furnish, service, maintain, and insure the property as well as add any ancillary services such as laundry and cleaning. This is all very costly for an organization if they aren’t in the property management business.

In many cases, it never occurred to businesses that buying and managing their own corporate apartments weren’t single transaction deals. Despite being homeowners themselves in many cases, there seemed to be a disconnect between the reality of owning a property as a family and owning a corporate property as a business.

Using a corporate lettings agency is now almost the only way to go. While buying a property may be cheaper now than 5 years ago, the running costs are still there, as are the burdens of managing such a venture.