Latest / The Money Puzzle / Property development playbook - tips from an insider
Transcript
- 0:09Speaker 1: Hello, and welcome to today's episode of The Money Puzzle.
- 0:12Speaker 1: I'm your host, James Gerrard, standing in for James Kirby
- 0:16Speaker 1: this week. Today, we've got a special episode planned, which
- 0:19Speaker 1: is going to be all about property development. But not
- 0:22Speaker 1: your 50-story high-rise skyscraper. We're talking about property development for
- 0:26Speaker 1: the average mom and dad investor. So if you've ever
- 0:29Speaker 1: considered diving into the world of property development, this episode
- 0:33Speaker 1: is for you. We'll be breaking down the basics, sharing
- 0:36Speaker 1: tips and tricks, and discussing the ins and outs of
- 0:38Speaker 1: property development. So grab a notepad and get ready to
- 0:41Speaker 1: learn how you can start your property development journey. And
- 0:44Speaker 1: to help us with this special episode, we have an
- 0:46Speaker 1: equally special guest, Daichi Samahara, property developer at national buyers
- 0:52Speaker 1: agency firm, Property Buyer. Welcome, Daichi.
- 0:55Speaker 2: Hello, James. How are you?
- 0:56Speaker 1: I'm doing well. Thanks for coming on today. So let's
- 0:59Speaker 1: jump straight into it. Okay, so opening the lid on
- 1:03Speaker 1: the world of property development, it's estimated that only 2%
- 1:05Speaker 1: to 3% of all property investors engage in development activities.
- 1:10Speaker 1: Why do you think that's the case? There's a lot
- 1:11Speaker 1: of people that buy investment properties, but not many people
- 1:13Speaker 1: that actually develop them.
- 1:15Speaker 2: Two reasons. One is that investment and development, they're completely
- 1:20Speaker 2: different approach. So property investment is more passive and you're
- 1:25Speaker 2: targeting mid to long-term returns, whereas investment property development is
- 1:29Speaker 2: more proactive and short to medium term form of investments. Now,
- 1:36Speaker 2: availability is another reason why there's only one or two
- 1:42Speaker 2: properties out of every hundred sites that go up for sale.
- 1:45Speaker 2: So just from the start, there is not many sites available.
- 1:49Speaker 2: So that puts a limit on to how many people
- 1:52Speaker 2: can actually make money as a developer, if that makes sense. Yeah.
- 1:57Speaker 1: And when you say a site, what do you mean?
- 1:59Speaker 1: Is that like a raw block of land? Is that
- 2:01Speaker 1: a house with a land that's conducive for development?
- 2:04Speaker 2: Yeah. Yeah. So look, if you have a thousand square
- 2:08Speaker 2: meter lot with a small house at the front with
- 2:11Speaker 2: a little space on the side, that's a potential subdivision site.
- 2:16Speaker 2: If you see just another house down the road up
- 2:18Speaker 2: for sale on realestate.com, that's really run down, but potential
- 2:22Speaker 2: for renovation is That's a site. So, yeah, we call
- 2:25Speaker 2: these properties sites in general.
- 2:28Speaker 1: Got it. And we see in the media almost every
- 2:32Speaker 1: day about another construction company going under. And, in fact,
- 2:35Speaker 1: 2,000 have gone bust over the past three years. So
- 2:39Speaker 1: I'm just wondering, is property development still a profitable business?
- 2:42Speaker 1: And what's changed in recent years to cause all of
- 2:45Speaker 1: these liquidations and bankruptcies?
- 2:47Speaker 2: Look, Short House is, yes, is a very still profitable business.
- 2:51Speaker 2: for certain products in certain areas, you're just going to
- 2:53Speaker 2: be more careful what to pick now compared to 10,
- 2:57Speaker 2: 20 years ago, because the building cost is sky high.
- 3:00Speaker 2: So whether you're building a house, duplex, unit, townhouses, they
- 3:04Speaker 2: only work in the areas with mid to high median prices.
- 3:07Speaker 2: So if it's going to cost you, let's say $ 500, 000
- 3:09Speaker 2: to build in one suburb where the resale is a million,
- 3:14Speaker 2: but the other suburb you can sell it for two mil,
- 3:16Speaker 2: naturally you will go to million dollar suburbs. So I'd
- 3:20Speaker 2: go as far as Castle Hill to the west and
- 3:23Speaker 2: Epping to the south. And if you're in that, that's
- 3:26Speaker 2: if you're targeting north of Harbour Bridge. But if you're
- 3:29Speaker 2: in the south of Harbour Bridge, I'd say you go
- 3:31Speaker 2: as far as Strathfield to the west and Burlwood to
- 3:34Speaker 2: the south. And generally speaking, you want to be targeting
- 3:38Speaker 2: only suburbs with median price above $ 2 million. Outside of
- 3:41Speaker 2: these areas, resale values just don't stand. So I guess
- 3:45Speaker 2: that's how you pick which areas to... to start your
- 3:50Speaker 2: project and to make sure that you make money.
- 3:53Speaker 1: Got it. And so folks, which is a term, which
- 3:56Speaker 1: James Kirby would say, Daichi is talking about Sydney. And
- 4:00Speaker 1: we do have listeners from all over the country. And
- 4:02Speaker 1: in fact, I know all over the world in places
- 4:05Speaker 1: such as Dubai and Singapore. So we'll try and cover
- 4:08Speaker 1: other markets as well. But at this stage, it was
- 4:10Speaker 1: Sydney that you were speaking about it. And that's where
- 4:13Speaker 1: you're based. So why did you get into property development?
- 4:18Speaker 2: Um, I've always wanted to become a developer just simply
- 4:24Speaker 2: because of the lifestyle choices that you will have. So
- 4:28Speaker 2: my job is not nine to five, it's really 24 seven,
- 4:32Speaker 2: but I get to choose when and where and how
- 4:35Speaker 2: I want to work, especially post COVID. Remote work has
- 4:40Speaker 2: been very popular, but even before that, I was able
- 4:44Speaker 2: to live my lifestyle. So that's how I got into it. Well,
- 4:49Speaker 2: that's the reason why I got into it.
- 4:51Speaker 1: Got it. So I'm imagining Red Ferrari pulling up to
- 4:55Speaker 1: a construction site, you pull out with your chinos and boots,
- 4:59Speaker 1: wearing a hard hat, pointing, telling people what to do.
- 5:02Speaker 1: Is that sort of the lifestyle of a property developer?
- 5:04Speaker 2: Almost true, except not Ferrari or Lamborghini. I'll drive a
- 5:08Speaker 2: white Hilux. I've got to look the part as a developer.
- 5:12Speaker 2: So I'll drive a ute.
- 5:14Speaker 1: Good, good. Very, very practical. And what about education? Is
- 5:18Speaker 1: there anything in particular that you have done that helped
- 5:21Speaker 1: prepare you to jump into property development or anything with
- 5:24Speaker 1: your career that helped move into property development?
- 5:27Speaker 2: I think a lot of developers have one particular profession
- 5:32Speaker 2: of their own. Otherwise, you know, you can't really get
- 5:36Speaker 2: ahead of everyone else. My case is I started as
- 5:41Speaker 2: a real estate agent. So I was working for Ray White,
- 5:43Speaker 2: First National. Did it for a few years. Made some
- 5:48Speaker 2: seed money, but it was mainly getting that practice and
- 5:52Speaker 2: also experience in the real estate environment. But some other people,
- 5:58Speaker 2: they could be a builder or any kind of tradie
- 6:02Speaker 2: to have that sort of knowledge ahead of everyone else.
- 6:05Speaker 2: You could be a banker or an accountant who will
- 6:07Speaker 2: know the numbers really well. So I think as long
- 6:11Speaker 2: as you have that one particular profession, it doesn't have
- 6:15Speaker 2: to be this particular profession, if that makes sense.
- 6:20Speaker 1: Yeah, got it. That absolutely makes sense. Understanding where your
- 6:23Speaker 1: personal strengths are and then applying that to property development.
- 6:27Speaker 1: So next, I'm curious about what type of average investors.
- 6:31Speaker 1: So we're talking about mum and dad investors. what sort
- 6:34Speaker 1: of characteristics or traits do you think they need to
- 6:38Speaker 1: get started in property development? Do they need to have
- 6:39Speaker 1: a high level to tolerate risk? Do they need to
- 6:45Speaker 1: have certain experience? Do they need to have a certain
- 6:46Speaker 1: amount of backing behind them? So who's sort of suited
- 6:49Speaker 1: for property development?
- 6:51Speaker 2: I think someone who is proactive and wants more control
- 6:55Speaker 2: over the course of their investment, and often in the
- 6:58Speaker 2: shorter turnaround time. So if you invest in a property,
- 7:03Speaker 2: you know two bedroom unit for example there's not much
- 7:06Speaker 2: you can do to you know control this due course
- 7:09Speaker 2: whereas property development it's all about you know making sure
- 7:13Speaker 2: you control it really well so that it doesn't go
- 7:15Speaker 2: wrong so i think the approach if you enjoy that
- 7:19Speaker 2: proactive approach i think you're suited to be a developer
- 7:23Speaker 2: and and also that that you need to have really
- 7:26Speaker 2: thick skin on the face you know and also just
- 7:29Speaker 2: tenacity to go for you know one after another So
- 7:33Speaker 2: a go-getter.
- 7:33Speaker 1: Yeah, interesting. So interesting about the comments about the thick skin.
- 7:37Speaker 1: So what happens in the world of property development that
- 7:43Speaker 1: requires you to have a thick skin? Is it dealing
- 7:45Speaker 1: with people that you're buying the properties from? Is it
- 7:47Speaker 1: dealing with the builders that you're engaging? I'm curious about
- 7:51Speaker 1: some of the stress points.
- 7:55Speaker 2: Look, you deal with a lot of people. They... I
- 7:59Speaker 2: personally love going direct to vendors instead of going through
- 8:02Speaker 2: agents because I get quality sites that way, or at
- 8:06Speaker 2: least I believe that. When I go door knocking and
- 8:10Speaker 2: people usually don't like people knocking on your door, so
- 8:12Speaker 2: you've got to have thick enough skin on your face
- 8:15Speaker 2: to have the door slammed in your face every now
- 8:17Speaker 2: and then. But also just talking to builders, they could
- 8:23Speaker 2: be really rough. And they're good people, but they come
- 8:26Speaker 2: across very aggressive sometimes. But so you just got to
- 8:29Speaker 2: deal with it. Not all of them, by the way.
- 8:32Speaker 2: But yeah, generally stress tolerance level. That's very important. So yeah,
- 8:38Speaker 2: the thicker is better, I think.
- 8:41Speaker 1: I understood. And for someone who's wanting to get started
- 8:44Speaker 1: out in property development, is there anything that you had
- 8:46Speaker 1: come across that would help? Any websites with useful information?
- 8:50Speaker 1: Any YouTube courses? Are there template spreadsheets out there? Is
- 8:54Speaker 1: there anything to sort of kickstart somebody who wants to
- 8:57Speaker 1: learn more about this?
- 8:58Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah. Look, I mean, there's not any particular course
- 9:02Speaker 2: that you want to enroll yourself into. It's not necessary. Like,
- 9:05Speaker 2: all the how to develop property 101 types of videos
- 9:09Speaker 2: are all over YouTube. So... Just watch something that's, you know,
- 9:13Speaker 2: well edited and it makes sense to you what you enjoy.
- 9:16Speaker 2: But I think practicing running fees is better than any
- 9:23Speaker 2: other training that you can get off these videos, to
- 9:25Speaker 2: be honest with you. So start with a simple renovation job,
- 9:29Speaker 2: compare the buying price to the resale value and see
- 9:32Speaker 2: if there's enough margin in it after considering not just
- 9:36Speaker 2: build costs, but GST, levies, interest. You can find these
- 9:39Speaker 2: on domainrealestate.com.au. And yeah, once you get used to it,
- 9:45Speaker 2: then you can do one for new build, then duplex,
- 9:48Speaker 2: then maybe two to three lots subdivision. And even if
- 9:51Speaker 2: you have no idea about anything now, trust me, once
- 9:55Speaker 2: you have run a hundred fees, and read through a
- 9:58Speaker 2: few LEPs, DCPs, you will start feeling more comfortable in
- 10:01Speaker 2: what you're doing and move on to considering the first
- 10:04Speaker 2: real life projects.
- 10:06Speaker 1: Perfect.
- 10:06Speaker 2: Yeah.
- 10:06Speaker 1: So step-by-step start with renovating a bathroom and then work
- 10:10Speaker 1: your way up to doing a 10 subdivision lot development somewhere.
- 10:15Speaker 2: Yeah. If it's just practicing fees, it's free. You don't
- 10:20Speaker 2: lose any money. So that's the best way to learn.
- 10:23Speaker 1: And it's a good point. Looking in your own backyard,
- 10:26Speaker 1: pun intended. So looking in your own property portfolio and
- 10:30Speaker 1: seeing if there's any scope to improve the value of
- 10:33Speaker 1: existing properties you have. So I suspect that you could
- 10:36Speaker 1: have a look at things like, can I build a
- 10:38Speaker 1: granny flat in the back of an investment property? Do
- 10:41Speaker 1: I have enough land to subdivide is it worthwhile doing
- 10:45Speaker 1: a knockdown and rebuild or a knockdown and building townhouses
- 10:49Speaker 1: on the site or is it just worth maybe doing
- 10:50Speaker 1: a renovation and as you said Daichi looking at the
- 10:54Speaker 1: the cost to do the renovation and then afterwards what's
- 10:56Speaker 1: that uplift in value of the the property and if
- 10:59Speaker 1: you find that that worked well on your own portfolio
- 11:03Speaker 1: then maybe you can get started and looking for other
- 11:05Speaker 1: sites to purchase.
- 11:07Speaker 2: Not so much your own portfolio. You do your practice
- 11:11Speaker 2: rounds on looking for sites for sale on realestate.com or
- 11:16Speaker 2: domain.com.au because usually your portfolio is not necessarily suited for
- 11:24Speaker 2: property development. For the development project to work, you've got
- 11:28Speaker 2: to get it right from the start at the buy-in. Okay.
- 11:32Speaker 2: If you already have an investment property portfolio, chances are
- 11:35Speaker 2: it wasn't bought for development purposes. So you don't often
- 11:38Speaker 2: find something profitable within your own portfolio. You just got
- 11:41Speaker 2: to start from the number one, step one, which is
- 11:44Speaker 2: to find and buy the site.
- 11:45Speaker 1: Got it. So your suggestion is to be purposeful with it.
- 11:49Speaker 1: Don't look at what you have and try and make
- 11:51Speaker 1: a triangle fit into a square hole and develop your
- 11:55Speaker 1: existing asset. Just start from scratch. Correct, correct.
- 11:59Speaker 2: The expression that I use always is that no matter
- 12:02Speaker 2: how well you cook a rock, you can't make it
- 12:05Speaker 2: taste like a steak. So you just got to, yeah,
- 12:09Speaker 2: the property, the site has to be right from the start.
- 12:12Speaker 1: Yeah, that makes sense. All right, well, talking about property
- 12:15Speaker 1: developments and the different types, can you run us through
- 12:17Speaker 1: what the different types of property developments are that maybe
- 12:19Speaker 1: an average mum or dad could consider? So I'm thinking
- 12:23Speaker 1: about things like buying a vacant block of land? Is
- 12:26Speaker 1: that maybe better to do? Should you buy something in
- 12:28Speaker 1: an established area with an old house on it? Should
- 12:31Speaker 1: you be looking at subdivisions, knockdowns? There's a lot of
- 12:35Speaker 1: different options or spectrum of options when you say the
- 12:38Speaker 1: word property development. But for the average sort of mum
- 12:41Speaker 1: and dad investor, can you run me through some of
- 12:43Speaker 1: the more common types of developments that they might be
- 12:45Speaker 1: able to get involved in?
- 12:47Speaker 2: Yeah, look, everything you mentioned, renovation, new build, duplex, subdivisions,
- 12:52Speaker 2: they're generally a good place to start. Because there are
- 12:56Speaker 2: less factors that could go wrong. This is important. Because
- 12:59Speaker 2: if the project does go wrong for some reason why,
- 13:02Speaker 2: you have less to lose. It's actually, in fact, very
- 13:05Speaker 2: hard to lose money as long as you're only developing
- 13:08Speaker 2: one or two keys. Because if you're only building one
- 13:12Speaker 2: or two keys, the potential debt can be managed on
- 13:17Speaker 2: the personal level. Whereas if you have like five, ten
- 13:19Speaker 2: keys going at the same time, then quite often that's
- 13:22Speaker 2: enough to bankrupt you. Okay. That will be where I'll
- 13:25Speaker 2: start if I was just starting out today. Okay.
- 13:28Speaker 1: And then with choosing a builder, which is central to
- 13:33Speaker 1: development if you're knocking down and you're building stuff, over
- 13:37Speaker 1: the years, how have you found a knack at picking builders?
- 13:42Speaker 1: What are you looking for with the builder themselves or
- 13:45Speaker 1: through their company to have the best chance that they're
- 13:48Speaker 1: going to complete the build in the timeframe, in the budget,
- 13:51Speaker 1: in the specs that you want?
- 13:54Speaker 2: Look, I would be looking at not the cheapest. First
- 13:59Speaker 2: of all, I'll run a tender always, at least three.
- 14:02Speaker 2: But I don't necessarily go for the cheapest builder. I
- 14:06Speaker 2: would go for someone that can justify what they're charging
- 14:13Speaker 2: for and how much. Because at the end of the day,
- 14:17Speaker 2: if you find a builder that is way cheaper than
- 14:20Speaker 2: everyone else, chances are they are trying to collect as
- 14:23Speaker 2: much cash as possible before they fall, for example. So
- 14:28Speaker 2: you look at, if you want to be very, very
- 14:31Speaker 2: diligent about it, you want to be just tracking how
- 14:33Speaker 2: many jobs they have. You can even, you know, try
- 14:37Speaker 2: to find out how much asset they have to assess
- 14:41Speaker 2: the risk of them going bankrupt, which is probably not
- 14:45Speaker 2: a silly thing to do in this market right now. Hmm.
- 14:49Speaker 1: That's a good point. All right. Well, moving along to
- 14:52Speaker 1: different budgets for property development, some people listening might have
- 14:56Speaker 1: $ 500, 000 to invest into a property and the development. Others
- 15:00Speaker 1: might have $ 5 million. So could we maybe break it
- 15:03Speaker 1: down to a few different price points and say less
- 15:06Speaker 1: than $ 1 million, then maybe $ 1 to $ 3 million, and
- 15:07Speaker 1: then $ 3 million to maybe $ 6 million. And if we
- 15:12Speaker 1: could open up to around the country as well, rather
- 15:14Speaker 1: than just focus on Sydney, what type of property development
- 15:18Speaker 1: would you suggest for each of those three sort of budgets?
- 15:20Speaker 1: And again, this is not advice to anyone. It's more
- 15:22Speaker 1: just sort of ideas of where might be attractive with
- 15:28Speaker 1: regards to the different types of property development that you
- 15:31Speaker 1: could potentially do. So to recap, less than a million,
- 15:34Speaker 1: second category, one to three million, and third category, three
- 15:37Speaker 1: to six million. Sure, sure.
- 15:39Speaker 2: Look, Your borrowing capacity and cash in hand are two
- 15:42Speaker 2: different things. So I'm going to talk very generically here
- 15:45Speaker 2: because that million dollars could mean anything. So say if
- 15:48Speaker 2: you had $ 200, 000 cash saved up and then you can borrow,
- 15:51Speaker 2: let's say 60% LVR, that's 300K, you can buy up
- 15:55Speaker 2: to half a million dollars in property. But if you
- 15:57Speaker 2: can borrow up to 80% in metro area, you can
- 16:00Speaker 2: buy up to a million dollars in property. But I
- 16:04Speaker 2: spoke about having the minimum threshold for meeting prices earlier on.
- 16:09Speaker 2: If we spent the whole 200K that you've saved up,
- 16:12Speaker 2: you have no money left to even run a DA.
- 16:14Speaker 2: It should be your first step. So when you have
- 16:17Speaker 2: less than, say, half a million dollars in cash, you
- 16:19Speaker 2: can't really fund purchase of the property and pay for
- 16:22Speaker 2: the DA on your own. So until you surpass that benchmark,
- 16:27Speaker 2: you should really team up with someone. Otherwise, you just
- 16:29Speaker 2: can't get that traction you need. But once you hit
- 16:32Speaker 2: that sort of half a million dollars mark, then.
- 16:35Speaker 3: I would be looking at, so the simple way to
- 16:41Speaker 3: probably look at is if you're targeting its minimum $ 2
- 16:46Speaker 3: million median.
- 16:48Speaker 2: Price suburb, and then if you have, let's say, less
- 16:51Speaker 2: than a million, let's say your first category, half a
- 16:54Speaker 2: million dollars to a million dollars, that will be enough
- 16:57Speaker 2: to buy yourself, let's say, a million to one and
- 17:01Speaker 2: a half million dollars property in for subdivisions. So you
- 17:05Speaker 2: could be targeting, where would that be? Earlwood would have
- 17:11Speaker 2: that around sort of just or under $ 2 million mark.
- 17:15Speaker 2: So you would probably pick up a potential, maybe a
- 17:19Speaker 2: knockdown rebuild site in Earlwood to build one extra key
- 17:22Speaker 2: or maybe two. But if you have one to $ 3 million,
- 17:26Speaker 2: then you can start running four different keys, let's say
- 17:31Speaker 2: more than four keys. So you could be, running a
- 17:34Speaker 2: project that could let you build four townhouses in a
- 17:38Speaker 2: medium sort of average area. Or you can choose to
- 17:42Speaker 2: run eight in a cheaper area. Or you can choose
- 17:45Speaker 2: to run two, let's say, very expensive duplexes in more
- 17:50Speaker 2: like eastern suburbs or lower North Shore. When you have
- 17:55Speaker 2: $ 3 million to $ 6 million, then you, and if this
- 17:59Speaker 2: was cash, not your borrowing capacity, once you have $ 3 million,
- 18:03Speaker 2: $ 6 million, you start moving on to sort of do
- 18:09Speaker 2: you really want to be putting that $ 3 million to
- 18:12Speaker 2: $ 6 million to run your own project? You could be
- 18:15Speaker 2: better off maybe teaming up with a bigger developer and
- 18:18Speaker 2: you go in as a potential equity partner to have
- 18:23Speaker 2: them deliver, let's say, 20, 30, 40 townhouses units. And
- 18:28Speaker 2: then you can leverage off their, their profession experience and capabilities.
- 18:35Speaker 2: So does that make sense? You, uh, up to about
- 18:39Speaker 2: three mil, you, you will be, you, you'll, you know,
- 18:42Speaker 2: if you're a novice developer, then run your own project.
- 18:45Speaker 2: But after three mil, you'll, you know, you want to
- 18:48Speaker 2: be working with bigger guys. That's how I feel.
- 18:52Speaker 1: Yeah, that makes sense. And for everyone who's not in Sydney,
- 18:55Speaker 1: Earlwood is a suburb that's sort of about 10, 15
- 18:58Speaker 1: kilometres outside of Sydney, CBD. Did I hear you say
- 19:02Speaker 1: something about keys? I think you said eight keys. What
- 19:05Speaker 1: do you mean by that with regards.
- 19:07Speaker 3: To property development?
- 19:07Speaker 2: Yeah, look, everyone, people say it differently. I say keys,
- 19:12Speaker 2: but some people say sites per site or dwellings, but
- 19:15Speaker 2: it's a number of literally a key down to open
- 19:19Speaker 2: the door. So if you say I'm doing eight keys,
- 19:22Speaker 2: that means I'm building eight dwellings. Or some people might
- 19:26Speaker 2: just say, oh, I'm doing eight dwellings. If I say
- 19:29Speaker 2: four keys, I'm building four houses or units.
- 19:32Speaker 1: Got it. That makes sense. There we go, everyone. We're
- 19:34Speaker 1: starting to learn the property development lingo, keys. I haven't
- 19:38Speaker 1: heard of that one before.
- 19:39Speaker 2: Keys are usually used to describe hotels and motels, but
- 19:44Speaker 2: I started using this because a lot of people understand
- 19:47Speaker 2: keys more than when I say sites. Yeah, no.
- 19:50Speaker 1: That makes sense all right well before we get into
- 19:52Speaker 1: the nuts and bolts of the property development process let's
- 19:55Speaker 1: take a pause for a break Hello and welcome back
- 19:58Speaker 1: to The Money Puzzle. I'm James Gerrard, writer, contributor to
- 20:02Speaker 1: the wealth section of the Australian newspaper and also financial
- 20:05Speaker 1: advisor with financialadvisor.com.au. And this week on the show, I
- 20:11Speaker 1: have Daichi Samahara, director, property developer and from buyer's agency firm,
- 20:17Speaker 1: Property Buyer. So now let's have a chat about the
- 20:20Speaker 1: development process. But before we do that, I just want
- 20:22Speaker 1: to remind everybody that what we're discussing is general advice.
- 20:25Speaker 1: It's not personal advice. So please don't go out there
- 20:28Speaker 1: and start buying properties and getting shovels and developing stuff.
- 20:32Speaker 1: Go seek advice from a qualified professional before you do anything.
- 20:37Speaker 1: All right, Daichi, let's jump into the development process. So
- 20:40Speaker 1: can you sort of run me through what a typical
- 20:42Speaker 1: development process would be from the beginning stage to the
- 20:46Speaker 1: finishing stage and then some of the common challenges that
- 20:49Speaker 1: you would face in that? And let's maybe work off
- 20:52Speaker 1: the example of, let's say a Sydney or Melbourne thousand
- 20:56Speaker 1: square meter property with an old house on it. The
- 20:59Speaker 1: local environment plan from the council is conducive to be
- 21:01Speaker 1: able to knock down the old house and subdivide it
- 21:05Speaker 1: and build two townhouses on separate titles there. So can
- 21:09Speaker 1: you run me through from, we've found the property, we've
- 21:12Speaker 1: agreed on the price. How do we get from that
- 21:15Speaker 1: point through to the keys, having these two townhouses and
- 21:19Speaker 1: selling those off for a profit?
- 21:21Speaker 2: Look, If I was to really broadly just order the process,
- 21:29Speaker 2: that would be acquisition, which you just mentioned. You get
- 21:32Speaker 2: offer and acceptance, exchange, settlement. Now you've got the DEA process.
- 21:39Speaker 2: So that's your development application. You want that approved by
- 21:43Speaker 2: the council so that you can build those two houses.
- 21:46Speaker 2: Now you then move on to CC process, construction certificates.
- 21:52Speaker 2: So DEA is an approval to build, the plan to build.
- 21:58Speaker 2: The construction certificate is an approval to actually start building
- 22:03Speaker 2: what's on the plan.
- 22:04Speaker 1: Got it. And what about the private certifier? Would you
- 22:08Speaker 1: typically try and go through a private certifier process or
- 22:11Speaker 1: development application through council?
- 22:14Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah. Look, you know, if you're, what you're, a
- 22:18Speaker 2: trying to get approved is all compliant to the council rules,
- 22:22Speaker 2: you should definitely go through private certifier. Saves a lot
- 22:25Speaker 2: of time and money. But then if you want to
- 22:28Speaker 2: do anything that is beyond the permissible rules or parameters
- 22:35Speaker 2: that the council give, which you want to be doing
- 22:37Speaker 2: to turbocharge the value, yeah, you have to go through DA.
- 22:41Speaker 2: But yeah, if you're just looking to subdivide your backyard
- 22:44Speaker 2: or renovate, yes, private certifier.
- 22:46Speaker 1: Perfect. All right. So we're up to construction certificate, which
- 22:49Speaker 1: allows you to construct. And then what happens from there?
- 22:52Speaker 2: So once you have that construction certificate and paid your
- 22:56Speaker 2: section fees, levies, you get to the first drawdown, we
- 23:01Speaker 2: call it, which is when you start. This is when
- 23:06Speaker 2: everything starts. You can't go back. You've borrowed your first
- 23:10Speaker 2: dollar from your construction financier and the construction starts.
- 23:15Speaker 1: Now, Okay, and sort of how long would that be
- 23:17Speaker 1: from the day you've settled the property until you start
- 23:20Speaker 1: to draw down that loan to construct? How long roughly
- 23:22Speaker 1: is that approval process for a typical townhouse site in, say,
- 23:27Speaker 1: Sydney or Melbourne?
- 23:29Speaker 2: Look, the last subdivision that I've done two lots out
- 23:34Speaker 2: in Kuringai area, that took me four months. So in
- 23:38Speaker 2: another suburb in Beagroft, that took me four months. So
- 23:42Speaker 2: two lots subdivisions... it doesn't take as much as long as,
- 23:46Speaker 2: you know, it's compliant. So you're looking at four to
- 23:48Speaker 2: six months for, um, the DA. Now you've got three
- 23:53Speaker 2: months CC. Then after, it depends when you settle, you
- 23:56Speaker 2: can settle anytime. You can, you can choose to settle
- 23:59Speaker 2: on DA approval or on CC approval, but, um, but regardless,
- 24:04Speaker 2: you want to be spending, um, as little as possible
- 24:07Speaker 2: from the time of settlement. So you start building because
- 24:10Speaker 2: every day your interests, um, added daily so look i
- 24:16Speaker 2: would be targeting no more than a month if i
- 24:21Speaker 2: had you know if i have to settle on the
- 24:22Speaker 2: property then start subdivision work so yeah and then once
- 24:28Speaker 2: the building is complete then obviously you've got your marketing
- 24:32Speaker 2: you can choose to market your property before construction is
- 24:37Speaker 2: finished so off the plan um this really helps you
- 24:41Speaker 2: obtain um Well, at least you can set your price.
- 24:45Speaker 2: You can sleep at night knowing that it's all sold,
- 24:49Speaker 2: but some people choose to build, finish complete building first,
- 24:53Speaker 2: then sell because it has that wow factor when it's
- 24:57Speaker 2: presented to the market and you can often get higher
- 24:59Speaker 2: price for it. If your finance allows you to build first,
- 25:04Speaker 2: then you should, in my opinion. But if you're just really,
- 25:08Speaker 2: really leveraging your a very high amount, you might as
- 25:13Speaker 2: well just get it done and sell before it starts
- 25:17Speaker 2: complete and just cash in. Then once it's sold, you
- 25:20Speaker 2: have your settlement and that's your normal, typical process of
- 25:27Speaker 2: doing something like this.
- 25:29Speaker 1: Understood. Sounds like a piece of cake, but sometimes it isn't.
- 25:32Speaker 1: So what can go wrong or what have you found
- 25:36Speaker 1: can go wrong typically in that process that you've just described?
- 25:40Speaker 2: Um... to be honest with you, what could go wrong
- 25:46Speaker 2: or unforeseen problems, you know, they're unforeseen because I can't
- 25:51Speaker 2: think of it now, right? So you always assume that
- 25:54Speaker 2: there's going to be a problem, right? I haven't seen
- 25:56Speaker 2: a single development that didn't have one problem, right? So
- 26:04Speaker 2: you want to look, We spoke about the acquisition process.
- 26:08Speaker 2: You said at the start of this conversation, let's say
- 26:11Speaker 2: we agreed on a price, yada, yada, yada. But personally,
- 26:14Speaker 2: I feel that the process starts, majority of the development
- 26:18Speaker 2: process is in the purchasing stage. Because there's a saying
- 26:23Speaker 2: in the industry that in property development, the profit is
- 26:25Speaker 2: earned on the purchase, not the sale. So if you
- 26:28Speaker 2: don't pick the right project from the start at the
- 26:30Speaker 2: right price, it's already game over. And you want to be.
- 26:36Speaker 2: Making sure the building escalation contingency, project contingency, you want
- 26:44Speaker 2: to put in about 10%, 15% of the total project
- 26:49Speaker 2: cost towards your contingency. Otherwise, you just don't have enough
- 26:54Speaker 2: to deal with those problems that is guaranteed to arise.
- 26:57Speaker 2: But as long as you have that contingency, you're always safe.
- 27:00Speaker 2: That's how I would mitigate my risk.
- 27:03Speaker 1: Got it. And do you micromanage each project? So for example,
- 27:06Speaker 1: if the, I'm not sure what they call the, the
- 27:09Speaker 1: concreter person who lays the slab, if they say the
- 27:12Speaker 1: slab's meant to be, you know, X number of inches deep,
- 27:15Speaker 1: but they do it Y number of inches deep, which
- 27:17Speaker 1: is not deep enough and it needs to be rectified.
- 27:20Speaker 1: And then that causes delays and stuff like that. Do
- 27:23Speaker 1: you try and inject yourself into each of the development
- 27:25Speaker 1: to sort of be there to to oversee and make
- 27:28Speaker 1: sure people are doing the right thing or do you
- 27:30Speaker 1: have to employ someone uh i don't know what they
- 27:33Speaker 1: call a site manager.
- 27:34Speaker 2: Site manager project managers yeah look i when i was
- 27:38Speaker 2: starting out i was trying to save every dollar um
- 27:41Speaker 2: i had more time on hand so i was still
- 27:43Speaker 2: trying to trying to do everything myself from getting ta
- 27:48Speaker 2: um for renovation new build subdivision work but you get
- 27:51Speaker 2: to the point where that's probably where you don't want
- 27:54Speaker 2: to be spending your money on and Also, the biggest
- 27:58Speaker 2: thing that I've learned was if you pay someone and
- 28:01Speaker 2: get the professional to do it for you when there's
- 28:04Speaker 2: a problem you actually have, you can legitimately blame, point
- 28:07Speaker 2: a finger at that person and blame it on him.
- 28:10Speaker 2: It's his insurance. It's his responsibility. It's not you. That
- 28:15Speaker 2: is very important. And if you can get that responsibility
- 28:19Speaker 2: and potential liabilities, risks off your back for the cost
- 28:24Speaker 2: of 30, 40, 50 grand, you might as well pay it.
- 28:27Speaker 2: So you weigh up how much enjoyment you want to
- 28:32Speaker 2: get out of managing it yourself to, okay, really, how
- 28:35Speaker 2: much risk should I be mitigating?
- 28:38Speaker 1: Yeah, good point. All right, well, before we get into
- 28:42Speaker 1: the million-dollar question of how much money can be made
- 28:44Speaker 1: from this, we're going to take a pause here and
- 28:47Speaker 1: stop for another short break. Hello and welcome back to
- 28:51Speaker 1: The Money Puzzle. I'm James Gerrard, contributor in the wealth
- 28:54Speaker 1: section of The Australian and also financial advisor at financialadvisor.com.au.
- 29:00Speaker 1: And today I have Daichi Samahara, property developer and director
- 29:04Speaker 1: at buyers agency firm Property Buyer. Okay, so as discussed
- 29:08Speaker 1: before the break, let's chat about the numbers. Let's get
- 29:12Speaker 1: down to the nitty gritty. Like I've heard that an
- 29:15Speaker 1: average property development, a good rule of thumb return is 30%. gain.
- 29:20Speaker 1: Is that sort of the industry rule of return in
- 29:22Speaker 1: terms of how much it costs you to buy the property,
- 29:25Speaker 1: all of the associated costs like stamp duty, all of
- 29:28Speaker 1: the construction costs, interest on the loan, agent's fees to sell?
- 29:32Speaker 1: You should end up with about a 30% return?
- 29:36Speaker 2: Yeah, look, 30% sounds great, but first you need to
- 29:40Speaker 2: understand the difference between your profit margin and return on investment.
- 29:44Speaker 2: So profit margin is, that's probably what you're talking about,
- 29:47Speaker 2: is the ratio of the net profit over the total
- 29:49Speaker 2: cost of the project. But this includes your cash and
- 29:52Speaker 2: the loan you get. So whereas ROI, on the other hand,
- 29:56Speaker 2: is the ratio of net profit over the actual cash
- 29:58Speaker 2: you spent. So for example, if you make 200K profit
- 30:01Speaker 2: by spending a mil to buy a site and build,
- 30:03Speaker 2: including a loan, your profit margin is 20%. However, if
- 30:07Speaker 2: you only spent 200K of your own cash and borrowed
- 30:10Speaker 2: the other 800K, your ROI is 100%, right? So to
- 30:15Speaker 2: answer your question, James, that 30% is good if it
- 30:19Speaker 2: was a profit margin, but as an ROI, it's probably not.
- 30:22Speaker 2: Because if you put your cash in the bank term deposit,
- 30:24Speaker 2: you get 5% per annum. If you put it in
- 30:27Speaker 2: debt funds, you'll get 5% to 10%. invested in equity funds,
- 30:31Speaker 2: you should earn about 16% to 18%. But if you're
- 30:33Speaker 2: not just risking your cash but taking on debt, project risk, everything,
- 30:37Speaker 2: you want to be clearing up at least 60% per
- 30:40Speaker 2: annum on your cash. So that's 60% in ROI.
- 30:43Speaker 1: Just to be clear on that, it sounds like to
- 30:46Speaker 1: maximise the profits on a property development, you should minimise
- 30:50Speaker 1: your own cash that you put in and borrow more
- 30:53Speaker 1: from the bank so that the return that you get,
- 30:55Speaker 1: the gross profit as you put it, is enhanced due
- 30:58Speaker 1: to the level of leverage or gear that you've had
- 31:01Speaker 1: over that investment slash development is that correct.
- 31:04Speaker 2: Slightly different topic but it is correct in a sense
- 31:07Speaker 2: yeah look if you can borrow more yeah you know
- 31:09Speaker 2: you you should borrow more um but if you don't
- 31:12Speaker 2: have to borrow more if you have enough cash you
- 31:15Speaker 2: um you know you don't want to borrow more there's
- 31:17Speaker 2: there's um pros and cons but i was more talking
- 31:20Speaker 2: about the the perception of that 30 that you've mentioned
- 31:23Speaker 2: so As a profit, so let me finish explaining. So
- 31:28Speaker 2: profit margin, right? This assesses the feasibility of the project itself.
- 31:32Speaker 2: And the target profit margin ranges anywhere from 15 to 35%.
- 31:37Speaker 2: And this depends on the length of time required to
- 31:40Speaker 2: complete the project. So if you're only building a house,
- 31:44Speaker 2: which takes 12 months to complete, then you're okay with
- 31:47Speaker 2: 10 to 15% profit margin. But if you're building multiple
- 31:51Speaker 2: keys and it takes 24 months, you want to be
- 31:54Speaker 2: aiming for 25%. If you're a land sub, that takes
- 31:57Speaker 2: three years, you want to be targeting 35% or more.
- 32:01Speaker 2: So probably the best way to measure your profit margin
- 32:08Speaker 2: if it's above the board is you want to clear,
- 32:11Speaker 2: let's say 12.5% per annum would be a good benchmark
- 32:15Speaker 2: to clear for your profit margin. So if it takes
- 32:17Speaker 2: two years, 25%.
- 32:20Speaker 1: Perfect that's great and then adding in the the capital
- 32:24Speaker 1: structure of cash versus debt what would be the the
- 32:29Speaker 1: typical mix so from say let's just pick some random
- 32:33Speaker 1: numbers a million dollars property purchase for the the site
- 32:38Speaker 1: how much of that would be typical from a developer
- 32:41Speaker 1: to put in his cash how much would they borrow
- 32:43Speaker 1: of that and then when you come to the development
- 32:45Speaker 1: let's say it's You're going to build two townhouses on
- 32:48Speaker 1: the site and they're going to be $ 500, 000 each. So
- 32:51Speaker 1: for that second million dollars for the development cost, who
- 32:55Speaker 1: pays for that? Is that from the developer pays part,
- 32:58Speaker 1: the bank lends all of that? What's the typical cash
- 33:00Speaker 1: versus debt ratio in that example?
- 33:02Speaker 2: Okay, very broadly speaking, you're fueling the metro area. Banks
- 33:07Speaker 2: are generally happy to lend you up to, let's say, 75%
- 33:09Speaker 2: of the value. So if that million dollars was in
- 33:14Speaker 2: Sydney Metro, you'll put in 250 of your own cash
- 33:18Speaker 2: and you'll borrow 750. Whereas if you're in a rural area,
- 33:22Speaker 2: let's say you're out on Lake Macquarie, banks will only
- 33:25Speaker 2: give you 60%. So you'll have to come up with
- 33:28Speaker 2: $ 400, 000 of your own cash instead of 250. And yeah,
- 33:33Speaker 2: that number sort of stays the same from mortgage to
- 33:39Speaker 2: construction finance. So that will be your rough deposit or cash,
- 33:46Speaker 2: I should say, that you should consider setting up.
- 33:49Speaker 1: Okay. And then on the construction side of things, correct
- 33:52Speaker 1: me if I'm wrong, but using the same metrics, Sydney Metro,
- 33:55Speaker 1: say 70% or 80% loan, because the property today is
- 33:58Speaker 1: only worth $ 1 million, as is, the banks are taking
- 34:01Speaker 1: a view that after the two townhouses are on the site,
- 34:04Speaker 1: it's going to be worth, I don't know, $ 2. 5 million.
- 34:07Speaker 1: So they'll lend the construction loan based on the completed
- 34:10Speaker 1: value of two and a half and lend 70 or 80%
- 34:12Speaker 1: of that for the construction finance, but at a higher
- 34:15Speaker 1: interest rate compared to the first loan to acquire the property.
- 34:17Speaker 1: Is that correct?
- 34:19Speaker 2: Combination of both. So if the resale value, gross revenue,
- 34:24Speaker 2: we call it, is you said two and a half mil, yes?
- 34:28Speaker 2: So if it's two and a half mil, then, and
- 34:31Speaker 2: let's say if it's in Sydney metro area, the banks
- 34:34Speaker 2: will probably lend up to 80%. So They'll go, yep,
- 34:39Speaker 2: we can lend up to $ 2 million. But then they
- 34:42Speaker 2: also look at how much cash you have put in
- 34:47Speaker 2: compared to that $ 2 million loan. So they go, well, look, 80%
- 34:50Speaker 2: of gross revenue, 2 mil, but of that, how much
- 34:54Speaker 2: have you put in? Have you put in $ 200, 000? No,
- 34:59Speaker 2: that's not enough. I want to see, let's say, 30%
- 35:02Speaker 2: at least. So they'll probably ask you to put in,
- 35:05Speaker 2: let's say, $ 600, 000 cash. So to figure out how much
- 35:10Speaker 2: you need to come up with, you have to calculate
- 35:14Speaker 2: from both angles. And typically, you know, you can only
- 35:18Speaker 2: borrow the lesser figure of the two.
- 35:22Speaker 1: Does that make sense? Yeah, no, absolutely. That makes sense.
- 35:25Speaker 2: All right.
- 35:26Speaker 1: Well, last question overall is what are some of the
- 35:30Speaker 1: tips and tricks that you've learned? Is there anything that
- 35:32Speaker 1: through your experience you would, you go, geez, I wish
- 35:35Speaker 1: I knew that my first development that you've only learned
- 35:38Speaker 1: over experience over time and anything else that you have
- 35:40Speaker 1: to say to anybody who's interested in doing a property development?
- 35:44Speaker 2: Look, there is no particular suburb or product you're guaranteed
- 35:49Speaker 2: to make money on, but if you muster up the
- 35:51Speaker 2: diligence and method to do the volume, you're guaranteed to
- 35:54Speaker 2: find one or two potential opportunities for every 100 sites
- 35:58Speaker 2: you assess. So whether you do this for yourself or
- 36:02Speaker 2: pay someone to do it for you, know that this
- 36:04Speaker 2: is the only way for most people to break through. Otherwise,
- 36:08Speaker 2: you just waste too much time dwelling on property or
- 36:12Speaker 2: sites that don't even stack up. But because that's all
- 36:15Speaker 2: you have, you go, oh, look, if I reduce the
- 36:18Speaker 2: build cost by 10 grand per square, would it work? See,
- 36:21Speaker 2: that's the common trap that a lot of people, newbies
- 36:23Speaker 2: fall into. um just just that that will be uh
- 36:27Speaker 2: my number one comment but um also getting started isn't
- 36:32Speaker 2: hard it's not different to committing yourself to going to
- 36:35Speaker 2: the gym so i'd actually go as far as saying
- 36:37Speaker 2: succeeding on your first project is not that hard because
- 36:40Speaker 2: most people are sensible enough to only take on projects
- 36:43Speaker 2: that can go that can't go wrong even if the
- 36:45Speaker 2: profit margin is very small but So usually the second
- 36:49Speaker 2: or the third project that slows you down or worse,
- 36:52Speaker 2: knock you out of the race completely if you don't
- 36:54Speaker 2: have the right guidance from someone with experience. So I've
- 36:57Speaker 2: seen too many people ruin their what could have been
- 36:59Speaker 2: a brilliant property development career by getting comfortable way too
- 37:02Speaker 2: early and making silly but fatal mistakes. So where they
- 37:06Speaker 2: to your business partner or consultants or business coach, work
- 37:10Speaker 2: with a mentor who can guide you through the first
- 37:12Speaker 2: project with you, not just the first one.
- 37:15Speaker 1: Very good tips and advice. And thank you, Daichi, overall
- 37:19Speaker 1: for everything that you've said today. It's been great to
- 37:22Speaker 1: open the lid and look inside of the property development
- 37:25Speaker 1: world and hear it from somebody who's actually doing property
- 37:28Speaker 1: developments and been successful at it. So Daichi Samahara, property developer,
- 37:33Speaker 1: director at Buyers Agency Firm, property buyer. It's been fantastic
- 37:37Speaker 1: having you on. The insights have been great. And I
- 37:39Speaker 1: hope our listeners have learnt a lot about the basics
- 37:41Speaker 1: of property development. Thank you again for coming on.
- 37:44Speaker 2: It was my pleasure. Thank you, James.
- 37:46Speaker 1: No worries. And to our listeners, thank you for tuning
- 37:49Speaker 1: in to today's episode of The Money Puzzle. Send us
- 37:51Speaker 1: your questions and Mr. James Kirby will be back next
- 37:54Speaker 1: week to answer them. But you'll have me again for
- 37:57Speaker 1: the next episode. We'll be having an accounting end of
- 38:00Speaker 1: financial year tax session with an accountant to get the
- 38:04Speaker 1: inside scoop on tax planning and also have a chat
- 38:07Speaker 1: about accounting and tax advice that you might hear at
- 38:11Speaker 1: over the barbecue or at a pub or from a
- 38:13Speaker 1: the back of a taxi, and whether or not those
- 38:15Speaker 1: things are accurate. We'll run through some common situations and
- 38:18Speaker 1: get whether they're true or false. You can tweet us
- 38:21Speaker 1: your thoughts. Just use the hashtag TheMoneyPuzzle, or one word,
- 38:25Speaker 1: or email us on themoneypuzzle at theaustralian.com.au. Until next time,
- 38:30Speaker 1: I'm James Gerrard. Talk to you soon. Thank you.