Cooperation between Haga Home and Bisly led to a smart rental house

The newly finished Haga Home rental house combines modern lifestyle with top-notch technology. Providing unprecedented comfort and savings to both the tenant as well as the landlord, Bisly’s building automation turns many activities that previously required manual work automatic in the new rental house.  Smart technologies are becoming a new trend when it comes to rental real estate and they’re bound to change our urban living experience. Equipped with smart technology, Haga Home’s rental apartments are a good fit for anyone who appreciates smart solutions, a modern living space, and wants to make their life as simple as possible. Operating automatically, these unnoticeable processes save time and energy while helping to better coordinate the work of the staff. Allar Lauring, the developer and CEO of Haga Home, kindly agreed to talk to us about rental properties and new trends in the rental market of apartments.

Where is the rental property market headed to?

There is a noticeable lack of smaller rental homes with all required amenities in Tallinn. What we mean are the kind of apartments where the resident of a smaller studio doesn’t have to make sacrifices in their living standards and that come equipped with all necessary amenities. A clear message that came across at a recent rental market seminar was that the main demand lies in 1- and 2-bedroom apartments, ideal for solo residents or couples. Our main customers are students, young people and foreigners, living and working on the campus, who have come to work in the Tehnopol area. Historically, there’s been a high demand for rental apartments in that area. On top of the previously mentioned aspect regarding the limited number of smaller apartments in the market, this was also an important factor in the selection of the location of the Mäepealse 31 development and became a determining factor in the design of the building.

Why are rental apartments equipped with Bisly’s intelligent building technology?

The concept of Haga Home is focused on hotel-like-living, where residents can enjoy the comforts of a hotel in their own home. In addition to hotel-like short term accommodation, we also provide long term stays with us for a good price. To rent a home, all you have to do is visit www.hagahome.me, choose a suitable studio apartment, add any additional services you’d like, make a deposit via a payment solution, and you’re ready to move in.

Bisly’s technology enables us to manage numerous devices in the building, parking garage and the apartments. The biggest value comes from a specially created API-interface that allows a seamless flow of information between the reservation system and Bisly’s building automation. Once the rental agreement is signed, all processes are automatic and information moves through a centralized management system to Moderan’s payment system and then to Bisly.

A personal code that provides access to Wi-Fi, the building, apartment, and laundry room, is generated for each guest. If a resident has a car, the license plate number will be added to the system upon reservation, and the barrier with number recognition will automatically open during the entire rental period. When the rental agreement is finished, the code will be canceled automatically.

On top of that, a partner company such as Kodukoristus OÜ for example, that provides cleaning services will automatically be informed via the system when an apartment has been booked and they can start their preparations. It would be near impossible to provide all of these services without the help of technology. Thanks to our solutions, all processes are automatic and seamless.

What benefits does a tenant enjoy in a smart rental apartment?

Smart technology provides numerous new comforts to Haga Home’s residents. For example, they can order various services like cleaning, a temporary parking spot, bike keeping or even a change of bed linen via Haga Home’s app. Compared to traditional apartment rental, residents are given a lot more value for their rent.

Through the Bisly app, you can regulate the temperature of the apartment, open doors, and use the Magic Switch that allows you to switch off all the lights in the apartment at once.

Bisly’s technology also helps us save the environment. In a building with 46 apartments, we use Bisly’s technology to manage heating, accesses, curtains and lighting. When there’s no one in the apartment, the room temperature will automatically be lowered. Managing the blinds also helps to save energy – during intense sunlight, the blinds will cover the windows. The use of energy, electricity and water is measured automatically and forwarded via a centralized management system straight to the accounting system and from there onto the bill.

How does an intelligently managed rental property benefit the manager and operator?

Our main goals are comfort and energy and environment savings. It’s important to us to only consume the necessary amount of energy at Haga Home’s A energy class building. We also save energy by eliminating unnecessary drives. If we need to open a door for a handyman or technician, we can easily do it via the Bisly app without having to take a drive down to the building. This saves both time and energy and helps us care for the environment. Thanks to Bisly’s intelligent technology, the use of people’s time in Haga Home’s rental house has been made efficient and optimal.

Why Bisly?

Bisly was one of the three providers of building automation technology in our tender. We appreciated that the specialist was really brainstorming with us and came up with a solution perfect for us. For example, managing the lighting seemed very pricey at the beginning and we were ready to give it up until the specialist suggested that we’d only go with the Magic Switch function at first and we are now beyond happy with our decision. What also makes the Magic Switch special, is the fact that once you turn the lights back on, they’ll work just as they did before they were switched off.

Automations add a lot of value to rental properties, especially in a situation where it’s difficult to find a work force. If processes are automatic and don’t require a lot of human input, the business works more seamlessly and customers are also more satisfied. It’s great to see how seamlessly different programs and technologies work together. Bisly’s API-interface is a great advantage that allows us to create various automated processes and provide even more comfort and sustainability.