Mandi holds an Unrestricted Conveyancing License, which is quite special in the conveyancing industry as most conveyancers are Restricted with what they are able to offer their services on.

Mandi covers the background of Related Party Property Transfers, how her firm handles these issues and what are some of the most tax effective ways of setting up these transfers.

Specifically a discussion is around a scenario where an investor who would like to upgrade their primary place of residence (PPOR) and keep the existing property as an investment. The optimal solution is provided which at the same time allows the upgrade, whilst maximising the borrowing against the properties for tax benefit purposes.

Visualise an apartment development coming up for selling off-the-plan with a boutique marketing agency.

Solution:

We created a comprehensive package of exterior, interior imagery and floorplans and floorplates for the project. The agency also created logo and branding for the development which was then further integrated into the imagery.

Click on the images below to view in full scale.

Client Feedback:

“Having commissioned Stan and his team for the first time, I am exceptionally happy with the results and the high level of service he has provided me throughout the job.

Being a very pedantic client, nothing seemed to be too much or too difficult. I am very impressed by the overall finish especially when considering the reasonable cost to attain such high quality renders.

I can say with absolute certainty that we will be engaging Stan and his team again for our next project.”

Nurit Brukarz, Motion Property Group.

Visualise an apartment development coming up for marketing off-the-plan. The project is in a particularly trendy area, so appropriate lifestyle amenities needed to be represented.

Solution:

We created an exterior image only at the moment – since this is pre-launch, the developer is gauging interest in the site and will work with people’s wishes individually when it comes to interior colour set-out.

Click on the image below to view in full scale.

Visualise a multi-million dollar contemporary townhouse for marketing it off-the-plan. The townhouse is three levels with ocean front views, upstairs balcony with outdoor BBQ, lift, 4m ceilings in the ground floor and a number of other luxury features.

Solution:

We created four images for this project – One exterior view and three interior views.

The interior views included kitchen, living room and a bedroom visuals to showcase this exceptional project.

Click on the images below to view them in full scale.

Sometimes the market is up and sometimes the market is fairly flat. So how do the experienced developers make a profit regardless of where the Market is?

Development projects have a lot of flexibility if purchased correctly. The development could be sold Subject to receiving the town planning (Development Approval) permit, could be sold once the planning permit is achieved, could be sold once the project is completed or if the finances permit – the entire project could be kept on the rental market and sold when the market is buoyant.

Experienced property developers understand this and understand the value that is added through the Development Approvals and prepare for the exit scenario ahead of purchasing the project.

So what typically happens is that they have to decide upfront at what stage they will sell the property, whether they’ll get the permit and sell it before they start to build, or they’ll actually sell it at the completion of the project.

Key Points about the Market:

• Developers must consider and understand the market & overall timing of the cycle
• Consider Exit Scenarios in the Feasibility Study Ahead of Starting the Project
• Property Market is cyclical and will be up and down as the past has shown
• Demand and Supply of property on the market creates the fluctuations
• Development Approvals (Town Planning) permit provides flexibility to developers to exit at their preferred time

3 Factors to Determine How You Will Need to Respond to the Market Situation to Optimise Profitability of Your Project

Factor 1

Market situation – is the current market strengthening or weakening? Is there an undersupply or an oversupply of projects on the go?

Factor 2

What will the situation be in 12 months time when the permit is likely to be achieved? Will it be a good time to start building the project or sell the project because permits will be at a premium?

Factor 3

What is your personal situation like – if the worst case scenario is that when the TP is approved, but you are not able to build – are you in a position to hold on to the project? And if you will need to sell it – is it going to be a good time to sell or will you have to sell the project at any price?

Typically for small residential developments – there is an income from the property in the way of rent, however with commercial properties it is not quite so easy because if the property is rented out – then it is likely to be on a longer term than 12 months.

Case Study:

Currently I’m working with an experienced property developer who is going through a project in Clifton Hill in Melbourne, Victoria. This development started 2 years ago when the developer purchased the project with the view to subdivide an existing building off the site and then put together a planning approvals on the land behind the existing building which was heritage listed and could not be easily re-developed.

Now that the subdivision permit is achieved – the existing building has been further subdivided and sold off as parts to maximise return. In the meantime, the other component is in process of receiving development approvals for a 21 apartment and 4 retail outlets project. As the market currently is a bit weak for off-the-plan sales, the development is for sale subject to Planning approvals. This allows the developer flexibility and to sell the project at a slight discount, but come out of the overall project with a profit.

Metaphor:

Just like a ship sailing in the wind has to adjust its sails, same goes for the developers in the property market – Timing is everything!

Peter graduated from Melbourne University School of Architecture in 1976. After a period as a project architect on a variety of major developments in Britain, Italy and the Middle East, he returned to Melbourne, Australia and was for some years a director of Caulfield, Krivanek & Sugar Architects.

On leaving to form Sugar & Company, he established an architectural practice dedicated to meeting clients needs through exceptional client service. Peter is a firm believer that this begins by listening – listening to understand the clients’ needs and wants, being flexible and following through is the only way to “get it right”. This allows Peter to provide the information required to allow clients to make the best informed decision.

From his interview, you will learn about the current environment for architecture and planning, creating the right balance and mix of apartments in the developments, latest trends in modular construction, dealing with objectors and the future for apartment developments.

The following were the questions that we talked about:

Q1. How do you provide an edge to your clients in this competitive environment.

Q2. How do you then find a balance and ensure that the projects are most effective?

Q3. Talking about optimisation, have you dealt with modular construction and how effective that is in Australian architecture and development.

Q4. Objectors – How do you typically deal with situations where neighbours object to the planning proposal as they quite often do?

Q5. Where do you see the architecture and development moving to in the next 12 months – regarding the mix of apartments and their sizes?

Click the video below to view:

Quite often, I have seen property owners pick a big-name agency and expect that because of the reputation of the agency, their property will sell automatically. It is not enough just to leave your property in their hands without personal attention to the campaign.

It is much more important to know who will be handling your property marketing – who will be there opening the property for the open inspections, who’s going to be selling the property to owners or investors.

Key points:

• Pick the agent not the agency
• Interview at least 3 agents to see different approaches & which agent you can relate to the most
• Agent must be able to paint the dream
• Buyers have very little imagination, hence the typical difficulty in selling projects from architectural plans
• Ask key questions of the agent to establish if they are right for the job!
• Is the agent a generalist or a specialist in selling projects?
• What is the agent’s own marketing expertise?
• Is the agency dynamic and progressive to handle marketing a project?
• What is the network of the agent like? If the agency is a franchise, can other franchisees sell your project to their clients?
• Are they going to be creating specialised online campaigns to market your project or do they expect to put together a display suite to sell it?

The 5 Steps to Choosing the Best Estate Agent for Your Development

Step 1 – Research local area and current developments in the area

An important part of the process of choosing the agent, will be finding an appropriate development that is currently being marketed locally that can be used as a comparison. Not only will this help you with feeling out the appropriate pricing structure for your development, but also what competition is out there and how it is being marketed.

Step 2 – Interview at least 3 agents from developments that stand out in their marketing approach

They have to able to explain to the buyers where the walls are going to be and what the colours of the finishes are going to be like. Basically, they’re selling the dream, because there’s nothing in reality, they have to take them to a piece of empty land and almost visualise for the buyer where the house is going to be located.

Step 3 – Ask key questions of the estate agent who is going to be primarily responsible for marketing your project

There is a separate report that we have put together of a list of key questions that you can use to ask an agent to establish how well suited they are for the job.

Some of the questions are: How will you market my development site? What will you do to sell my site if the advertising you suggest doesn’t work? How do you distinguish yourself from your competitors?

Step 4 – Negotiate the commission agreements & marketing budgets

As an experienced property developer, you will recognise that everything is negotiable and it’s about creating the best scenario whilst keeping within your feasibility study of the project.

Step 5 – Schedule a regular frequency of meetings with the agent

This way you can see the progress of your project and there is an accountability system in place, so that if you can see that if the agent is not performing to your expectation or there are other circumstances that are preventing the agent from selling your project – you can be on top of it earlier than later.

Case Study

An acquaintance of mine had dealt with a marketing agency who was handling a 16 apartment development in a suburb of Glen Iris in the eastern suburbs of Melbourne. This particular property marketing group was very experienced in marketing developments to the degree that the entire development was sold out within three weekends in the middle of 2011.

At this same time, according to the most media and newspaper articles, the property market has been flat and falling. Yet these apartments were sold at the developer’s asking prices and the developer was really pleasantly surprised at the speed of the result.

This marketing group has a particular methodology of registering interest from potential buyers and then they are able to explain the development in terms of both the investment to those looking for one or to the owner occupiers looking to live in the area.

Metaphor

Picking the right agent is like travelling with a GPS – less chance of getting lost on the journey and you are likely to get to your destination quicker with less frustration.

We recommended one exterior, two interiors and three floorplates for each level of the building and the clients took on our recommendation.

So far the clients have been ecstatic about the imagery produced as it reflects the style and the quality of the development.

Click the images below to see more about this project

Recently we completed a visualisation project for an apartment development in St Kilda East. Because of the nature of the project – it was a bit more complicated than usual because of a heritage protected house that had to be retained at the front of the project.

So rather than taking a standard approach and showing a streetscape profile of the development – we created a hidden shot of the development which further was revealed in other imagery and was a bit more of an artistic presentation than usual.

The clients were ecstatic with the results – they mostly liked the covered cloth shot as they’ve finally come to realise the power of 3D illustration that is possible in simulating reality.

See imagery for the project enclosed:

From his interview, you will learn about the most important factors to selling projects Off-the-Plan, how to brand and make your project unique, create an effective marketing budget for the project and decide on either an online or an offline marketing strategy for your project. He also discussed the current market environment and what has changed since 12 months ago.

The questions that we talked about were as following:

Q1. What three factors do you feel are the most important to achieve faster sales Off the Plan?

Q2. Branding of a project – how important is it to make the project stand out?

Q3. Marketing budgets for projects – is there a rule of thumb that should be applied to the marketing budget for a project?

Q4. Marketing agency – specialists versus general estate agents – what does it take to sell a property off the plan with a marketing agency?

Q5. Online  versus offline marketing techniques - how much energy should be spent on each method and how do Stockdale Leggo Projects market their projects online?

To watch the interview – click the link below.