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Property Investor Shops Around for Vacant Property Security Solution

When a national property investment company acquired a tired and outdated shopping mall, it did so with a clear strategy in place. The mall already had several vacant properties and the investment company planned to refurbish the asset in order to retain the existing occupiers, attract new brands to the location and encourage footfall. The strategy was tried and tested and had enabled the investment company to increase the rental yield on other, similar assets in the past.

However, having acquired the shopping mall, the property investment company encountered continuing problems with vandalism of empty retail units, which not only set back the refurbishment programme but also threated the success of negotiations on new tenancies and affected footfall. The company responded by increasing the manned security resources on site but this significantly increased its property management overheads at a time when rental yields were already being squeezed by the vacant units and refurbishment programme.

“When the client came to use to investigate alternative security solutions their security bill for the shopping mall was enormous,” explains managing director of Direct Virtual Guard, Peter Lewis. “They had manned patrols on site 24/7 to address the vandalism issues, and the increased security was working but was not viable in the long term. We were able to show them how they could maintain the same effective security levels while reducing their security bill by over 80% and they quickly decided to use the Direct Virtual Guard system to continue to protect the vacant properties against vandals at a much lower cost.”

Indeed, because Direct Virtual Guard can be installed within an hour, the system was in place throughout the shopping mall by the end of the same week! An innovative, wireless system that combines motion sensors, cameras and infra-red illumination, Direct Virtual Guard was able to monitor all areas of the shopping mall, relaying video footage of the premises direct to a remote monitoring station if any of the motion sensors were triggered. The trained security professionals at the monitoring station were then able to alert the police and emergency contacts from the property investment company to ensure a fast and efficient response.

Peter continues: “The Direct Virtual Guard system offered the client all the advantages of security personnel and CCTV at a fraction of the cost, and, because it’s classed as a temporary system, it’s tax deductible too, which delivers further cost savings. We were even able to incorporate two-way communication so that the monitoring station could eavesdrop on any intruders and speak to them through the equipment.”

Following installation of the Direct Virtual Guard System there were only two further incidents at the shopping mall, both of which passed without any damage being caused thanks to the two way communication and prompt response of the remote monitoring station. The refurbishment was able to go ahead as originally planned and the shopping mall is now fully occupied.

Peter adds: “Even post refurbishment the client has decided to continue to use Direct Virtual Guard security because it proved such a low cost and effective option. We have now also installed the system at three other vacant properties within their portfolio.”