They put relationships back at the centre of property management

Emily Larsen and Renee Boyle started Onward Property Management in Canberra in December 2025 to get the fun part of the job back. The work had become mostly putting out fires, and they wanted a simpler way of looking after owners. Less than a year in, Onward manages more than 115 properties, with 130 in sight. Almost all of that growth has come from word of mouth. "People were just wanting to support Emily and I," Renee says, with most new clients arriving as referrals from existing owners or from people who have seen the pair online.

Emily already knew which system she wanted. In an operations role at another agency, she had watched a team juggle too many programs, with everyone following a different process. "As soon as you move over to Ailo, most of these problems are going to go," Renee remembers her saying. Renee had been a fan of a legacy system, but she was happy to move. For Emily, the appeal was the structure of Ailo Projects.

That structure also keeps the service even. "It just gives a consistent service quality to everyone as well, because it's not fair" when one owner gets a different process from another, Renee says. The complaint she hears most from investors is that they do not want a rotating property manager. They want someone who has been in it for years.

For Renee, the bigger change is how far ahead she can see. "You're not working for day one. You're working for a week, if not a fortnight, ahead," she says. Before, that plan lived in the property manager's head, "which never works well." Now it sits on the Ailo dashboard. "Even from a mental health standpoint, I think it makes anyone who uses it relax, because it's all there," she says.

That space goes straight back into the relationships Onward was built on.

Investors notice. Onward charges a higher management fee, and owners arriving after being burnt by bigger agencies are happy to pay it to deal with Emily or Renee directly. "It's an actual person," Emily says. "They can actually get a hold of us." Transparency in the Ailo app helps too. The pair keep a friendly competition going on their reply times, and messages are answered well inside a day.

The benchmark for the next 12 months is 200 properties, though Renee is clear it is not a ceiling. It depends on who the client is and what the service is. Having seen an agency grow faster than its people and technology, she now finds the flows easy to adjust as the portfolio grows.

Asked what they would tell a property manager weighing up a change, Renee said change can be scary, "but if it's going to help with managing a property or benefit your clients, then it's worth doing." Emily agreed: "Why not?"

It is a fair description of how Onward works. Two property managers chose a simpler way of running the day so the relationship could stay at the centre, and that is what keeps the referrals coming.