With the right temperament, property development can be an exciting and rewarding field. However, you should also know that the process is complex and multifaceted. It starts with pre-purchase research, then cycles through a range of other steps ending with post-construction marketing. You need to be diligent, patient, and more than anything else, willing and able to adapt to unexpected challenges. And it should always start with knowing what all the steps involved in developing a property are. Whether you’re still only thinking of getting into property development, or ready to take the first steps.
Discovering Your Development Vision
The initial stage of property development—where you start to discover your development vision—is the pre-purchase stage. This is where you start identifying and researching development sites. And research is key. It is going to help you determine the viability of the site for development, allowing you to make an informed decision about going ahead with the sale.
You’ll be looking at things like the location and land size, and how easy it is to access and the presence of infrastructure. Not forgetting topography and soil conditions. From there you can start assessing the feasibility of the site for development, looking at zoning, regulations, and planning requirements. And along with all this is the all-important market research, to see what the demand and competition in the area are like. If the area is oversaturated with new developments, the risk may outweigh the reward.
The Archistar all-in-one property development platform can reduce much of the complexity of this stage. Besides being able to quickly access planning rules and zoning details, you can also immediately get crucial environmental risk information. This would be details such as bushfire and flood zones, along with slope and other environmental information.
Securing Your Property Investment
Once you have identified the ideal site for your development, you need to set about securing it. Start by carrying out a title search. Not only so that you can ensure you are dealing with the legal owner of the property, but also to check that there aren’t any issues that could affect your development. These could include easements, covenants, and caveats.
Naturally, you will want to negotiate the sale price. You don’t only want to maximise your return on investment, but you also want to be sure you are paying a fair market price. And if you don’t already have financing secured, you will need to take care of that as soon as you and the seller have agreed on a price.
Crafting Your Project Blueprint
You likely already have a vision of what the finished development will look like. Unfortunately, getting development and planning approval needs something more concrete. There are many factors that will influence your concept design. From building orientation and site layout, through to site rules and building restrictions. And then there are factors you can overlook, such as ventilation, hours of sunlight, energy efficiency, and the character of the area your site is in.
Archistar’s AI design generator can create hundreds of potential designs in minutes. You can then spend more time analysing each, not only accounting for these factors, but also looking at the potential return on investment for various designs.
Once you have a design that is both workable and profitable, you can then have final plans drawn up for submission to the local council. Research the exact requirements for your submission to avoid unnecessary delays in the process. Because you can’t do anything else until the local council issues the necessary approvals and permits.
From Blueprint to Permits
Unfortunately, you’re not done with the paperwork yet. From development and planning consent you move to getting all the construction documentation prepared. This could include:
- Working drawings
- Engineering design and computations
- Civil design
- Soil testing
- Energy rating
- Fixtures, fittings, and finishes specifications.
Your construction documentation is required not only by your contractors, but also for your building permit application, which is separate from development and planning consent. By this stage you should also have builders and contractors organised, along with the financing for the development. And unless you have experience in the field, you might want to have a project manager to oversee the build.
Bringing Your Project to Life
If you’re new to property development, hiring a project manager to oversee and manage construction can save you money. At any given time, you could have a half dozen or more people on site. Your project manager is going to ensure each of them is working according to approved plans and specifications. And when any of them encounters a problem, your project manager would need to work with them to find a solution. Without an experienced person managing this role, the risk of you not completing the project on time or within budget increases.
Marketing Your Development
Be it 6, 12, or 24 months later, at some point your development will be complete. But although this step is last on the list, work on it should begin well before you complete construction. Ideally, it would start before construction even begins. To market your development effectively, you first need to decide whether to sell it or rent it out. The marketing strategy for both is largely the same, but the legal work required for a lease or sale agreement is different.
While you could use a real estate agent to market the development for you, Archistar does make it possible to do it yourself too. More than making the early stages of property development easier, Archistar also makes property marketing easier. The standalone Snaploader product allows you to use interactive 3D models, fly-through videos and 360º tours to start marketing your development before construction has even begun. Having tenants or buyers lined up before construction ends is a key factor in maximising your return on investment.
Property development is incredibly complex and challenging. But it is also exciting and rewarding. If you are mindful that much of the reward takes months or years to realise. Knowing the steps is important, but so too is having a partner who can ease some of the challenges you can face. Archistar’s all-in-one property development platform can be that partner. Not sure how? Book a personalised demo and we’ll show you how your business can benefit.
