Eddo John Coiacetto

Diversity in real estate developer behaviour: A case for research

Abstract The diversity of developer behaviour and its implications for the built environment require investigation. The paper illustrates this with six types of developer behaviour identified in two small but rapidly growing east coast Australian local government areas and comments on the their implications for the nature of urban development.

Residential Sub-market Targeting by Developers in Brisbane

This article seeks to understand if and why developers choose to operate in particular sub-markets or mixes thereof. Interviews were conducted in 2001 with self-identified large-scale private sector developers operating in Brisbane. The findings show residential markets are highly segmented and corresponding development products highly differentiated. Each sub-market carries its risks and rewards and developers have different strategies with respect to targeting residential sub-markets or mixes thereof. Developers generally prefer higher end markets. Likely implications for urban development and challenges for policy are increased pressure for out of sequence development, ready-made socio-spatial differentiation, and development products that are less likely to meet future changing market preferences and so are likely to stimulate higher levels of production, consumption and urban expansion.

Industry Structure in Real Estate Development: Is City Building Competitive?

Industrial organisation has received considerable attention over time in both political and scholarly arenas focusing on industry generally and on specific economic sectors like media, telecommunications, food retailing and air transport. Real estate development is a large industry and major shaper of the built environment whose structure has implications for the form and structure of cities, for sustainability and for power relations with industry regulators. Yet, there has been remarkably little interest in, and little is known about, the industrys structure, and little exists of a quantitative nature to describe that structure. Drawing on evidence, existing literature and case study material, this article investigates the nature of the development industry structure and suggests that it is not necessarily competitive and, in some instances, can be highly oligopolistic. It discusses factors, including industry regulation (planning), that may shape structure. This discussion further suggests that the industry is not competitive and that it is likely to concentrate further.

Real estate development industry structure: Consequences for urban planning and development

In some economic sectors, such as media, agriculture (agribusiness), transport (especially airlines) and retail food outlets, industry structure and its consequences are the subject of policy, media and scholarly attention. By contrast, there has been little policy or scholarly interest in the structure of the (real estate) development industry even though it is a highly regulated, high value industry that shapes the built environment. Little is known about the makeup of the industry and its implications for matters such as efficiency, the structure of the built environment, and the relationship of the industry with planners. This neglect is lamentable and the article aims to show that development industry structure is an important topic demanding attention. It does this by drawing on existing literature to outline some possible or likely implications of industry structure, for urban development and planning, emphasizing particularly the consequences of a concentrating industry. These potential consequences are serious and wide ranging, concerning, amongst other things; the price and nature of the built environment; the nature of planning; power relations between planners and developers; sustainability and even the viability of planning as a public sector activity. This article makes no claim to be an exhaustive or definitive statement on these issues. Instead, the hope is to draw attention to this issue, to stimulate research and debate, and to encourage both practitioners and scholars to reflection upon the implications of inaction.

Strata Title: Towards a Research Agenda for Informed Planning Practice

Abstract The form of property ownership known as strata title in Australia, and as condominiums in the USA, has flourished in many countries for half a century. In Australia, strata title developments—especially large-scale, higher-density, mixed-use inner-city developments—are thought to be an important approach contributing to the future efficiency and sustainability of metropolitan areas. Yet research into the planning implications of strata title is piecemeal, leading to a situation where future potential issues and problems are being ignored within current metropolitan planning. Informed by a critical evaluation of the Australian situation, we present a research agenda for generating explanatory, normative and procedural knowledge on strata title for planning.

How Property Title Impacts Urban Consolidation: A Life Cycle Examination of Multi-title Developments

Continuing urbanisation is triggering an increase in multi-titled housing internationally. This trend has given rise to a substantial research interest in the social consequences of higher density living. Fewer enquiries have been directed to examining how property title subdivisions generate social issues in multi-titled housing. This is a significant gap in the literature, as the tensions inherent in multi-title developments have significant implications for individuals, developments and entire metropolitan areas. This article employs a life cycle framework to examine the profound operational and governance challenges that are associated with the fusion of private lot ownership with common property ownership. The article calls for a more explicit recognition of these challenges by academics, policymakers, practitioners and the broader community.

Positive Planning in Australia: A Review of Historical and Emergent Rationales1

The role of public land agencies in Australia has ebbed and flowed over the past few decades broadly reflecting political cycles. Initially, in the early 1970s, the Land Commission Program (LCP) was established under the Whitlam government on a rationale with two broad bases: to create more efficient and fairer land markets; and to produce higher quality design outcomes. At the end of the Whitlam era—partly resulting from objections from the private sector, government-sponsored critiques of the land program and the ideologies of conservative governments—the influence of government in land development was substantially reduced. Today, although the variety of activities of public land developers is considerably wider, there remains significant scope for increased government involvement in land development, based on the emergence of new imperatives arising from complex shifts in social conditions, community preferences and scientific knowledge. Furthermore, the imperatives that led to the establishment of the LCP in 1972 are still relevant today.

Challenges to Urban Transport Sustainability and Smart Transport in a Tourist City: The Gold Coast, Australia

This paper aims to identify challenges to achieving sustainable and smart transport in a city whose form has been produced mainly by tourism urbanisation: the Gold Coast, Australia. The first part of the paper investigates urban transport sustainability, reviewing how urban density, travel behaviour and lifestyles, and the availability of various trans- portation services and modes influence urban transport sustainability. This is followed by an empirical analysis of trans- port trends, modal splits, and basic community profiles in the Gold Coast, to identify challenges to sustainable transport development therein. The paper also introduces and acknowledges potential positive outcomes of the current public trans- port policies and projects, and then explores the concept of smart transport focussing on automated people movers. The paper concludes by stating more actions for a sustainable transport system in the Gold Coast needs to be done including adaptation of smart transport options.

Shopping Streets or Malls: Changes in Retail Form in Melbourne and Brisbane

Retail facilities are a critical element of urban form often given insufficient scrutiny. While retail form has implications for matters such as consumer accessibility, quality of service and transport, there have been comparatively few investigations into the nature of retail form in Australia. The spread of the enclosed shopping mall is an international phenomenon of the last 50 years that has been embraced or resisted to various degrees in different cities across the world. Utilising data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics retail census and the Property Council of Australia, this article investigates the extent to which retailing in Brisbane and Melbourne is now dominated by corporately controlled shopping malls. The research builds a profile of each citys retail form, comprehensively at the time of the last retail census in 1992, and of the corporately controlled centres more recently in 2008. Results show that while Melbourne has retained a greater number of traditional shopping centres, the floorspace in corporate centres has substantially increased. Brisbane has a greater proportion of its retailing floorspace within malls. In both cities there is a significant concentration of the management of corporate centres in the hands of a few large corporations.

Planning-in-practice and planning-in-principle: Is planning facilitative of the real estate development process

oes planning facilitate real estate development processes? What is, and what should be, the nature of the relationship between planning and development? This paper sheds some light on these questions by analysing interviews with real estate developers who have operated in two small and growing coastal communities in northern New South Wales. It interprets the i n t e ~ e w s in the light of theoretical perspectives on the relationship between planning and development. It shows, for instance, that a Marxist interpretation which holds that planning facilitates the development process and that it exists to facilitate capital accumulation is not sufficient to explain the support that the developers who were interviewed expressed for planning. The reality is somewhat more complex than such an interpretation offers. In order to appreciate the reality more fully it is useful to distinguish between planning-inpractice and planning-in-principle. This distinction will be explained and explored in the paper.