FAQ

As the building and its constituent infrastructural elements are new and are selected with care and are well established brands, we don't expect part replacements other than those within the preventive maintenance program provided by each supplier. In spite of such great selection and in spite of carefully tending the preventive maintenance, parts might within the slim chance break down. This then should be covered by the rainy day fund built by the HOA.

Private ISPs too depend on leased capacity from ETC. This means that if ETCs delivery fails so will all deliveries. However, the difference lies in the followings: 1. the private ISPs provide highly competitive rates compared to ETC, currently up to 50% discounted rate compared with ETC 2. the private ISPs due to their bulk purchasing capacity has a considerably higher chance of getting expedited support ticket with ETC whenever the failure may depend on ETC. If not, and if the failure is due to the private ISP itself, private companies tend to be more customer oriented and should be able to serve you better 3. if you find that the above are not valid we can renegotiate or since there are several providers simply change To be noted though is that this is a new modality and the providers are not to be considered ones with proven track record rather we are betting on that it has to be better in both performances but also in customer service. We have done an extensive study based on standardized questions and compared the currently active private ISPs and our recommendation during the month of July 2018 is xyz. While anyone can sign up for any of the providers, making a group purchase will give us in turn a great deal of leverage in negotiating price and terms, why we accepted to move the issue forward when being contacted by the different providers.

As a basis we are obliged by law to have a fire insurance. While optional it is also recommended to have a burglary insurance. After having conducted a survey of the market during May 2018 our finding is that all insurance companies provide similar coverage and pricing. As all owners should subscribe with same provider our recommendation is United Insurance SC as it is well recognized provider with good track record.

Within our rental management service, and if rent collection is requested we do make sure to provide you a complete income statement. If you have several properties within the same tax regime but outside of our management you will then have to aggregate those incomes and do your own tax declaration

The commercial units are managed as part of our commercial property management service and not through the residential property management service. Please refer to How are the commercial spaces on the ground and mezzanine floors managed? above.

Please refer to How do you set your property management price for residential units? above

Renting out in a furnished condition will likely attract a short term tenant. Short term tenants tend to bring a higher rent yield, even when the wear and tear of furniture is considered. However, the premium you get in such engagement to some degree is traded off against a longer term steady rent income as demands for tenancy might vary throughout the rental cycle of the year. Long term tenants tend to bring their own furniture. If you are considering offering a rented apartment you should carefully consider your cost against your gains, and regardless your rental strategy, we believe having a furnished rental should be an option offered to the client and not as required part of it.

Property management fee is mandatory for all owners and is aimed at providing a secure, clean and well-functioning living environment, and in doing so also secure the long term value development of the building within which an apartment is located. As such property management service focuses on the common areas and infrastructures’ while we do assist with maintenance within each apartment, and we dare say that no one knows the building as well as we do and can therefore most times provide a swift solution to such issues. It is due to this strategic nature of the property management service engagement is done through the home owners association in which all home owners by law are required to be members of. However, the transition period and until all owners has started occupying their apartments is done on the basis of negotiation why we have engaged with you the owner individually. From our conversations this far the response for our commitment and service has been astounding and unanimously in favor.

The answer to this highly depends on the following varying factors: 1. availability of residential properties in the area at the specific time you want to rent out 2. the floor your apartment is located on 3. the direction your apartment is facing 4. the size of your apartment 5. the condition of your apartment 6. whether you rent it as furnished or not 7. the length of contract period you offer At current time our survey indicates for a non-furnished 2-bedrooms apartment at the Noah Centrum Apartments located higher up commands around 2500 USD for a 1-year contract period.

Noah Real Estate PLC always goes to great length to provide all necessary facilities within your apartment as well as outside and within the perimeters of the site. Parking is definitely an essential facility why it is explicitly regulated within your purchase contract with Noah Real Estate PLC. If there is anything unclear related to your allotted parking space or other terms within your purchase agreement, please do reach out to Noah Real Estate PLC’s customer service. As for Noah Centrum Apartments, each apartment, regardless size, is allotted one parking space and your designated parking is clearly marked with your apartment code

Commercial rent is provided based on the purpose of the rented space – as this is a residential space the service and/or product you offer must be family friendly, does not create any considerable disturbance and should be in harmony with other commercial tenants We provide rent space based on availability and on first-come-first-served basis as long as the above criteria is fulfilled and maintain a list of applicants to which we place call upon availability and provided request of size, price level and position.

Primarily the tenant is responsible for handling the apartment and all included facilities provided within the rent with care. There are a number of measures that can be taken to control damage or loss and these are establishment of move-in and move-out checklists and documentations, and also make sure to ask for at least a 1-month rent as deposit at move-in which will be adjusted according to incurred damage or loss at move-out. If you engage ROC Spaces we will ascertain that all best practices are applied to minimize any damage or loss, which will include the above measures and more. Our presence within the building will also provide you increased certainty.

Please refer to How do you set your property management price for residential units? above

We are confident that in Ethiopia we are on a league of our own with our professional and comprehensive set of services of property management aimed at providing you a hassle free experience of owning a home. We do take our mission seriously and invest considerable amount of time in planning our operations as well as try to understand where the market is heading in order to serve you better. We believe our success is founded on our professional employees and the valuable inputs provided by you, our customer, which we hope will shine clearly in your interaction with us. We have a comprehensive package of service covering all the needs of a properly functioning multi-family housing. The service we provide is developed based on the profile of the building you live in, in case of Noah Centrum Apartments a downtown first class residential property. At all levels you will be met with professionals that are service oriented and well educated and experienced within their domain such as security, cleaning, maintenance and general building administration. We don’t outsource any of our services. All these will afford you a hassle free and secure living and the only aspect you will have to focus on will be within your own apartment as we tend to all common areas. These not only secures your or your tenants current living experience, but also secures the long term value development of the building. It is the case that with increasing number of bedrooms we get increasing number of residents which in turn leads to increased utilization of the common areas and common facilities, which in turn leads to increased number of cleaning and security mobilization as well as other facilitation such as lift and backup generator usage. We have therefore set our prices based on number of bedrooms of an apartment.

Such question might be symptomatic for other questions and is therefore important that we listen to the owner to the end and if possible try to understand where the owner is coming from with some other leading questions before jumping to the answer. Noah Real Estate PLC as developer is obliged by law to assist owners develop an HOA which also is stipulated in your apartment purchase agreement. Noah Real Estate PLC in that regard has entrusted ROC Spaces to at earliest point of time assist in the establishment of such HOA. A HOA is a legal entity that is formed through the gathering of all owners (owners in this case are customers that has paid in full and have already acquired title deed). Owners can naturally send on their behalf someone who has been provided power of attorney. ROC Spaces will: 1. arrange an appropriate time and place well in advance and announce this to all owners, 2. be present at the meeting addressing practical questions around the Noah Centrum Apartments We have recently proposed formation of the HOA on 4th of August 2018 at 2.00PM and the announced date and conditions has been received largely favorably. As it is virtually impossible to find a time that is most convenient for all 209 home owners we have opted to move ahead with that date.

While Noah Real Estate PLC assumes the responsibility and actually go to great length in acting on behalf of the collective of owners to establish the supply of all utilities (water and electricity), it is the responsibility of each owner to assist in ascertaining utility is established. If Noah Real Estate PLC sees any difficulty in asserting the request towards concerned authority, it commonly takes initiative to gather petition in order to increase likelihood of establishing the utility supplies, as was also done regarding connection to the grid.

The spaces on those floors are owned by Noah Real Estate PLC with whom we have established a residential property management agreement.

Please refer to When will ROC Spaces services be provisioned? below.

While at the early stage of the hand-off utility was not available, it has since been resolved, albeit with not full capacity, enough to sustain an inspection run within your apartment unit. As we have experience in inspecting and work for smooth resolution of matters with Noah Real Estate PLC, we will certainly accompany and assist you in such inspection round. Just come by our Admin Office on the ground floor before heading to your apartment unit.

In Ethiopia, real estate development still remains a sector under development, rather rapidly though. As such the state under which such extensive project as Noah Centrum Apartments should be delivered to owners is something that has as many answers as the number of owners. Noah Real Estate PLC has tried to strike a balance and continue to work in delivering a tailored experience on par with customer expectations. Development of large scale multi-family projects are complex and comprises of numerous partners. Noah Real Estate PLC has primarily responsibility towards its clients to ascertain that all external and internal partners read into the agreed delivery and related timeline. The inauguration of Noah Centrum Apartments was held in the presence of apartment owners, various project partners and dignitaries from the business sector as well as the city municipality. It was meant to mark the great achievement we all together had reached then, which was defined by: complete construction and finishing work had been done, including core infrastructural elements. Noah Real Estate PLC had also applied for the connection to the utility grid as well as acquired necessary equipment such as transformer, but also finalized the bore hole based water supply system. However, utility has remained an elusive point since, and Noah Real Estate PLC have diligently followed up against the concerned authority including gathering and submission of petition. This was also the stage where we ROC Spaces were introduced.

The core infrastructural elements of the building has recognized suppliers which will also tend to the preventive maintenance.

A ca 17% tax is levied on income you earn from renting your apartment.

Inner balcony grill will be provided in a manner that maintains the buildings aesthetics by Noah Real Estate PLC. The cost for such addition will be covered by each owner as it is an optional part. Any exernal additions will require proper permit from the concerned office within the municipality and you will have to seek such permit. Similar to the internal balcony, aesthetical consideration should be taken in order to maintain the buildings long term development. Windows can easily be made child safe by installing hinges between the 2 facing windows.

Generally, a tenant screening amounts to check the tenant’s credit history. However, the only system available for verification of credit history is ran by National Bank of Ethiopia and is only accessible for banks. We are therefore left to a limited number of ad-hoc based solutions in this regard. The primary and important one we are now establishing is our own database through which we can detect tenants that don’t pay timely and/or care for the properties they rent. We believe this system will through time be invaluable, in particular through our commitment and wide ranging operation at scale. Additionally, we dedicate resources to ascertain that the information as provided by the tenant are correct and valid, including employment and previous tenant history.

2 words that says it all: professionalism and accountability Let’s give you the longer version. We studied the landscape well and good. During our study as well as our conducts in other related sectors we have observed considerable gaps such as opportunistic and unethical conducts, conducts that lead to high level of speculation and has no fact as basis, conducts that lacks any sense of professionalism or accountability, and last but not least conduct where customer and counter-parts are left hanging and to figure out deal closings. With our service we are making the commitment to invest in customer focused business where we are ready to go the extra mile to deliver as per expectation and responsibility handed to us. We provide an end to end service where we have well defined process in place to ensure that we have an optimal conduct. We start by understanding your needs and requirements, and based on that understanding we are able to screen the available options until we have reached good match. Only then do we contact you to explore with us. Once we have agreed we have a good match we help you close the deal. Evidently such commitment leads to considerable up-front investment in each deal on our part, why we also require from you an equal commitment through an exclusivity agreement.

Untimely rent payments and other exceptions that can be anticipated should be aspects a good lease agreement covers and should cover so that both the tenant and landlord are protected from conditions that leads to breach of agreed core exchanges. However, agreement is a means of documenting common understandings and does not physically prevent either party from breach of commitments why additional layer of readiness should be considered. In case you engage ROC Spaces rent management service we do provide a number of measures to prevent / minimize such loss of income. Some of these measures are: screening of potential tenants, legally sound leasing agreement, sound rent collection routines, and last but not least ability to pursue legal recourse in case tenant is not living up to their obligations ultimately leading to eviction process.

If you look at the sub-services provided within our property management service these are core services deemed necessary for a proper functioning multi-family property and thus used by all owners and tenants. All optional services are already kept as separate service packages within our rental management and brokerage services, or the other services provided by referred providers such as ISP and Insurance services.

ROC spaces will monthly and on post-paid basis distribute the diesel cost. The distribution will be based on your square meter size of apartment. You will be able to visit our admin office and settle your invoice between the 1st and 10th of each following month. You will have access to all invoices for acquired diesel during the month(s) for which we have issued you an invoice. Failure to timely settle your invoice will inevitably lead to service interruption starting from the month where such infraction has taken place.

Please refer to owner’s or tenant’s handbook.

No, it is not. Events of any kind will create for any of the other 225 owners or their tenants undesired movements or disturbance. Events with common interest for all owners or tenants, such as HOA meetings, however can naturally be held and would commonly only require in advance planning and coordination and no rental fee would have to be paid.

Terrace spaces are owned by the adjacent apartment owners why we can’t provide access.

We have arranged a move-in team that stands by to serve you and knows what works and not better than any external mover. The move-in team comprises of 5 individuals in the vicinity of Noah Centrum Apartments we have trained, provided appropriate equipment for and are also supervised by our security team in order to ascertain that no damage is inflicted upon your items as well as the fixtures and the equipment of the building. In order to avoid exploitative pricing and unnecessary pursuant discussions we have upon discussion with the move-in team set a price deemed to be fair for their labor and for you as a mover. The price at current time is set to be in proportion to amount of labor done as follows: 1. A single round of the team as a whole: 250 birr 2. A single round of 1 individual: 50 birr 3. A full 1-bedroom apartment: 450 birr, with additional 100 birr per bedroom for larger apartments

At least at current time this is not possible as Ethiopia has shortage of foreign currency and therefore repatriation of locally earned income is restricted to only certain sectors, and even those are surrounded by a number of hurdles.

As any service, we provide our services on best effort basis. To reach as high probability of success as possible we do act strategically and work through as many channels as possible. As we operate at scale and within advance known projects we are also able to provide you best access to the market. For instance, in case of Noah Centrum Apartments as we knew a number of months in advance the site was going to be ready and what would be available at that time and the tendency of the owners wanting to rent out right from delivery, we deliberately sought out potential tenants and engaged them. As such we have at the moment a list of potential and qualified tenants who would like to make your apartment their next home.

Each tenant of the commercial spaces has its own management and operational direction. However, we encourage all to abide by certain set of criteria to occupy these spaces, and the basic one is being able to provide a family friendly and useful service to owners and tenants and have opening hours that takes into account the owners of the building.

The spaces on those floors are owned by Noah Real Estate PLC with whom we have established a commercial property management agreement.

As of the official inauguration ROC Spaces has resumed service. During a transition/hand-off period ROC Spaces renders its service by primarily acting on behalf of the owners towards Noah Real Estate PLC. As such we do invest considerable amount of our time in ascertaining that your specific apartment unit as well as the common facilities upon delivery are on par with the expectations and wherever this is not the case, either based on our own or your findings, we ascertain that Noah Real Estate PLC addresses these shortcomings. You have bought a unit within a multi-family living arrangement and as such there are numerous common infrastructures with varying degree of complexity which also needs to be checked, handed over to a certain party and handled with care from early stage and we do take that responsibility as core part of our service. To facilitate the swift resolution of matters we have a weekly update with Noah Real Estate PLC through which shortcomings are communicated with senior management in order to expedite the process of delivery. Moreover, we have started rendering all our core services of security, cleaning and maintenance in full capacity since the first weekday of July 2018 in order to secure the integrity and value of the site.

To be habitable requires electricity supply which is being processed. Please refer to the relevant question When will electricity/water be available? And how? below . As you may know the site has been in largely habitable condition since April 2018. However, Noah Real Estate PLC have not stopped at that and has continued to serve our dear customers refining various apartment specific as well as to the site common features in order to finally deliver an apartment and a living environment on par with the expectation and responsibility assumed. Limited number of owners has already started living while more has moved in their items while some others has already rented out their apartments.