Always get professional advice prior to Developing a Property

As a person who has been closely involved in property development for almost 50 years can I say that the hardest part for any new property developer is taking the first step in the long journey.

The first step is making the decision to buy your first property.

How do you get to identify your first property? It is not easy but you need to set some parameters for your decision such as:

• What is your plan: will it be land development OR or dwelling units
• What budget do we have
• Which area will we concentrate on – it is far better to concentrate on one area where you can get to know the prices and costs.
• Do you have a planner/ surveyor/ designer/ builder/ etc. – first step is usually a planner but can I say build a relationship with one firm and do not send out request to 5, 10 or more firms. It just wastes everybody’s time.

Unit Development

The first step to achieving a multiple dwelling development would be to check with your Town Planner that the site generally meets the minimum requirements of the planning scheme, including site area and zoning.

Multiple dwellings are developments that require built form, typically in the form of ‘townhouses’ or ‘apartments’. Identifying the right site is critical. A serious consideration is drainage. Which way does the property slope? Can you get permission to drain through other properties?

Small scale multiple dwelling developments in the Brisbane area are typically accommodated in low-medium density residential zones or character (infill) zones. These zones are found in the inner urban areas and areas surrounding railway lines or busway routes.

A trap for beginners are the “Overlays” that form part of the local planning scheme. Overlays can be for Flooding, Bush fire, Biodiversity, Road Noise, Traditional Building Character, Waterway corridors. For instance, there are 26 Overlays in the Brisbane City Plan and often any one of them can have a dramatic effect on your development.

As well as the overlays, planning schemes have Development Codes to address constraints such as drainage for quantity and quality, parking of vehicles and manoeuvrability of garbage trucks and landscaping. Each of these affect the design of your development and unless handled carefully can add enormous unforeseen costs to a development.

The Brisbane City Plan 2014 is focused on a built form outcome (setbacks, site cover, height, open space), whereas other planning schemes say in Logan, GCCC, Ipswich, Moreton Bay have a prescribed density at a rate per hectare. In Brisbane it is critical to have a building designer/architect to prepare preliminary sketches in order to determine a potential yield for a site. This design then forms the basis for the planning application.

Council will require additional reports from other consultants to address the various Overlays and Codes. It is usually the planner's job to recommend these experts to help you save time and money.

The skill of your town planner is not only in the preparation, lodging and managing your application but more importantly in negotiations with council for better and more economical development approvals.

This page was written by Alan Van - 0418 312 724 - allan@allanvanplanning.com.au