Quite often people who work in the property industry are keen to move into property development and have a crack at being the developer. Today, as part of International Women's Day (a big hello to all you female developers and women in the property industry), I am speaking to two females who have a consultancy providing services to large property development clients and they are also in the process of delivering their own luxury apartment project.

I will be speaking with them about their experience of moving from the consultant side of project delivery to becoming 'the developer'.  I think you will enjoy the conversation with them.

Remember, if you are keen on breaking into the property development game and want to learn how, then remember we have the mentoring program that is available to teach you everything you need to know about becoming a successful developer. Drop me an email if you want to know more about the mentoring program justin@propertydeveloperpodcast.com and I will send you some further info.

Now just before we get to today’s guests, I wanted to let you know about my guest in the next episode. He’s an Aussie agent, working in the US, who sold a property for a billion Australian dollars. Yes, that’s right, b for billion. I am sure you will enjoy the discussion around how you sell such a high value property. So make sure you keep an ear out for episode 58.

Okay, on to todays guests, I was really excited about speaking with these two developers because they have an interesting story to share. Olivia Christie and Sonya Miller are running a business that provides consulting services to institutional developers and they are also in the process of delivering their own development project of a luxury apartment block.

We talk about how they got into property developing, what they have learned from working for large developers, and how their first foray into their own luxury apartment project is going.

We also cover topics such as their approach to community consultation, responding to a softening market and the importance of backing yourself. And we touch on being female developers and what, if any difference, that has on their approach to developing.

There is plenty of great stuff in this chat which I am sure you will enjoy.

Lessons for property developers

I really enjoyed speaking with Sonya and Olivia, and took away these points:

1. Be proactive with community consultation

I understand that dealing with neighbors and objectors can be challenging, but being proactive about engaging with them may help to smooth the application process just a little bit, or maybe even a lot. Most people don’t like change, and to discover that some new building is going up next door in the street can unsettle some residents. Seeking out their views, and being prepared to change, demonstrates to council that you are being considerate of your neighbors. My view is that neighbors are going to find out anyway about your development, so better to get on the front foot and let them know yourself. This is certainly something I have found on my projects to be helpful, and can avoid complications and delays from trips to planning tribunals.

2. Be mindful of how you respond to a softening market

I thought it was interesting to understand that by simply dropping your price mid-way through a project due to softening conditions can have some serious flow on effects for your existing buyers. It influences how they feel about their purchase and also ...