The number of property managers working remotely has surged over the course of the pandemic — and so have the shares of at least one publicly traded company providing property management software.
AppFolio, which provides cloud-based property management software, saw its shares grow by 44.3 percent in May, the Motley Fool first reported. The skyrocketing growth came at a time when property managers across the country were figuring out ways to work remotely amidst the coronavirus outbreak and increasingly turning to property management software to do it.
AppFolio also saw first-quarter total revenue of $72.5 million, or 27 percent growth year-over-year, according to data from S&P Global Market Intelligence. The first quarter, spanning January to the end of March, captures the period in which the pandemic first hit the U.S. During the same period, AppFolio saw its property manager clients grow by 10 percent and its property manager units grow by 18 percent — to 4,729 clients and 4.8 million units in total.
AppFolio
The company provides two kinds of products — one for small and mid-size managers and one for larger companies. Functioning as a cloud, it gives managers a way to communicate with clients, conduct virtual showings, manage payments and arrange move-ins. On its site, AppFolio says that its products can be used for residential, commercial, student and community association real estate. Based on data from CSI Market, AppFolio currently boasts 20.76 percent of the market share.
While much of the rental process was already shifting to a digital software model among larger companies, many small and midsize property managers still collect payments and submit documents by mail. When the pandemic struck, however, software rose to the forefront of the conversation.
Last month, New York-based Nestio, which provides a similar property management product, waived fees for its digital leasing software for 90 days.
