What Apartment Residents say about Security in Apartment Complexes

Security is one of the main reasons why most residents choose Apartment Living. Gated complexes usually are walled and protected with presence of security guards at gates. Apartment complex security is enhanced using an online Security Management System.

Specially for urban dwellers who take up jobs which involves certain amounts of travelling or households with working couples, who leave for work leaving loved one’s at home, apartment living has come as a great boon.

But how safe is apartment living after all?

Many key findings regarding apartment complex security came out from a recent survey conducted across 800+ Apartment Complexes.

Visitors in Apartment Complexes

The visitors who come to apartment complexes are mainly of the following categories:

1. Guests of Residents
2. Delivery Personnel
   1. Food Delivery
   2. Courier Delivery
   3. Delivery of goods bought in eCommerce sites
3. Cab Drivers
4. Staff who work in Apartments
   1. Cooks
   2. Maids
   3. Drivers
5. Staff who work for Apartment Complex
   1. Housekeeping
   2. Security Guards
   3. Landscaping Staff
   4. Society Manager

Over the last year or so, India has seen a manifold increase increase of eCommerce. Today we mostly buy online, we need to just pick up our smartphone, open an app and fulfil our functional and aspiration based needs. From detergent soaps to air conditioners, taxis to flight tickets, music to food, everything is available online.

According to the survey, 57% of apartment complexes reported a 3 or more times increase in number of visitors.

From the same survey it came out that only 20-30% are guests of residents, meaning, 70-80% of visitors are outsiders – delivery personnel (food, eCommerce, courier, etc.), cab drivers, etc.

With this increase of visitors coming in, many apartment complexes faced increased queues at the security gate. Also, tracking of visitors became difficult. Facing increased pressure at security gate, security guards would let visitors enter without proper entry of visitor data, verifying with residents regarding visitors, etc. To handle the situation better, 47% of apartment management committees reported a need for more security guards

Visitor Management in Apartment Complexes

Every Apartment Complex has a visitor register, where all visitors are supposed to enter their contact details. This information is kept mainly as a record, so that any incident investigation can be done. This is also to serve as a deterrent for people with wrong intentions.

54% of apartment complex management committees mentioned that their main concern with the present security system, is that there is no way to verify the visitor data being entered. Any person with wrong intentions might enter any time.

Security Infrastructure in Apartment Complexes

Most Apartment Complexes today have CCTV installations. CCTVs installed at different parts of the apartment complex, is also supposed to act as a deterrent, as they can capture on video, any person with wrong intention, or even any crime which is happening inside complexes, and then your security processes can be made better to prevent such security lapses.

However, 73.1% of management committees said that there was a need for a better solution, as CCTV does not help in preventing a crime.

ADDA GateKeeper, a security management platform from ADDA gives a technology driven security nerve centre to apartment complexes, which provides a comprehensive solution to security related problems in apartment complexes.