Hi, and welcome to April,

March has been an interesting change – it’s like the property world has taken a breath and a pause. There was the expected interest rate reduction in February, and with it came a notion of quiet optimism about the future and how the tides of the property markets would shift. But then March didn’t quite deliver – perhaps there was far too much expectation for the change to be immediate.

In talking with many town planners and planning lawyers over the last month, the feedback about VCAT and planning hearings was that contentious planning applications were resolved before the hearings, and compromises were reached earlier in mediation to avoid costly panel hearings. Hence, not as many projects required typical expert evidence services, which also created another point of pause.

It also didn’t help that the overseas share markets began a decline—maybe the aftereffects of the US election and the fact that, beyond the fancy words, policy changes will take some time to take full effect, and perhaps recovery isn’t going to be immediate. Plus, beyond the promised enthusiasm about stopping the two major world conflicts – the reality isn’t going to be quite simple to implement.
With all these different forces at play – March was much more up and down than we could’ve predicted.

So instead, it gave us plenty of time to focus on experimenting with various artificial intelligence tools – we’ve discovered that while in our production process, AI isn’t delivering the right level of accuracy and still presents far too much risk of errors – however when it comes to post-production – its very capable of creating short photorealistic sequences with our imagery added in as a backdrop and the tools implementing incredibly accurate and life-like scenery shorts to help with padding out flythrough CGIs.

Quantity Surveying & Cost Planning – Part 2: Construction

In this month’s feature video interview, Harry Nguyen from Northwind dives into the construction phase and what happens once the Development Application (DA) is approved. How do you prepare the project for Tender and Design Development? How do developers ensure projects are built profitably and avoid costly mistakes?

Click here to check out the video and learn more.

Derby St, Collingwood – VCAT Permit Win!

Just before Christmas last year, our clients at Millieu Property received a pleasant surprise—the project that went for the hearing in late November received its planning approvals.

We pulled out all the stops to make the photomontages happen—because of design changes; we only had two weeks to deliver six camera point photomontages with a variation of one level being removed as an additional option.

Click here to check out the case study on the project.

From Property to Purpose – Terry Portelli’s Commitment to Giving Back

Next on The Land Pioneers Podcast, we were excited to welcome Terry Portelli, founder and Managing Director of Red23. With over 30 years in the property industry, Terry has led significant land sales and project marketing efforts, shaping communities across Victoria, New South Wales, and Queensland. Under his leadership, Red23 has managed over 30,000 land and townhouse products.

I was so impressed that someone who has achieved much success has translated a lot of it into working with an organisation called Hands Across the Water to support disadvantaged children in Thailand.

Click here to listen to the podcast episode.

Journey to Leadership – Presentation to PKF Adelaide

For something a bit different, last month, I was invited to speak with a group of young professionals on their journey to partnership at PKF Adelaide about my journey as an entrepreneur and what it’s like to venture into the unknown world of creating a business from scratch.

This was quite different from my usual day-to-day, so I thought I would deduce the last twenty-odd years of being in business to seven key lessons that I wanted this group of extremely impressive individuals to truly embrace if they were to see from our side of the fence and what its like to persist despite challenges that are often outside of our control.

I also got a chance to reflect on my career journey and how I transitioned from the corporate world of BHP in the late 1990s to quitting full-time work in 2001 and moving into property development full-time with plenty of lessons.

I was genuinely taken by the care that the senior partners at PKF Adelaide are investing in the next generation and setting them up for success. The business world is not easy, so any time there is an opportunity for mentorship and support, grab it with both hands!

All the best for your month ahead,

Stan Zaslavsky.