Real Estate Investor Magazine South Africa June 2018 | Page 38

DEVELOPMENTS
A Beginner’s Guide to
Developing
Get the basics right
P
AKBAR HASSIM
Akbar Hassim is Founder and MD
of Sandton-based residential real
estate development company,
FutureDev Properties.
36
roperty development is probably
one of the most exciting places
to be in the property sector, but
also one of the riskiest. I often come
across people who have, for years, been
successfully buying and investing in
property, and have built a portfolio
that is income generating, who want
to move into the development stage.
They see the apparent glamour of
property development and want to
move from their comfortable, well
established portfolio to the apparent
exponential returns of development.
This can certainly be the case, but it
comes with many years of experience,
patience, deep pockets, and lots of
JUNE/JULY 2018 SA Real Estate Investor Magazine
mistakes. If you are prepared to do the
work, the rewards, joy and self-satis-
faction will make themselves known.
The are many elements that one
needs to understand within the prop-
erty development sector, but let’s fo-
cus on a few simple pieces of advice
for anyone looking to move into the
development world.
Education and advice
Get as much advice as possible, from
as many developers as possible, within
the specific sector that you intend to
develop in. Do this before you embark
on a development, not when things
are going wrong and you need to be
rescued.