Zara Koteva won the "Manager of the Year 2023" award

We are pleased to introduce Zara Koteva, Manager of the "Luxury and Corporate Rentals and Sales" team. At this year's Unique Estates awards ceremony, she won the “Manager of the Year 2023” award.

How do you feel and what does this award mean to you?

I am extremely happy to be recognized with this award. It means a lot to me, as it is the evaluation of the efforts made in my work as a manager in the last year.
In Bulgaria, there is an extreme shortage of quality management personnel. Being a manager is, in my opinion, a true calling. This is an opportunity to inspire and motivate my team, create strategies to achieve set goals and manage the diverse challenges we face in our work.

This award makes me feel confident because it confirms that my efforts have been noticed and appreciated. It is an incentive to continue to develop and work hard to achieve even greater success in the future, as well as an opportunity to inspire other managers and professionals to succeed in their goals and strive for excellence in work.

How does one manage such a team successfully and what is leading in your approach to the people in it?

I am proud of the team I lead. These are young, ambitious, capable people who are motivated to develop and upgrade. Working in a highly competitive environment like ours can be challenging, especially for a young team like mine. The important thing for me as a manager is to have an individual approach to each of the people in it, to help them develop both personally and professionally, to be successful, but also satisfied with what they do.

I maintain open communication with them about goals, expectations and requirements. This helps in creating trust and commitment. I especially value personal initiative and motivation for growth and development. If this is absent, everything else is a waste of time on the part of the management, and if in pursuit of goals there is a lack of ethics in the relationships.

I am also extremely flexible and open to new ideas and approaches. Innovation and adaptation to changing conditions are key to successfully meeting the challenges of the contemporary corporate world. Naturally, I care a lot about maintaining high standards in work. Stress management is another key factor in successfully managing the teams I am involved with. The personal example is also particularly important.

Tell us briefly about the work of your department "Luxury and Corporate Rentals and Sales".

The department I lead has two directions - rentals and sales, which work in full synergy. In the "Rentals" direction, we serve both individual and corporate clients who are looking to rent or rent out luxury properties in Sofia and throughout the country. We offer staff and management relocation assistance. The service is for all companies that need the expert opinion and assistance of real estate professionals related to the relocation of their business and employees.

The company's portfolio also meets the needs of people who occupy middle and high management positions (Executive Properties), as well as owners of modern small and medium-sized companies. These are people who need a suitable property for the time they work in Bulgaria or simply want to change their lifestyle.

Unique Estates offers corporate service contracts, with which companies that choose to work with us can count on constant assistance in renting or renting out properties, including in relation to their maintenance and exploitation.

In the department, we are actively developing the "Medium-term and long-term rentals" service. In the case of medium-term leases, the company undertakes to offer the lessor a new tenant after the end of the lease term, in order to avoid the lack of benefits for the client in this type of transaction.
Also, in our work with clients, we strive to improve and optimize the income from their real estate investments by offering customized strategies for their management and consulting for the optimization of the property portfolio.

We are proud of the high quality of the service provided and the many satisfied customers we have.

What are the goals you set for yourself and the team for the future?

The goals I set are many and different, as they are aligned with our company's strategies. Our main task is to maintain the image of Unique Estates as the most recognizable brand and leader in the luxury real estate market in Bulgaria, including in the "Rentals" sector. We will continue to enrich our portfolio with exceptional properties and loyal customers. The many positive references we constantly receive speak for our success. My team prides itself on high repeatability of customers looking for our service, which is the highest recognition for our work.

With the team that I lead, we will continue to work hard to provide high quality service and build long-term partner relationships with the company's customers in the future.