Before lodging your development approval, it’s imperative that you sit down with sales and marketing professionals to seek marketing feedback on the product. You need to talk about the product you’re thinking about bringing to the market so that you can get some independent feedback.
For example, if your project includes 40% one and 60% two bedroom units but the current market is preferring two and three bedroom units then you will have an issue selling 40% of your project and will also miss out on the opportunity to capitalize on the purchasers in the marketing who are chasing three bedroom units.
It’s important that you avoid the risk of obtaining a development approval that the market does not receive well because the only ways to rectify this problem are:
- Sell the site. However, if there is a fundamental problem with the configuration of the development approval this will be picked up by the next developer.
- Amend your development approval which will incur additional design and town planning costs, not to mention additional time.
Make sure that you make the discussion with the sales and marketing professional collaborative with the other team members, specifically the architect and town planner. The solution to the best outcome of the project won’t be one-sided—it will be a blend of what all parties contribute in order to achieve an outcome that satisfies the market, council requirements and the architectural intent.
Matt Grbcic, Founder MG Group
