Hi PC'ers Is there anyone here that is dabbling in larger scale subdivision works? eg 10+acres virgin lots and split to 1/4 blocks and sell them off? land, DA, sewer, water, telecom etc Where would I find the reading material for this side of things and/or cost breakdowns and areas of risk to look out for? Earthworks and utilties are easy to bang to in once you get a design (at a cost ) town planning and design would be time consuming With smaller splitter dev's etc the time to buy is critical, but with the larger stuff is the market movements as critical? I'd think it is more about seeking out the land and being familiar with the local planning to get the bargain buys. Costs Buy land holding costs - probably quiet high waiting for DA's and construction of utilities earthworks etc Approvals Town planning Design QA Marketing? agents roll out the red carpet to take care of it? Is it worth also looking at going to the next step and building on a few while you're there?
I am doing a small subdivision now (for a client) in the Hills council LGA. Bit different from your situation since it is a Rural Cluster sub-division (lots need to be min 4,000m2 and max 10,000m2). As it progresses further I may be able to help with specific questions, but getting the documents ready for a DA is time consuming and then the DA will take maybe 3 months min but closer to 6 months. So far for my documents I have needed specialist reports for Bushfire, Ecology, Arborist, Geotech, Contaminated Land, Aboriginal Heritage and Artifacts, Heritage and Traffic. Survey and Engineering plans of course for lot layout and private roads. Some of these reports need a preliminary (to take to the pre-DA meeting) as well as full versions for DA. I am the Planner so I do the SEE (for the DA) and a project description and preliminary constraints assessment (for the pre-lodgement).
I would think purchase cost/holding cost/construction costs would be the biggest hurdles to overcome. Even some of the large, national developers struggle with cashflow to the point where JV finance arrangements with contractors become necessary - and these are on projects where initial purchase costs are in the 10's of millions.
That sounds along similar lines to what I'm looking into. Are you a fulltime town planner? Or is this a side project you're helping with? Im working with a pipelaying and civil engineering company and there is no money(profit) in doing those dev jobs laying sewer/water etc for clients but if we bought the land and had our crews and machines doing it, it would be worthwhile as a side project or move into more bigger jobs
yes the finance would be tricky and would have to look to companies and JV structures, this wouldnt be a personal portfolio arrangement.
For finance, you may set up a Unit Trust open to public to raise additional fund. For a such big project, it is better to create a JV with different experts. There are arces development land in Dandenong and Pakenham sold starting from $2m. Some developers has raised fund and published PDS for raising funds. These PDS tell us the whole project activities, risk analysis, structure, funding, parties, entities etc. You have read these PDS for similar large scaled development projects to get ideas how such projects are implemented. This can be a start point to learn arces development project.
Sample PDS: Development of 39.4 hectares, is located on Mickleham Road, Greenvale and is approximately 24kilometres from the Melbourne CBD. http://www.peet.com.au/PeetNational/media/PDF-s/Investing/Syndicate FAQs/Peet-Greenvale-Syndicate-PDS-CLOSED.pdf Multiple land development projects in WA http://www.questus.com.au/app/asset/uploads/2014/11/qldf-rightspds-march-2011.pdf
Yes, I am a full time Planner, mostly smaller two lot sub-divisions, change of use, dwelling approvals etc. The Rural Cluster sub-division is around 9 lots for this one. Seems to be very popular in the Hills LGA at the moment. The draw back is that 60% of the land has to go to Community Title to keep the biodiversity component. Still compared to previous restrictions on rural sub-divisions, the yield is much greater.
Options to finance large scaled land development projects: https://www.ahuri.edu.au/__data/ass...g-of-residential-development-in-Australia.pdf
In WA if the land also needs rezoning there is a big process before the DA for a Structure Plan/Outline Development Plan It's very similar but is a local and state govt back and forth process. An extra to the specialist reports above there is Water Management (stormwater/hydrology etc) Once all the appropriate zoning has been done then the DAs start for all the next stages of work - clearing, services, road construction blah blah This is a 3-4yr process. I believe @Aaron Sice has mentioned before the good idea of having an offer accepted on the land with a 2yr long settlement for example in which you can get all the approvals done and be shovel ready for settlement time.
that would be a good job if it wasn't so far away!! might go chasing some developer jobs... but not the conc encase granny flat jobs, the cowboys can keep that work @Leo2413