In this belt a home is chosen at compound level, and the monthly cost of the compound weighs as heavily as the rent or the instalment. Yet the service charge usually appears as a single number — while the same number buys completely different things in two different compounds.
What is typically inside
In a koru settlement the charge usually covers twenty-four hour security and cameras, landscaping and irrigation of common areas, pool maintenance and seasonal operation, common-area lighting, refuse collection, management and accounting, and where present the servicing of the generator and water pressure system.
What it typically does not cover: heating for the individual unit, the upkeep of its own garden, repairs to its own façade and roof, and contributions to infrastructure outside the compound.
Same figure, different thing
When comparing two compounds, compare what the figure covers rather than the figure. If a compound that opens its pool for four months a year and one that runs it heated for twelve collect the same charge, the second is not necessarily better managed; usually something is being cut — and that something is normally the reserve fund.
The item that makes the real difference is headcount. The number of security posts, the shift pattern, and the size of the grounds team determine the largest part of the charge and set the daily quality of life in the compound.
Five questions to ask
First: has the charge been increased in the past year, and by how much? Second: does the compound hold a reserve fund, and how large? Third: what major works have been carried out in the past three years — roof, lift, pool plant room, road surfacing? Fourth: what proportion of units are in arrears? Fifth: is management professional, or run by the owners' assembly?
The fourth is the least-asked and the most revealing. A high arrears rate shows management cannot collect; and a management that cannot collect cannot fund the service the published charge promises.
Who pays it on a tenancy
The usual division is that routine operating costs sit with the tenant and major, lasting works on the building itself sit with the owner. But this is a clause to be written into the contract, not a default. Where it is unwritten, it becomes an argument — and the argument always arrives at the worst moment.
In our portfolio
Where we can verify the monthly charge, it appears on the listing. Where we cannot, it does not appear at all. A compound's scale, unit count and facilities sit on its own page — because whether a charge is reasonable can only be judged by knowing what it runs.