From Bots to First Homes: Housemart Queenstown's Quality-First Playbook

Ahead of the Curve: How Housemart Queenstown Scales Quality, Compliance, and In-House AI

At the PM/ONE Conference, Real+ CEO Fiona Blayney sat down with Hayley Stevenson of Housemart Queenstown to unpack a simple idea: a property management business should grow smarter, not bigger. Their conversation cut through buzzwords and focused on what managers can implement now-compliance as a strategy, quality over volume, and practical use of AI.

Compliance as a Competitive Advantage

New Zealand has shifted accountability directly onto property managers, including personal fines for non-compliance. That pressure pushed Housemart to build education and licensing into the core of operations-landlords, tenants, and team members all get trained.

The takeaway for managers: codify compliance into your systems, not just your policies. Treat it like a product you deliver. For context on NZ standards and disputes, see Tenancy Services (NZ).

Quality Over Quantity: The A/B/C Portfolio

Housemart graded every tenant, landlord, and property-A, B, or C-then sold the C segment. In a small, developer-heavy market like Queenstown, this kept the team efficient and focused.

Door count is a vanity metric if it drags down service levels. Grade your portfolio by fit, performance, and effort. Keep what compounds; exit what erodes margin and morale.

Building Tech In-House (Without a Big Team)

Housemart hired a receptionist with coding skills and built custom tools using APIs linked to Palace, Pipedrive, and Trello. They use AI to cross-check leases and letters, and query Tenancy Tribunal cases by specific issues-down to outcomes for "mattress on the floor" damage.

Their maintenance bot guides tenants through self-triage for appliances, water mains, and meter locations. Result: fewer tickets, faster fixes, better data. They didn't wait for a vendor; they shipped what they needed.

Operate Through a Persona: Meet "Lucy"

Two decades ago, Housemart created "Lucy," a persona that represents the business: how she thinks, what she values, and how she would decide. Every plan gets checked against Lucy. Every major decision asks: "What would Lucy do?"

This removes ego and emotion from choices. It aligns the team and speeds up strategy.

Stop, Start, Continue

• Stop: Chasing every lead or adopting problem properties that drain the team.
• Start: Helping tenants buy their first homes-supporting the broader housing journey builds loyalty and brand equity.
• Continue: Doubling down on quality relationships and system-led operations.

Design Roles for the Future

Housemart's advice: look for hidden talent. The "receptionist" became the coder. Create roles that didn't exist a few years ago-the AI lead, data specialist, and process technologist. You don't need a large headcount; you need multipliers.

If you're upskilling your team for AI, data, or operations roles, explore curated training by role here: Complete AI Training: Courses by Job.

Community Impact That Also Makes Business Sense

Housemart is actively helping tenants transition to homeownership. It reframes property management from a narrow service to a lifecycle partner. This approach attracts aligned landlords and retains great tenants.

Manager Playbook: What to Do This Quarter

• Audit compliance risk. Make licensing, training, and documentation part of onboarding for landlords, tenants, and staff.
• Grade your portfolio A/B/C by fit, condition, and required effort. Sell, hand back, or rehabilitate the C group with clear criteria.
• Prototype an internal bot. Start with maintenance triage FAQs and link to your property data. Expand to document checks and tribunal research.
• Create your company persona. Write a one-page profile and use it to pressure-test decisions.
• Set a "no misfit properties" rule. Define red flags and empower your team to say no.
• Build a first-home pathway for tenants via education sessions, lender partners, and savings plans.

The Principle That Ties It All Together

Quality compounds. Systems protect it. People and technology extend it. As Hayley Stevenson's team shows, you don't need more doors-you need better ones, better data, and a clear operating identity that outlives any one person.