Land development in New Zealand: case studies on the importance of site selection, due diligence, finance and the regulatory environment

This research investigated critical factors that contribute to the success of residential land development in New Zealand. The methodology involved determining those factors identified as critical by international researchers and then drawing comparisons to critical factors identified in interviews with various members of four property development teams active in New Zealand. This paper focuses on factors associated with the site itself. The findings presented here include the concept of “success” in New Zealand is centered on profitability, timeframes and budgets. There was a greater focus on the due diligence phase, at the expense of the site selection phase, compared with earlier research. There were also fewer options available for financing property development in the New Zealand context. The development legislation was generally seen as appropriate, but its application was felt to be inconsistent and the source of much of the risk in a property development. While the critical factors identified were similar to those found in the literature, there was a much greater reliance on experience to manage their impact than on the more formal approaches employed in other countries