The media is currently full of real estate ‘doom and gloom’ – real estate repossessions and arrears are up and real estate prices are down … its almost as if the ‘sky is about to fall’! This situation has seen many real estate developers, and property investors generally, leave the market – and for those thinking of starting out in real estate development, these are scary times indeed.
What seems like the worst time to get into real estate development can, in reality, be the best time. Successful real estate developers today realize that they can use time to their advantage – their real estate development projects will typically not be ready for sale or rent for 2 to 4 years from inception. So if they have bought well, they are less likely to be affected by the economic situation at the time of purchasing their real estate development site.
In fact, a weak market is a real estate developer’s paradise, because a weak market is a buyer’s market, and one of the first steps to any real estate development project is securing a viable real estate development site on the best possible terms.