A dilemma that homeowners and investors face in today’s property market is whether it’s worth building or buying a new home. While cost is a major factor to consider, it shouldn’t be the only one. 

When building a new home, the process can be overwhelmingly daunting for aspiring new homeowners and investors. New owner-developers may find themselves lost in the planning process or struggle to maintain construction costs, ultimately costing more time and more money long term. Working with an experienced residential developer can relieve many of these stresses, streamlining the multitude of phases involved in residential development. 

Here we delve into the main advantages of building your home or property: for new homeowners, other than Stamp Duty savings and a First Home Owners Grant (depending on your location), modern homes are often required to adhere to strict energy rating regulations, reducing long-run heating and cooling expenses. Having less competition in buying land as opposed to buying existing properties will also save you so much time and effort inspecting houses and attending auctions. Furthermore, developing your own property can also save you maintenance and renovation costs that you might otherwise have to spend for older homes.

But the best thing about building and designing your own property? You can customise everything to your needs and desires, whether it’s for yourself, your family or your intended inhabitants. Especially for investors: newer, custom designed homes are a lot easier to up sell in the property market.

What does a property/residential developer do?

Residential development is a fairly broad term that simply describes the process of finding land and transforming it into liveable homes to make a profit. The job of a residential developer is to orchestrate this process from beginning to end which generally includes: purchasing a site, designing the homes, securing financing, receiving planning permission, overlooking the building process, and finally selling. It can range from a single home, a couple of units, townhouses or skyscraper apartments. 

 

There are different types of developments that residential developers can work on: small to medium developments (low density), medium developments (medium density) and larger residential development (high density). Low density developments involve replacing an older home with two or more units/townhouses and subdividing the residences so they can be sold separately. Medium density developments relate to larger units and townhouses. Lastly, high density developments refer to apartments or commercial use buildings. 

 

Through the complex, lengthy process designing and building homes, homeowners and those interested in properties can rely on property developers to help them navigate through the property development. At JKBD design and property development, we are a Residential Design and Property Development company that can do just that for you.

What is residential property development?

Residential property development entails the related processes to buying land, building, and renovating properties, typically for families, homebuyers and small investors. The process consists of 7 main steps: 

1. Pre-purchase stage
2. Contract negotiation and purchase 
3. Town planning and development approval 
4. Drawing and documentation 
5. Pre-construction 
6. Construction 
7. Completion
8. Sales and marketing 

What are the challenges of designing multiple residential developments?

Multiple residential developments are property development projects in which more than one place of residence (unit, house or townhouse) is built in a single lot. Residential property design is a complicated process that continually has to adapt to the arising needs of the community and council planning policies, while keeping in maintaining affordability and increasing profit. For investors of multiple residential property development, these challenges can be overcome with the assistance of a residential property developer.

Rising land prices 

With land prices booming in certain suburbs of Victoria, it’s more profitable to design and build smaller apartments, however, in some areas they are more difficult to finance and sell as there isn’t as much demand for it. Therefore, achieving a balance between creating a comfortable, functional home and keeping prices reasonable is hard.

Adapting to the lifestyle of the surrounding area and customer needs

There has been an increasing demand for developers to adapt to the lifestyle and society in which new property developments occur, to ensure that all the needs of the intended inhabitants are met. In order to build a multi-residential property that will suit the community’s needs, property developers need to stay up to date with trends and conduct thorough research to understand the customers’ needs.

Balancing affordability by including parking 

A challenge with building multi-residential living is that car parking remains a fundamental requirement and criteria among renters and home buyers. By incorporating parking space into property designs, it makes it more difficult to balance affordability and ultimately appeal to a bigger market.

Transport connection and infrastructure 

Being close to transport hubs and amenities has always been a priority, and as Melbourne grows by either spreading further away from the inner city or increasing density, it is becoming a challenge to maintain connected cities. Having more space versus having more time becomes an important consideration where with more spacious land and homes, people would have to sacrifice time travelling. And on the other side of it, if you’re closer and more connected to all the facilities and amenities, you have to sacrifice space. These make tough decisions to consider in multi-residential property design. 

Conflict with local planning policies 

Sometimes the design intent of the developer doesn’t align with what planning policies allow for. In these cases, it can become a long-winded negotiation with the local council to receive your planning permit/development approval. These conflicts make it an arduous process that you would greatly benefit from hiring a property developer to handle.

Financial funding issues

Another issue to consider when designing multi residential properties, is that based on location, some banks have a minimum house size that they are willing to fund (between 40-50 square metres). This would be a major drawback of designing properties that are too small and narrow down the potential buying market.

This is why making sure you’re working with a professional who is aware of all the design and development requirements is vital to ensure the investment you make is a positive one.

Make an enquiry with the JKBD team to learn more about how we can help you.