Project development

Property project development is based on the factors of location, capital and the project idea. These three factors result in the definition of the term according to Diederichs:

“Through project developments the factors of location, project idea and capital must be combined so that micro-economically competitive, job-creating and securing, and macro-economically socially and environmentally sustainable properties can be created and used profitably in the long term.“¹

Put more simply, this can be broken down into the following areas:

• Existing capital seeks location and project idea
• Existing project idea seeks capital and location
• Existing location seeks capital and project idea

All three starting points must be looked at under the basic influence of time. For example, external changes such as changes in planning can affect the location of a project development. Project developments are also always limited in time, which means that the capital factor seeks a new use in the course of time.²

The primary objective of the property project development is the professional and value-adding development of land or a property.

However, the static approach described thus must be expanded to take into account the entire project development process and the many associated tasks. Rather, property project development also comprises the “interdisciplinary management of planning and construction-related value-adding processes in the lifecycle of the property“.³ Accordingly, project development is not just limited to the development of new properties. Instead, the discipline of project development is an integral part of various stages in the lifecycle of a property. Accordingly, the field of project development includes the following activities:

• Acquisition of suitable land and properties
• Securing land and preparing it for construction
• Development of usage concepts
• Feasibility studies
• Obtaining planning rights
• Raising equity and debt capital
• Marketing, rental and sales
• Project management

The variety of tasks shows the high degree of complexity and the interdisciplinary nature of the property project development. This requires the integration of different institutions of the construction and property sector in the process of project development. These include construction companies, architects and engineers, users, investors, financiers, the public sector, the public, land owners and not least the project developer itself.⁴