Critical success factors in land development in New Zealand: part 2 - planning, team member selection, project management, sales and marketing methods

Abstract

This research aimed to investigate the critical factors that contribute to the success of residential land development in New Zealand. The methodology employed involved reviewing the literature to determine those factors earlier identified as critical by international researchers and then comparing those to critical factors identified in a survey of property development teams active in New Zealand. In the interests of brevity the findings are reported in two papers. This paper focuses on factors relating to the development team. An earlier paper focused on factors associated with the site itself. The findings include the concept of “success” is centered on profitability, timeframes and budgets. While establishment of a development plan and its regular review was identified as critical in the literature, this was not always done in New Zealand. In addition, some projects with plans did not include all the critical elements, while others identified additional critical elements. The development team formation process generally reflected international practice but with a particular emphasis on broad experience. A similar situation applied to development management but it was felt some areas were lacking, in particular clearer identification of the development manager role. Sales and marketing methods were often not put in place until later than ideal and had relatively small budgets compared to that recommended in the literature, but the methods and strategies were similar. Overall the critical factors identified were similar to those found in the literature, but with local adaptations reflecting the relatively small size of local developments and development teams.