understand the process of real estate development

Aims
The aim of this course is to enable you to understand the process of real estate
development in relation to its broader social, economic, legal and political context.
Structure
This course is designed to ground practical understanding of real estate development
within a strong theoretical framework. On the first day of the course, you will be
introduced to a vacant site in Glasgow city centre and set the challenge of devising a
realistic development proposal within two months. To assist you, key aspects of the
development process will be covered in lectures, seminars and, crucially, in your own
directed reading. You will be introduced in a CAD workshop to the software package
that you will use to illustrate your proposal. You will also find extensive learning
resources available on Moodle to support your work and will have the chance to meet
with tutors individually to receive direct feedback on your emerging ideas. For many
students, the course is linked to Development Economics, in which you may
subsequently be expected to analyse your development proposal financially.
Learning Outcomes
By the end of the course, you should be able to:
• Appreciate how the demand for housing, commercial and mixed-use
development products and the supply of development opportunities are driven
by social, economic and political change
• Understand the roles played by different actors in the development process and
assess the potential for collaboration or conflict between them
• Appreciate the significance of development constraints and evaluate different
ways in which they might be overcome
• Apply policy and market research to selecting appropriate developments
• Test alternative forms of site development in relation to their acceptability,
marketability and suitability.
Masters Programmes
DEVELOPMENT
PROCESS
(URBAN 5037)
Course co-ordinator: Philip O’Brien
September to November 2019
2
Teaching Methods
Teaching methods include lectures, discussions, workshop exercises, visiting speaker
presentations, and practical work. You are expected to carry out prior reading.
Credit Rating & Expected Learning Hours
10 credits – 100 hours. This includes around 20 hours of direct contact time, meaning
that you are expected to devote around 80 hours to the project and wider reading.
Teaching Staff

Malcolm Hewines Planning and Development
Consultant, Montagu Evans
Malcolm.Hewines@MontaguEvans.co.uk
Chris Sharpe Holistic City Ltd https://www.holisticcity.co.uk
Teaching Days

Event Main Venue1
Lectures James Watt: Room
354
Friday 4
October
0915 – 1300 Site Visit, Lecture
and Seminar
St Andrews: Room
213
Friday 11
October
1000 – 1300 Lectures James Watt: Room
354
Monday 14
October
1½ hours per group (see
p. 5)
CityCAD
Workshops:
Adam Smith: Room
1113 (Comp Lab L)
Friday 18
October
1000 – 1300 Workshop, Lecture
and Game
Hunterian Art
Gallery: Room 103
Friday 25
October
1000 – 1300 Lectures James Watt: Room
354
Friday 1
November
1000 – 1300 Workshop &
Lectures
Hunterian Art
Gallery: Room 103
1 The seminar and workshops will take place across campus. See separate list to be posted on Moodle for
precise rooms.
3
Monday 4
November or
Monday 11
November
15 minutes per student
– exact times to be
notified
Individual
Tutorials
25 Bute Gardens:
Seminar room, 214
You are expected to attend all sessions, including the CityCAD workshop and
individual tutorial. If exceptionally you are absent from any session for medical or other
reasons, you should submit an absence report via MyCampus as explained at
http://www.gla.ac.uk/media/media_129312_en.pdf
Venues
The location of Charing Cross Railway Station, where we shall meet for the site visit
at 0915 on 4 October is shown immediately below. The locations of the main teaching
venues are shown on the map below that as the James Watt Building South (A1), the
St Andrews Building (E14), the Hunterian Art Gallery (D12), the Adam Smith
Building (D8) and 25 Bute Gardens (D17). See full campus map at
https://www.gla.ac.uk/media/media_1887_en.pdf.
4
Timetable
Friday 27 September
1000-1130 Topic 1 The development process PO’B
1130-1145 Coffee break
1145-1300 Topic 2 Implementation of development projects PO’B
Friday 4 October

Site Visit: meet at Charing Cross Station PO’B
Return to University
Development case studies MH
Coffee break
Creating successful places Groups
Friday 11 October

Commercial developers and investors PO’B
Coffee break
Residential developers PO’B
Introduction to first workshop PO’B
Monday 14 October
1115-1245

Groups 1 and 2 CS
Groups 3 and 4 CS
Groups 5 and 6 CS
Groups 7 and 8 CS
Friday 18 October

Development constraints evaluation Groups
Coffee break
Headlines from first workshop PO’B
Landowners and development PO’B
Creating a development consortium PO’B
Friday 25 October
1000-1115 Topic 7 Strategic market analysis PO’B
1115-1130 Coffee break
1130-1245 Topic 8 Planning and policy analysis PO’B
5
1245-1300 Introduction to second workshop PO’B
Friday 1 November

Assessing alternative schemes for the site Groups
Coffee break
Headlines from second workshop PO’B
1130-1200 Topic 9 Understanding relations between
development actors & markets
PO’B
1200-1300 Topic 10 The key to a successful project PO’B
Monday 4 November and Monday 11 November
Each student will have an individual tutorial appointment of 15 minutes in length on
one of these days. By this stage, your project should be well-advanced and you should
be seeking specific feedback on the draft. You are therefore required to complete the
Progress Report Form, which you can download from Moodle, and which you should
hand to the tutor at the start of the appointment. The first appointment will commence at
0900 and the last at 1645.
Please email Phil O’Brien as soon as possible, and certainly no later than Friday 8
October, if you have any constraints on your availability on these days. A detailed
timetable for the appointments will then be posted on Moodle.
Group Composition
A list of groups and venues for the seminar on 4 October, the CityCAD workshops on
14 October, and the remaining workshops on 18 October and 1 November and will be
posted on Moodle shortly after the start of the course.
International Perspectives
Although the course is primarily based on UK experience, its principles are widely
applicable in many countries. Many students taking this course come from countries
beyond the UK and are encouraged to share perspectives from their own experience in
discussions, seminars and workshops. All students, however, are encouraged to learn
more about real estate development beyond the UK and, to do so, are recommended to
consult the following book, which contains ten chapters on real estate development in
countries across the world:
Squires, G. and Heurkens, E (2015) (eds) International Approaches to Real Estate
Development, Routledge, London.
6
Prior Reading
This is an intensive course, which will be delivered at a fast pace. This makes it
essential to undertake prior reading. Please make sure you have read the two chapters
recommended below before the course starts on 21 September
1. Adams, D., and Tiesdell, S. (2013) Shaping Places: Urban Planning, Design and
Development, Routledge, London, Chapter 2 (pp. 9-38).
2. Reed, R. and Sims, S. (2015, 6th edn) Property Development, Routledge, London,
Chapter 1 (pp. 1-41). (If you have the time to read more from this book before the
course starts, that would be excellent. In this case, please select from Chapters 2, 6,
7 and 8).
Course Content and Study Guidance
This course can provide only an initial introduction to the development process and it is
therefore essential that you follow up each topic with appropriate reading. Whether you
do so will be clear in the quality of your project. The list below provides a brief
indication of what you can expect from the recommended reading. You should aim to
complete all the essential reading and a selection of further reading, as you see fit.

This topic will examine the nature of real estate development as a production process. It
will introduce models of the development process as a valuable concept for simplifying
its complexity and enabling us to think about development in a logical and ordered
ways. It will explore the factors that create development pressure and prospects,
examine how development feasibility is tested and development constraints overcome.
Essential Reading
Adams, D., and Tiesdell, S. (2013) Shaping Places: Urban Planning, Design and
Development, Routledge, London, pp. 74-89. This section provides an elaboration of the
lecture material.
PLUS
Reed, R. and Sims, S. (2015, 6th edn) Property Development, Routledge, London. You
will find a simpler model of the development process explained on pp. 2-16.
OR
Ratcliffe, J., Stubbs, M. and Keeping, M. (2009, 3rd edn) Urban Planning and Real
Estate Development, Routledge, London. On pp. 251-262 and 267-276, this book offers
a more substantive treatment of most of the material covered by Reed and Sims.
7
Further Reading
Adams, D., Disberry, A., Hutchison, N. and Munjoma, T. (2001) Ownership constraints
to brownfield redevelopment, Environment and Planning A, 33, 453-477. This paper
explores the nature and significance of ownership constraints within the urban
redevelopment process and proposes a common approach to their classification.
Guy, S. and Henneberry, J. (2000) Understanding urban development processes:
Integrating the economic and the social in property research, Urban Studies, 37.13,
2399-2416. This is a challenging and controversial paper that seeks to unravel what
really generates development. It suggests a ‘London-bias’ among key decision-makers.
Isaac, D., O’Leary, J and Daley, M. (2010, 2nd edn) Property Development Appraisal
and Finance, Macmillan, Basingstoke. This is a more applied text, in which pp. 1-29 are
particularly useful in explaining the economic and financial context for development.
Millington, A.F. (2000) Property Development, Estates Gazette, London. You will find
a basic explanation of the development process on pp, 1-24, written primarily from a
developer’s perspective. This is an alternative to Reed and Sims and Isaac et al. It
begins to distinguish between different types of developers and makes some additional
points not covered in the lecture, such as the importance of different forms of taxation.

This topic will explore what is involved between making a development commitment
and completing a development project. It will outline the essential features of the
alternative procurement options, concentrating on traditional contracts, design and build
and management contracting. It will examine the importance of infrastructure
connections and consider how developers obtain consent for these. The composition of
the professional team involved in development projects will also be considered.
Essential Reading
Adams, D., and Tiesdell, S. (2013) Shaping Places: Urban Planning, Design and
Development, Routledge, London, pp. 89-92. This section provides an elaboration of the
first part of the lecture material.
Reed, R. and Sims, S. (2015, 6th edn) Property Development, Routledge, London.
There is a brief introduction to the professional team on pp. 26-29. This is followed by
an excellent outline of the construction process and the different ways of creating
managing building contracts on pp. 183-214.
Further Reading
Havard, T. (2008, 2nd edn) Contemporary Property Development, RIBA Enterprises,
London, pp. 243-260. This provides a more detailed treatment of the responsibilities of
the professional team than most books and offers a different perspective on how
alternative approaches to procurement can be classified.
8
Isaac, D., O’Leary, J and Daley, M. (2010, 2nd edn) Property Development Appraisal
and Finance, Macmillan, Basingstoke, pp. 193-235. This chapter provides an up to date
account of the construction process, set in the context of important design issues.
Millington, A.F. (2000) Property Development, Estates Gazette, London. You will find
a useful summary of the development team on pp. 53-64 and a basic introduction to
project implementation on pp. 199-210. The latter chapter is kept short and rather
general, so its principles need to be substantiated by more applied reading.

In this topic, Malcolm Hewines of Montagu Evans will present recent practical
examples of projects in which he has been involved as a planning and development
consultant.

The purpose of this seminar is to connect your initial impressions of the project site with
some widely held principles of urban design. In preparation, it is essential that you read
Adams, D., and Tiesdell, S. (2013) Shaping Places: Urban Planning, Design and
Development, Routledge, London, Chapter 2 (pp. 9-38).
Each group is expected to discuss the six questions below and email a written summary
of its conclusions on no more than two sides of A4 to Phil O’Brien by 9.30 am on
Friday 11 October. (It is recommended that, at the outset, each group appoints one
member to chair the discussion and others to lead in preparing the written summary.)
1. What could be done to make the project site a more attractive ‘people place’?
2. What could be done to improve the connectivity and permeability of the site?
3. How far are mixed uses and varied densities necessary to realise the potential of
the site?
4. What would be the best way to make the site a distinctive place in the future?
5. How can sustainability, resilience and robustness best be promoted in the
development of the site?
6. In what ways would these urban design principles enhance development value,
rather than simply add to development costs?
9
Essential Reading
RICS (2016) Placemaking and Value, RICS, London. This research paper looks at
evidence from five large residential developments in the south of England to examine
how far investment in high quality design enhances real estate values.

This topic will examine the crucial role played by commercial developers and investors
in the provision of new development. It will explore typical developer characteristics
and consider how different types of developer pursue different strategies. The topic will
also consider how and why joint-venture partnerships can be used to promote
development projects.
Essential Reading
Adams, D., and Tiesdell, S. (2013) Shaping Places: Urban Planning, Design and
Development, Routledge, London, pp. 141-151 and 160-163. These sections provide an
elaboration of the lecture material.
Further Reading
Beauregard, R. A. (2005) The textures of property markets: downtown housing and
office conversions in New York City, Urban Studies, 42.13, 2431–2445. This paper
looks at New York City’s lower Manhattan revitalisation plan and emphasises the
‘thicknesses’ of property markets, shown in the social, institutional and place-specific
qualities of real estate development.
Coiacetto, E. (2009) Industry structure in real estate development: Is city building
competitive?’ Urban Policy and Research, 27, 117-135. Drawing on Australian
evidence, this paper investigates the structure of the development industry and argues
that it can be highly oligopolistic.
Millington, A.F. (2000) Property Development, Estates Gazette, London. Chapter 3 of
this book (pp. 25-37) seeks to categorise developers and explores what makes a
successful developer, while Chapter 4 (pp. 39-51) looks at the development process
from the investor’s perspective.

The topic will investigate all those involved in residential development, including
housing associations and speculative housebuilders. It will look especially at the
structure, culture and organisation of the speculative housebuilding industry and at its
preferred development products. The importance of the planning system to the
profitability of the industry will also be examined.
10
Essential Reading
Adams, D., and Tiesdell, S. (2013) Shaping Places: Urban Planning, Design and
Development, Routledge, London, pp. 151-160. This section provides an elaboration of
the lecture material.
Chevin, D. (2013) Social Hearted, Commercially Minded: A Report on Tomorrow’s
Housing Associations, The Smith Institute, London. This paper summarises the
challenges currently faced by housing associations and outlines how they might
respond.
Further Reading
Adams, D., Leishman, C. and Moore, C. (2009) Why not build faster? Explaining the
reluctance of UK housebuilders to speed up the supply of new homes for owner
occupation, Town Planning Review, 80, 291-314. This papers addresses current
controversies around the speed at which private development sites are built out and
considers how this relates to planning regulation.
Archer, T. and Cole, I. (2014) Still not plannable? Housing supply and the changing
structure of the housebuilding industry in the UK in ‘austere’ times, People, Place and
Policy Online, 8.2, 97-112. This paper looks at how the market share of the top five
housebuilders has increased since the 2008-09 recession and argues for an increase in
housebuilding by local authorities and other non-profit providers, as well as for boosting
the emerging community-led sector.
Archer, T. and Cole, I. (2016) Profits before Volume? Major Housebuilders and the
Crisis of Housing Supply, Centre for Regional Economic and Social Research, Sheffield
Hallam University. This report examines the recovery strategies of the largest UK
housebuilders and the implications of these for housing supply.
Aubrey, T. (2015) The Challenge of Accelerating UK Housebuilding: A Predistribution
Approach, Policy Network, London. This short paper compares UK, German and Dutch
models of housebuilding, looking especially at the relationship between land markets
and production levels.
Hall, D. and Gibb, K. (2010) Increasing Housing Supply within the Social Rented
Sector, Joseph Rowntree Foundation, York. This paper explores the changing funding
context for social housing and explores how it can best be delivered in future.
Karadimitriou, N. (2005) Changing the way UK cities are built: The shifting urban
policy and the adaptation of London’s housebuilders, Journal of Housing and the Built
Environment, 20, 271-286. This paper explores how particular types of developer have
been at the forefront of innovative types of development in London.
Payne, S. (2013) Pioneers, pragmatists and sceptics: speculative housebuilders and
brownfield development in the early twenty-first century, Town Planning Review, 84,
37-62. This paper examines the approaches taken by different types of housebuilders to
brownfield redevelopment.
11

This workshop will assess the likely constraints at three potential development sites,
detailed below. Images of each site will be shown in the introduction. Groups should
download the evaluation sheet from Moodle, and on it list what appear to be the five
most serious constraints at each site. It is recommended that each group first subdivides
into three, with each sub-group looking at a different site. The entire group should then
come together to agree or amend the recommendations from each sub-group. A single
evaluation sheet from the entire group must be handed in to Phil O’Brien at the start of
the feedback session.
Site A: Aberdeenshire, Scotland
This is a 15-hectare site, currently in agricultural production, on the edge of a town
south of Aberdeen. Land previously in the same ownership was recently sold to a
national housebuilder. The town itself is well served by road and rail connections, has
good community facilities, including a secondary school, and a town centre that, until
recently, was thriving. Local house prices have held up well despite economic
difficulties, and the adjoining recently developed estate has sold quickly.
Site B: Bury St Edmunds, England.
This former petrol filling station near the edge of a Suffolk market town has lain vacant
since 2011. Its current state is a cause of local concern. The mayor was recently quoted
in the local paper as saying “When you drive from Sudbury to Bury St Edmunds on the
Sicklesmere Road, as you approach the town there’s a sign that you are entering the
jewel in Suffolk’s crown, so it is somewhat upsetting to see such an ugly, unloved sight.
The quicker something gets done the better it will be for everyone.” But despite strong
demand for new housing in the locality, and a shortage of affordable homes, this will
not be an easy site to redevelop.
Site C: Birmingham City Centre
This is one of the most ornate buildings in Birmingham city centre and is Grade IIlisted. It was built between 1879 and 1883 and adjoins the Grade I-listed School of Art.
It was formerly occupied by the Council’s housing and social services departments but
has recently been sold to a private developer for £7 million. In the 1980s, the original
structure underwent a major conversion with the façade retained and supported by a
modern steel frame structure behind, with reinforced concrete floors, suspended ceilings
and timber framed double glazed windows. Some 30 years later, significant investment
will again be required to bring the building up to modern office standards. Unless it is
possible to add substantial additional floorspace in the roof of the building, this might
not be viable. However, national conservation groups have already expressed concern
that any upward extension would destroy the character of the building.
12

Land is an essential raw material in the development process and one that is often
highly problematic for developers because it is limited in quantity and highly variable in
quality. This topic will explore whether landowners facilitate or frustrate development
and examine how developers seek to identify and purchase suitable land well in
advance.
Essential Reading
Adams, D., and Tiesdell, S. (2013) Shaping Places: Urban Planning, Design and
Development, Routledge, London, pp. 165-181. This chapter provides an elaboration of
the some of the lecture material.
Reed, R. and Sims, S. (2015, 6th edn) Property Development, Routledge, London.
Chapter 2 contains a substantial amount of relevant material on site identification
(pp.43-48), initiation (pp. 48-61) investigation (pp. 61-66) and acquisition (pp.67-69).
Further Reading
Adams, D. (2015) Time to call time on urban vacancy and dereliction in Scotland,
SURF Magazine, Autumn/Winter 2015.
Adams, D., Disberry, A., Hutchison, N. and Munjoma, T. (2002) Vacant urban land:
exploring ownership strategies and actions, Town Planning Review, 73, 395-416. This
paper examines the strategies and action of 155 owners of vacant urban land or obsolete
urban property within 80 substantial redevelopment sites, and re-interprets earlier notions
of active and passive owner behaviour in urban redevelopment.
Adams, D., Tiesdell, S and White, J. (2013) Smart parcelisation: reconciling development
and design priorities, Journal of Urban Design, 18, 459-477. This paper explores the
potential of active landowners to shape development by taking a strategic role in the
development process. It reports on a detailed case study of Newhall in Essex.
Dixon, T. (2009) Urban land and property ownership patterns in the UK: trends and
forces for change, Land Use Policy, 26S: S43–S53. This paper provides a helpful
review of current ownership patterns in the UK.
Millington, A.F. (2000) Property Development, Estates Gazette, London. The concept
of land availability is introduced on pp. 99-120 as a means briefly to summarise some of
the main considerations facing developers in their choice of sites.
13

This game is intended to help you understand the varied motives of the different
organisations who might promote the development of the project site. You will be asked
to assume the role of one such organisation and search for other suitable organisations
who you might partner in a development consortium. Please download the instruction
sheet on these roles from Moodle beforehand.

This topic will investigate how developers seek to establish the market context for
development opportunities. It will cover both strategic market research and supply and
demand analysis. It will introduce important concepts such as product differentiation
and market segmentation and emphasise how successful development requires a focus
on product and timing as much as on location.
Essential Reading
Reed, R. and Sims, S. (2015, 6th edn) Property Development, Routledge, London.
There are two essential chapters for this topic within this book. Chapter 8 on pp. 222-
236 provides excellent material on market research, while Chapter 10 on pp. 250-274
offers a useful account of the main methods traditionally used in marketing new
development.
Further Reading
Havard, T. (2008, 2nd edn) Contemporary Property Development, RIBA Enterprises,
London, pp. 73-89. This section provides some useful material on how best to research
the likely level of demand for different types of property.
Isaac, D., O’Leary, J and Daley, M. (2010, 2nd edn) Property Development Appraisal
and Finance, Macmillan, Basingstoke, pp. 235-247. This section offers a valuable
insight into the application of marketing principles to property development, covering
market research as well as different marketing techniques.
Millington, A.F. (2000) Property Development, Estates Gazette, London. This provides
a helpful introduction to demand identification on pp. 121-130, while marketing, timing,
tactics and disposals are dealt with on pp. 211-217.
Ratcliffe, J., Stubbs, M. and Keeping, M. (2009, 3rd edn) Urban Planning and Real
Estate Development, Routledge, London. On pp. 381-412, you will find coverage of
marketing roles, marketing functions, market segmentation and selling techniques from
the developer’s viewpoint.
14

This topic examines the operation of the planning system in Scotland and the UK,
introduces the concept of planners as market actors, and outlines the importance of
policy analysis within the development process. It identifies the main levels of the
planning system in Scotland and the key documents relevant to the project. It concludes
by looking at previous planning proposals for the project site.
Essential Reading
Adams, D., and Tiesdell, S. (2013) Shaping Places: Urban Planning, Design and
Development, Routledge, London, pp. 104-137. This chapter outlines the policy context
for real estate development and provides an elaboration of the some of the lecture
material.
The Improvement Service (2015) An Overview of the Planning System in Scotland, The
Improvement Service, Edinburgh. This short six-page summary will be especially
helpful to those unfamiliar with the Scottish planning system.
Further Reading
Couch, C. (2016) Urban Planning, Palgrave, London. This book provides an accessible
overview of some key planning issues, with the advantage that it looks at international
examples as well as those from the UK. Chapters 3 to 7 are particularly useful.
Heurkens, E., Adams, D., and Hobma, F. (2015) Planners as market actors: the role of
local planning authorities in UK’s urban regeneration practice, Town Planning Review,
86, 625-650. This paper explores the tools used by planners to shape development at
Bristol Harbourside and Liverpool One.
Lord, A., O’Brien, P., Sykes, O. and Sturzaker, J (2015) Planning as ‘Market Maker’:
How Planning is used to Stimulate Development in Germany, France and The
Netherlands, Research Report 11, RTPI, London. This report looks at three European
cities, Nijmegen, Hamburg and Lille, where planning has played an active role is
shaping local market conditions and promoting development.
Pacione, M. (2013) Private profit, public interest and land use planning – A conflict
interpretation of residential development pressure in Glasgow’s rural–urban fringe, Land
Use Policy, 32, 61-77. This paper provides an excellent insight into how the planning
system mediates conflict between builders and communities at the urban fringe.
Scottish Government (2017) The Planning System in Scotland, Scottish Government,
Edinburgh. This is the main Scottish Government website on the planning system and
provides an entry point to all Scottish Government planning documents.
15

This workshop is intended to help you choose a particular type of development for the
project site though undertaking a feasibility analysis. To enable you to do so, please
download the feasibility table from Moodle beforehand. This helps you to compare
four possible schemes for the site, of which three are already specified on the table. The
fourth is up to you, but would normally involve some form of mixed-use development.
In the first half of the workshop, you should work in pairs, and discuss what score out of
5 to assign to each scheme for the various criteria on the left on the worksheet. Then
total up to see which scheme comes out on top. At this point assign weights up to 5 for
each of the criteria and multiply out to create a new set of scores. Total up again to see
if your preferred order differed once the weights were assigned. In the second half of the
workshop, the group as a whole should discuss whether or not a clear winner emerged
among everyone, and why. In preparation for the workshop, you should consult:
1. Glasgow City Development Plan.
2. Ryden’s 81st Scottish Property Review.

Despite the significance of development drivers, feasibility and implementation, real
estate development is an intensely social process in which relations between people,
often nurtured over many years, matter intensely in determining outcomes. This topic
draws together previous topics by exploring how the various actors in the development
process are interlinked through operating in seven essential markets.
Essential Reading
Adams, D., and Tiesdell, S. (2013) Shaping Places: Urban Planning, Design and
Development, Routledge, London, pp. 94-102. This section provides an elaboration of
the lecture material.
Further Reading
Adams, D., Leishman, C. and Watkins, C. (2012) Housebuilder networks and
residential land markets, Urban Studies, 49, 705-720. This paper explores the
significance housebuilders attach to networks with other important actors in securing
their future land supplies. Since networks depend on trust, reputation and voluntary
collaboration, they indicate the importance of social relations within the industry.
MacLaran, A. and Williams, B. (2003) Dublin: property development and planning in
an entrepreneurial city, pp. 148-171 in MacLaran, A. (eds) Making Space: Property
Development and Urban Planning, Hodder Arnold, London. This chapter gives a
fascinating account of the various development booms and slumps in Dublin and
highlights how they were often exacerbated by government policies.
16

This final topic is essentially concerned with the practicalities of producing a successful
project that addresses the coursework brief. This will also be an important opportunity
to ask any questions that have arisen in your work so far.
Method of Assessment: Development Case Study
Submission Deadline:12.00 noon on Monday 25 November 2019
(Marked submissions will be returned in the week commencing 16 December 2019)
The course will be assessed through practical work, which will require you to analyse
the development potential of a vacant site at India Street, Glasgow City Centre, shown
in the photograph and map below.
17
This vacant site, shown edged by the solid red line, is approximately 0.52 hectares (1.28
acres) in size, and is currently owned by Glasgow City Property, who will shortly be
marketing the land to developers on a ground lease basis. Immediately to the west of the
site lies Portcullis House (shown edged by the broken line). This building was
previously owned and occupied by HMRC (part of the UK Government) but was
vacated in 2019 and is currently being marketed as lettable office space by CBRE. It
may, however, also have redevelopment potential. As an experienced planning and
development consultant, you have been asked by a major Scottish development
company to report initially on the potential of the site currently vacant at India Street.
However, you have also been asked to assess whether there would be benefit in a much
larger redevelopment, if the company were able to acquire both the vacant site and the
adjacent Portcullis House. In that case, your report should cover both sites combined.
Your clients are interested in a development that will be both financially lucrative and
make a significant contribution to how this area is perceived in terms of place quality.
For the avoidance of doubt, you are neither expected nor required to produce a costed
financial appraisal of the development but to think instead about the broader
development dynamics at work on a site of this type. However, you should bear in mind
that if you subsequently take Development Economics, you may be required to
undertake a full financial appraisal of your proposal in that course.
Your report should cover the four main areas set out below, while incorporating within
the text such maps, graphs, photographs, diagrams and other illustrative material as you
consider appropriate:

identifying key land uses and any significant recent developments, along
with any facilities or attractions you consider advantageous; and showing
the wider connectivity of the site to the city centre and broader
conurbation. You are strongly recommended to illustrate your analysis
with maps and photographs.
(ii) An analysis of any site-specific physical and infrastructural constraints
that might impede development feasibility at the site, together with an
assessment of their severity and, where relevant, of how they might best
be remedied. Specifically, you should identify the extent to which future
use of the site might be impeded by factors such as difficult ground
conditions, impact of surrounding uses or buildings, air pollution, traffic
or other noise, or possible restrictions on vehicular or pedestrian access.
2. Development Context: You are expected to investigate what kind of
development is likely to be both acceptable in policy terms and in demand at this
location. This assessment should again have two clear elements:
18
(i) Detailed thematic analysis of relevant planning policies. This should
provide a rounded evaluation of what the public authorities may wish to
see happen at the site, rather than simply list the contents of particular
policy documents. You should concentrate mainly on Glasgow City
Council’s City Development Plan (2017), but you should also make
reference, where relevant, to the Glasgow and Clyde Valley Strategic
Development Plan (2017), Scottish Planning Policy (2014) and
Scotland’s National Planning Framework 3 (2014). To avoid repetition,
your analysis should identify the key planning themes that apply to the
site (for example, ‘achieving place quality’), referencing the particular
policies to which these themes can be traced in the above documents.
Crucially, if you find particular types of development would not be
permitted at this location, you should make this very clear.
(ii) Detailed factual analysis of property market conditions. You should draw
on information from at least two recently published property market
reports to assess the current supply and demand, and likely future market
trends, for different property types at this location. This should include
information, as appropriate, on property values/prices, rents, yields, and
occupancy/vacancy levels. Rather than assume that current market
conditions will necessarily continue in the future, you should assess how
they might change over your development period. You should seek to
convey as much as your information as possible through graphs, tables or
other illustrative means. Although your analysis should concentrate on
providing a detailed market justification for the property type(s) included
in your proposal, it should also include some brief evidence to explain
why you have excluded other property type(s).
While it is recommended that you first report on these two elements
separately, you should then synthesise their implications to justify your
overall development proposal. One simple way to do this would be to
summarise Section 2 in a SWOT analysis.
3. Development Proposal: An indicative development proposal, fully explained in
the text and supported by CityCAD illustrations. This should establish the
preferred layout, uses, height, and massing of what you think might best be built
on the site, together with indicative arrangements for access, servicing and car
parking. A schedule of accommodation should be provided, showing the total
amount of space to be devoted to each use. The CityCAD illustrations should
comprise a two-dimensional layout plan showing the footprint of the proposed
development, and between 2 and 5 three-dimensional visualisations/computergenerated images of what you propose. These are not intended to show a fullyfledged development scheme, still less a detailed design. Instead, you are
expected to indicate at a very broad level how your proposed development will
be accommodated on the site and, in doing so, how it represents an effective use
of the site. If you consider that your development would be likely to be built out
in different phases, you should explain and justify your proposed phasing within
the text and show it in the illustrations.
19
4. Development Consortium and Programme: Your clients wish to share
potential risk by attracting one or more development partners. This could
involve, for example, establishing a joint-venture development company with
others to promote a comprehensive scheme for the whole site, or maybe
breaking the site up so that different partners can build out different parcels. In
any event, your clients are looking for an exit strategy at the end of the
development period, as they do not themselves wish to hold the completed
development as a long-term investment. They therefore want to know how best
to attract a long-term property investor to the site. This could include, for
example, a developer-investor or investor-developer, wishing to participate in
the development itself.
You should therefore explain and justify the type(s) of development partner(s)
you would recommend to your clients, while not identifying any particular
named company. (Professional consultancies such as architects, engineers and
surveyors should not be included unless, exceptionally, they share development
risk). To support your recommendation, you should construct a simple diagram
showing the intended relationships between all the partners identified.
You should also provide a Gantt chart on one side of A4 landscape, showing all
the key stages of work you think will be required to deliver the intended
development, and programming their timing into years and quarters, starting in
2019 Q1, for however long you think it will take to complete the development.
MARKING CRITERIA
Each of the four main areas set out above will form a separate component of the
assessment, and you will be given a mark and short comment on the feedback sheet for
each area. These four marks will then be averaged to produce your overall mark for the
course. This means that it is essential to cover each area in enough depth. But this does
not mean that they should be of equal length. You will probably find that the
Development Context takes around 40% of your report, with the remainder split
between the other three areas.
Remember that both the content and presentation of material will be assessed.
Presentation must reach the high standard of a professional report, with an executive
summary, contents list, numbered sections/paragraphs, bullet points, text boxes etc., and
with an accessible and tightly-written style. Spread your material out over however
many pages you require – do not squash it tightly on to a small number of pages.
All illustrations, including graphs and photographs, should be numbered as Figure 1,
Figure 2 etc. and should have a title, with the source acknowledged if taken from
another publication. As well as a title, maps and plans should have a legend/key if
appropriate, a north point and a scale (or at least saying not to scale).
The expected quality of presentation can easily be achieved using a standard word
processor package. In doing so, your task is to ensure that the real substance of your
report is communicated as clearly and effectively as possible. Importantly, this does not
20
require desk-top publishing or glossy external printing etc. and no advantage will be
gained from using these.
WORD LIMIT
The word limit for this report, including everything apart any bibliography (which is to
be placed at the end of the report in Harvard style), is 2,500 words. You must keep
within 10% either side of this limit, otherwise penalties will be applied as set out in
Section 2.4 of Postgraduate Student Handbook for Urban Studies. Your exact word
count must be stated at the start of the report.
SUPPORTING RESOURCES
You can obtain the necessary information and skills for the project from:
1. Material covered in the lectures and recommended reading specified in this
course booklet.
2. The site and area visit arranged for 4 October 2019. You should return from
the site visit with notes on at least the following matters:
• Scale, shape and use of the site itself
• Direction and intensity of traffic flows on adjacent streets
• Use, occupancy, height and design of nearby buildings
• Connectivity and proximity to transport networks and other services
You may need to follow up this initial visit by subsequently viewing the site
and area in more detail yourself, at different times of the day and week to
complete your site analysis.
3. The CityCAD workshop to be held on 14 October 2019.
4. Your individual tutorial to be held on either 4 November or 11 November
2019, at which you should present your intended development concept to the
tutors and seek advice on anything that is unclear. At the start of this
meeting, you are required to submit a short Progress Report Form to the
tutors, using the form available on Moodle.
5. Reports and other relevant information placed on Moodle.
6. Searches on CoStar and more widely on the Internet, including recent market
reports produced by the main property agents.
7. The first five Urban Graphics workshops, available free by searching ‘Urban
Graphics’ at https://extendstore.ucl.ac.uk/catalog?pagename=home
Please remember that you are not allowed to make individual contact about this
project with the local planning authority, property agents, or any other organisation
21
without express permission. Any such requests for information should be made in the
first instance to Phil O’Brien.
22
Main Course Texts
Adams, D., and Tiesdell, S. (2013) Shaping Places: Urban Planning, Design and
Development, Routledge, London.
Reed, R. and Sims, S. (2015, 6th edn) Property Development, Routledge, London.
Other Recommended Texts
Carmona, M., Tiesdell, S. Heath, T. and Oc, T. (2010, 2nd edn) Public Places – Urban
Spaces: The Dimensions of Urban Design, Architectural Press, Oxford.
Couch, C. (2016) Urban Planning, Palgrave, London.
Dubben, N. and Williams, B. (2009) Partnerships in Urban Property Development,
Wiley-Blackwell.
Havard, T. (2008, 2nd edn) Contemporary Property Development, RIBA Enterprises,
London.
Havard, T. (2014) Financial Feasibility Studies for Property Development: Theory and
Practice, Routledge, London.
Isaac, D., O’Leary, J and Daley, M. (2010, 2nd edn) Property Development Appraisal
and Finance, Macmillan, Basingstoke.
Jaafar, M., Nuruddin, A. R. and Abu Bakar, S. P. S. (2018) Business Sustainability
Model for Malaysian Housing Developers, Springer, Singapore
Keeping, M. and Shiers, D. E. (2004) Sustainable Property Development, Blackwell,
Oxford.
MacLaran, A. (ed) (2003) Making Space: Property Development and Urban Planning,
Oxford University Press, Oxford.
Millington, A.F. (2000) Property Development, Estates Gazette, London.
Ratcliffe, J., Stubbs, M. and Keeping, M. (2009, 3rd edn) Urban Planning and Real
Estate Development, Routledge, London.
Squires, G. and Heurkens, E. (2015) (eds) International Approaches to Real Estate
Development, Routledge, London.
Phil O’Brien
19 September 2019

The post understand the process of real estate development appeared first on My Assignment Online.