When an estate includes property with development potential, beneficiaries and executors often find themselves operating in unfamiliar territory. Unlike a conventional residential sale, development potential places the property in a specialised segment of the property market, with different pricing logic, risks and decision points.

Many Sydney landowners are being told by agents, neighbours and the media that “the real money is in amalgamating.” Sometimes that is true. Sometimes it isn’t. 

The NSW Housing Delivery Authority (HDA) has now been operating for over a year and is having a demonstrable effect on the market and has resulted in many projects being declared State Significant Development (SSD). This has the benefit of opening up an accelerated approval pathway for the projects through the State system. For owners of substantial sites in Greater Sydney and major regional centres, the pathway is commercially relevant and, in many cases, significantly value changing.