Sixty years in business is a significant milestone for any Maltese company, particularly in an industry as dynamic as property. For Jean Bajada, CEO of Victor Estate Property Services Group, who brings more than 30 years of experience in business leadership, property services and organisational growth, the anniversary represents as much a responsibility as a reason to celebrate.
“For me, the foundations of Victor Estate have always been trust, solid relationships and a strong sense of responsibility towards the properties and people we serve,” Mr Bajada says. “A business reaches 60 years by remaining relevant, adapting to change and, importantly, earning the confidence of its clients generation after generation. That reputation is something we value enormously. As CEO, I feel a real sense of pride in what was built before us, but I also see this anniversary as a responsibility. It makes us custodians of a 60-year legacy, and our job now is to build on it in a way that prepares Victor Estate for the next 60 years.”
Ensuring the organisation keeps pace with that ambition is a key responsibility for Josiane Micallef, the Group’s Director, whose background spans operations, people leadership and service delivery.
Director Josiane Micallef
“My priority has been to make sure that, as the business evolves, the organisation behind it evolves too,” she says.
“Growth needs strong foundations, which means having the right people, structures and processes in place to support it properly, rather than simply adding new services or taking on more business. A lot of my focus has therefore been on strengthening the way we work internally, creating clearer responsibilities, improving communication between teams and making sure our people have the support and tools they need to perform at their best. At the same time, we want to keep the agility and personal approach that have always been part of Victor Estate. As we grow, we want to become more structured, coordinated, and easier to work with, both for our people and for our clients,” she adds.
The most visible part of this new chapter is the company’s evolution from property management into an integrated Property Services Group, a shift Mr Bajada attributes directly to clients’ changing needs.
“Property has become more complex, and clients would rather not coordinate multiple providers and manage fragmented services themselves. They are looking for trusted partners who understand their properties as a whole and can offer a broader range of solutions under one umbrella,” he explains.
“For us, this is a natural evolution of what we have been doing for many years. Property management remains an important part of our foundation, and we are building around it so that we can support clients across more of their property needs. In practice, that means bringing together expertise, people, systems and services in a more coordinated way, and thinking about the client and the property as a whole. The objective is to make things simpler for our clients while creating greater accountability, consistency and value.”
Ms Micallef is clear that a broader range of services raises the bar for the whole organisation.
“We can understand a property more broadly and coordinate solutions across different areas of expertise. The broader the range of services we provide, the more important communication, coordination and accountability become. Clients should never feel that they are dealing with separate parts of an organisation. They should experience one Victor Estate,” she says.
“Much of our work happens behind the scenes, making sure teams collaborate effectively, information flows properly and everyone understands the standard we are working towards. If we get that right, scale becomes a real advantage, giving clients a level of convenience, knowledge and continuity that would be difficult to achieve through several separate providers.”
Maintaining those standards, she adds, depends on discipline as much as process.
“Consistency comes from having clear standards and a culture in which people care about upholding them. As the Group grows, clear ways of working, strong communication, appropriate systems and accountability become essential, because you can no longer rely on informal ways of doing things. Quality also calls for judgement, attention to detail and a willingness to take responsibility for the outcome,” Ms Micallef affirms.
“One principle matters particularly to me: growth should never come at the expense of service. If we expand into an area, we need to be confident that we have the people, expertise and operational capacity to deliver it to the standard clients associate with Victor Estate.”
For Mr Bajada, the company’s heritage is precisely what gives it the confidence to change.
“What we need to preserve are the principles that created our reputation: integrity, reliability, personal relationships, accountability and a real commitment to service. Those should stay as they are. What should absolutely change is how we deliver on those principles as client expectations, technology and the property market evolve,” he says.
“There is always a danger for an established business to say that this is how things have always been done. I think the better question is what has made people trust us for 60 years, and how we express those same values in a modern property services business. We are taking what is strongest about Victor Estate and building something more capable around it.”
For Ms Micallef, personal relationships are central to that trust, and the company is determined to protect them as it grows.
“I think it comes down to being accessible, responsive and accountable. Our clients need to know that there are people behind the business who understand their properties and their priorities, and who will take ownership when something needs attention,” she explains.
“That personal relationship has been built over many years, and we are very conscious of protecting it as we grow. Scaling can happen without becoming impersonal. Better structures and technology should give our teams better information and help us respond more effectively, bringing us closer to our clients.
“Property services are built on trust, because clients are placing valuable assets and important responsibilities in our hands. However much Victor Estate grows, that sense of personal responsibility has to remain central to the business.”
Technology, Mr Bajada confirms, has an important part to play, but it is not the whole story.
“Technology will fundamentally improve how property services are delivered, although property will always remain a people business,” he observes. “The real opportunity lies in removing friction, through better information, faster communication, greater transparency, stronger reporting and more efficient processes. If our teams spend less time on repetitive administration, they can spend more time solving problems, advising clients and delivering better service.
“Data will become increasingly important too, because the better we understand what is happening across properties and portfolios, the more proactive we can be, anticipating requirements and identifying trends instead of simply reacting when something goes wrong.”
For Ms Micallef, operational excellence starts with people who understand how their work fits into the bigger picture.
“We want people to take ownership. Property services can be very demanding and often call for quick decisions and practical solutions, so you need teams that feel empowered to act, communicate and solve problems instead of passing them on,” she explains.
“Culture is built through everyday behaviour: how colleagues support one another, how we communicate, how we respond when something goes wrong and the standards we expect from ourselves. As we grow, investing in people becomes even more important. We want to attract good people, develop the talent already within the business and create opportunities for individuals to grow alongside the Group. When our people feel part of what we are building, that translates directly into the service our clients receive.”
Looking five years ahead, Mr Bajada is clear about how he would measure success.
“Growth is certainly part of the ambition, but size alone is a poor measure of success. Five years from now, I would like Victor Estate to be recognised as a benchmark for property services, a business clients trust with increasingly complex requirements, a company talented people want to build their careers with, and an organisation known for combining experience with a progressive way of working,” he says.
“If we can achieve that while keeping the trust and personal relationships that have defined Victor Estate for 60 years, we will have respected the legacy of the business without being constrained by it. This anniversary gives us a chance to look back with pride, but our focus is very much on what we build from here.”
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