Planning in Property Development
In today’s society, businesses form some of the most important elements in the day to day lives of many individuals. In regard this, many individuals engage in the daily running of business activities such as real estate within an aim of making profits and catering for their day to day needs. However, as is the case of any other business activities, in order to achieve success in property development, the need for effective planning becomes the first priority for many individuals. By adopting effective planning, many businesses are able to develop clear business plans which keep them focused on the different goals that are considered crucial for the success of the business and in the provision of guideline for the day to day decision and business operations. In addition, by engaging planning, business organizations are also able to establish clear business plans which provide them with the different goals to strive towards in their day to day operations. Bearing this in mind, it therefore important to note that, planning is an important factor in the success of many businesses. In order to ensure success and achievement of goals for most of their business, numerous individuals in various businesses such as real estate have opted to go for the services of private sector planners.
Property development commonly known as real estate development is one of the major businesses individuals practice in the world today. It involves the process of intensifying or changing the use of land in order to develop buildings used for occupation purposes. Birrell & Gao (1997) indicate that, property development is a complex and tiring process that involves the use of scarce resource. Based on this, it is therefore clear that property development is a high risk business which normally involves huge investment money tied up in the process of production in order to produce a product which is considered by many relatively indivisibles. In addition, property development is also considered a high risk practice due to the fact that the performance of the economy, at both local and national levels, influences the process directly. Success in real estate development often relies on the attention to details involved in the process and the quality and effectiveness of the judgment that guides the process. Due to this, it is therefore clear that for the development process to be a success, planning one of the vital processes required.
The development process in real estate involves a variety of production processes that are linked to the combination of different inputs so as to achieve a product or output (Birrell& Gao 1997). In the case of property development, the output developed is the change of land to new occupation properties though a process which involves various factors such as finance, labor, materials, and land. In addition, property development process also involves different major stages such as initiation, evaluation, acquisition, design and costing, permission, commitment, implementation and management that are followed in order to ensure satisfying end results (Cadman &Topping 1995). Within these stages of property development process, planning is considered a major pillar involved in the process. For instance, during the process of property development, initiation is one of the first stages involved in this process. The development process is initiated when a section of land is considered suitable for use in the development a particular project such as shops, industrial plants, occupation buildings, and offices (Cadman &Topping 1995). The initiative to use the specified land may come from any actor such as government or private agencies anticipating a higher value use in the existing land due to the changing social, demographic, physical, and economic circumstances. In this case, so as to identity the appropriate use of land, the initiator of the development process will need to research the target market and the possibility to acquire the necessary planning authority for the change of use. Bearing this in mind, it is therefore clear that, planning is important in establishing research of the market for the appropriate change of use. In regard to the evaluation, this stage guides the decision making of the developer or initiator during the development process. It involves market research, both in specific and general terms, and the financial appraisal of the project. In this regard, planning helps the developers decide what contribution will the projects result and how to achieved the contributions.
The acquisition stage on the property development process involves the process of acquiring the site or land used in the development. It involves the conduct of legal investigation to determine the legality of the land to be used and address all legal issues such as existing planning permission and ownership of the land. According to Cadman &Topping (1995), this process also involves ground investigation of the site to be used in order to determine factors such as access and drainage. In regard to this, it is therefore clear that planning will play a huge role in establishing how and when to undertake these investigations.
Within the different stages of the development process, there are different important actors who contribute to the end result or outcome of this process as well as have different expectations and perspectives (Linovski 2019). In regard to planning being an important element in the stages of property development process, it is important to note that actors such as private-sector planners and public-sector planners play important roles in helping potential developers. However, despite the important roles that each actor plays, the private sector planners are in most cases paid fees for work and advice their customers could do for themselves by talking with government or public sector planning Due to various government policies, the public sector planners are currently taking little direct development projects. In addition, local authorities on their side are only involved in development projects that only benefit the community or their own occupations (Heurkens et al 2015). Apart from this, it clear to note that clients pay private sector planners to work and advice them due to the fact that local authority planners are limited by their legal powers and constrained by their financial resources.
The main purpose of planning in the real estate development is to encourage the process of development itself, and prevent any cases of undesired development (Cadman and Topping 1995). The base for determining the planning application is usually laid down by law and several state policy guidance notes. In compliance to this, local governments are required to abide by these and determine their own local policies using the main development medium plans. In regard to this, individual development planning applications are also determined in accordance to these stated development plans, previous applications, written government advice and policies, and the specific nature of the applications. In practices, the undertaking of all these development plans brings about a lot of conflicts and gaps in the guidance and as a result causing developers to employ private sector planners to work and assist them in numerous negotiations with planners.
Most developers engage in property development by talking to public-sector planners. However, it is imperative to note that in most cases, developers lack the expertise and skills to carry out some of the major developments even after talking to public sector planners. As a result, this causes them to employ private sector planners to work and assist them in various areas. For instance, due to lack of expertise and skills, developers employ private consultants to negotiate on their behalf with the local planning authorities in order to obtain some of the most valuable permissions to engage in development, especially with sensitive and large schemes (Cadman &Topping 1995). In case this application is refused, private sector planners will also be employed to act as witnesses in presenting the case to court for the developer against the local planning authorities. In the case of public sector or government planners this will cause issues to the fact that the planners work for the government and as a result bringing the conflict of interest. In addition, private sector planners are also employed by developers to ensure that the land within the rightful ownership is allocated by the local planning authority within the development plan to their most valuable use.
Over the years, several private sector planners have worked previously with the government or local authority planning organizations thus making them experienced in government and local provisions and are hired as a result by developers. Private sector planners ensure the preparation of a client’s development application in order to submit to the local authority while ensuring that all required information is given the highest standard professional. Private sector planners ensure developers obtain the best outcomes by managing their applications and liaising with the council throughout this process. During this era of inhibited fiscal resources, regulatory frameworks and planning studies are considered important in how development process proceeds and as a result becoming the motivation by developers to fund private sector planners on particular policies which are seen as essential for capitalizing on the development cycle.
References
Birrell, G & Gao, S 1997, The property development process of phases and their degrees of
Importance, Cutting edge.
Cadman, D & Topping, R 1995, Property development, Taylor & Francis.
Heurkens, E, Adams, D & Hobma, F 2015, ‘Planners as market actors: the role of local planning
authorities in the UK’s urban regeneration practice’, Town Planning Review, vol. 86, no. 6, pp. 625-651.
Linovski, O 2019, ‘Shifting agendas: Private consultants and public planning policy’, Urban
Affairs Review, vol. 55. No. 6, pp. 1666-1701.
