For the first time this year, I taught real estate development, which is a module offered to third year students pursuing the BSc (Real Estate) degree at the National University of Singapore. In my preparation, I found it challenging to plan and structure teaching materials for this subject due mainly to the breadth of the coverage for such a module. In particular, the development process can be broadly categorized into three stages – the inception stage, construction stage, and finally the post‐construction stage – with each stage covering different sets of knowledge skills. In addition, most of the subject matters were already covered in greater depth in other modules offered in the programme, such as urban planning, real estate investment analysis, real estate market analysis, real estate finance, property management, and marketing.
The good thing about teaching this module is that there is no shortage of textbooks on property development. Two more recent titles that I have found extremely helpful in my preparation for the real estate development module are Miles et al.’s (2000) Real Estate Development – Principles and Process and Guy and Henneberry’s (2002) Development & Developers – Perspectives on Property. Just recently, I come across another new textbook on this topic, entitled Contemporary Property Development. It is authored by Tim Havard (2002), a quantity surveyor who has worked in general practice and in academia. Aimed to provide both a basic level of information as well as the opportunity to acquire more advanced skills, this 442‐page textbook is written with construction and property professionals and students in mind. The textbook, covering various stages of the development process, is divided into seven parts as follows:
Part 1: The background to property development in the UK.
Part 2: Development inception.
Part 3: Finance and development.
Part 4: Project appraisal.
Part 5: Project execution.
Part 6: Post‐construction phase.
Part 7: Risk appraisal and risk mitigation: a common sense approach.
Part 1 takes a look at the background to property development in the UK. It also discusses the development process from three angles – namely the forms of property development, the people involved in the process, and a general understanding of the property markets and the investment markets. Part 2, covering the inception stage, traces how development gets started. An interesting question addressed in this part is, “What makes a site ripe for development or redevelopment?” Part 3 is devoted to finance, the lifeblood of development. The importance of securing the right amount of finance, at the right cost and with the right flexibility and risk profile for the development is emphasized. Part 4 focuses on the tools used by developers to assess a project, with the relative merits of different appraisal models discussed. As the author highlighted, these models are not just simply calculations. They represent an examination of the outcome of the bringing together of the components of the development.
Part 5 deals with what the author regards as perhaps the most important stage of the development process – project execution. This is the stage where the vision becomes, literally, concrete. Hence, the developer’s attention to detail and careful preparation is critical at this stage. Part 6 covers the post‐completion phase, including marketing and management of the completed properties. Part 7 deals with development risk, in particular risk identification and mitigation.
Finally, the book provides three case studies with the intention of linking theory to practice in the real world. The first case, Macintosh Mill in Manchester, illustrates the depth of work required in the early stages of a development. The second case investigates a small residential opportunity in the Northern Quarter, also in Manchester. The third case is on an industrial development undertaken by a financial institution located on Wearside in the northeast of England.
In my opinion, the book has achieved its first aim of providing a basic level of information on the theory and practice of property development. This new textbook will definitely be included in the list of reference readings for my students. However, if I require my students to acquire more advanced skills, I would probably refer them to check out more specialized textbooks. This is not a criticism targeted specifically at this textbook but merely the identification of a natural limitation that applies to most textbooks on this subject. In the author’s own words: “a book that attempts to cover the whole process is bound to be a compromise. None of the sections are as comprehensive as they could be even though some of them are very large”.
To me, the main value of the book is the delineation of the whole development process into different stages. This enables the students to appreciate the breath of issues, knowledge and skills involved in the development of a successful project. The framework helps students to have a clearer understanding of the motivations and roles played by various parties as well as to appreciate the intense tension and chemistry that exists between members of the development team. This is important because teaching real estate development, in my view, is less on the impartation of expert skills (as this would be covered in other core modules) but rather on helping the students to see the bigger picture – i.e. how various pieces in the jigsaw puzzle are fitted together to give a complete story. Hence, the focus on appreciation and application of the knowledge they acquired in previous modules/subjects by providing opportunities for the students to using these “building blocks” to construct a “house”.
