Erin’s innovative approach to apartment living is transforming the way residents interact with their homes and communities.
As co-founder and CEO Thomas Walkley explains, the platform integrates essential services, like rent payments, digital keys, maintenance requests, and community engagement, into a single app that simplifies daily life.
“We focus on enhancing livability,” Thomas said, addressing the growing demand for seamless experiences in apartment living.
His vision goes beyond simply managing buildings; it’s about creating a living experience that tenants want to be a part of, a shift that is increasingly vital in today’s property market.
“We’re a technology platform that provides solutions for residential communities, focusing primarily on the people who live in these properties,” Thomas said.
“We’ve even referred to ourselves as a livability super app because we do so many different things,” he said.
At its core, Erin addresses what Thomas sees as a growing problem of “app fatigue,” where tenants are forced to use multiple apps to manage different aspects of their living space.
One of Erin’s flagship projects is the Smith Collective, a build-to-rent community on the Gold Coast that Thomas describes as “the country’s largest and oldest build-to-rent precinct.”
Originally built for the 2016 Commonwealth Games, the Smith Collective is now managed by JLL and owned by UBS.
Erin’s technology plays a key role in offering a premium living experience that reflects modern tenants’ needs and expectations.
“The industry is called build-to-rent, not build-to-manage. You need to focus on the tenant because they will provide you with 98% of the revenue. It’s a business built on rental returns and yields, so you need to give them the highest level of service.”
Thomas explained how Erin’s platform fits into this larger ecosystem: “We integrate with property management systems such as MRI Software’s Property Tree, which manages all the property management components of the tenancy.
Erin leverages PropertyTree to know who should be in each property and when. Our system kicks in once a lease is signed, providing everything from digital access to community events.”
The Smith Collective’s focus on tenant experience is not just limited to high-tech solutions.
Thomas described how Erin also supports community-building efforts through its platform, allowing for the activation of common spaces and the organisation of events.
“The Smith Collective team puts on a bunch of different events, catch-ups, get-togethers, and there are a lot of sporting facilities around The Smith Collective that are activated for community use,” he said.
These events and activities encourage residents to connect, fostering a sense of community in what could otherwise be an isolating living environment.
The impact of Erin’s technology has been notable, with tenants responding positively to the enhanced living experience.
The Smith Collective’s general manager, Matt Taplin, explains that in the build-to-rent model, every single person who lives in the building is your customer.
“In a build-to-rent environment, it’s in our interest to make sure that everybody’s happy at all times.
You take a lot of care when bringing people into the property to ensure they won’t disrupt the equilibrium, but you also need to act quickly and fairly on issues,” he said.
“We’ve found that using the app for important alerts and events is far more effective. For things like a hot water boiler going out, we can communicate instantly, ensuring the message reaches people quicker than through email. It’s also especially useful for event reminders and keeping people informed.”
In a survey of over 600 respondents at The Smith Collective, 84% rate their overall satisfaction as good or excellent, even amid cost-of-living pressures.
“Seeing consistent improvements in satisfaction, particularly when so many are feeling financial strain, is heartening and shows we’re on the right track.”
One of the surprising insights from Thomas’ experience is that even older tenants are embracing Erin’s technology. “Believe it or not, we’ve seen higher uptake in retirement living communities.
Older demographics are actually adopting the technology faster than we expected,” he said.
This highlights how universal the desire for an improved living experience is, regardless of age.
