The First Thing Developers Look for in a Property Deal

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VTteQxqaSTk

Most property developers waste weeks analysing sites that experienced buyers reject in seconds. The difference is knowing what to look for before you ever open a spreadsheet.

In this episode of Inside Property Development, Gav, Head of Site Acquisitions at Little Fish, breaks down exactly how he filters hundreds of sites each week.

Hit play above to watch the full breakdown.

What Is the First Thing Developers Check on a Property Deal?

Trees, shadowing and access. That is what experienced developers scan first. Gav checks for large trees on the site or nature strip, shadowing from neighbouring properties, slope, and whether a second crossover is even possible. These are visible in seconds using aerial tools like Landcheker or Google Maps.

If a mature tree sits on a neighbour’s property near the boundary, you could face a tree protection zone that adds cost and limits your design. If the nature strip tree blocks your second crossover, the site may not support the layout you need. These checks take moments, and they eliminate most listings before any deeper analysis begins.

What Red Flags Kill a Development Deal Instantly?

Steep slope, blocked crossovers and solar panels on the neighbour’s roof. These are the deal-killers Gav passes on immediately. A block with five or more metres of fall can add over $100,000 in earthworks alone. That cost comes straight off your profit.

Slope also affects design quality. Retaining walls, internal steps and awkward layouts reduce the resale appeal of your finished product. Solar panels on a neighbour’s eastern boundary wall create shadowing and compensation risks that most budgets cannot absorb. In a tight market, these issues turn a marginal deal into a loss.

How Do You Find the Right Suburb for Your Budget?

Reverse-engineer it from your numbers. Gav starts with a target sale price. If a townhouse needs to sell for $1.1 million to make the project work, he searches realestate.com.au for townhouse sales above that figure. The map view shows exactly where those sales are happening.

Then he runs a second search for land within the purchase budget in those same areas. If land exists at the right size and price, he digs deeper. If it does not, he moves on. This two-step method takes minutes and stops you chasing suburbs where the numbers will never stack up.

How Quickly Can Experienced Developers Tell If a Deal Works?

Often within seconds. Gav reviews up to 100 sites a day and passes on most of them almost immediately. He shared a recent example of a site in the McKinnon school zone. It had a 20-metre frontage, was dead flat and over 700 square metres. On paper, it looked perfect.

But the vendor wanted $2.3 to $2.5 million. At that price, the townhouses would need to sell above $2.6 million, and nothing in the area had ever sold at that level. The site was great. The price made it unfeasible. Finding the “no” quickly is more valuable than chasing a maybe.

Key takeaways from this episode:

• Check trees, slope, shadowing and crossover access before anything else.
• Use realestate.com.au to reverse-engineer suburbs from your budget.
• A perfect site at the wrong price is still a pass.
• Speed in filtering matters more than depth in early site analysis.

Wrapping Up

The fastest way to find a good deal is to get better at spotting bad ones. Learn the red flags, build a simple filtering process, and move on quickly when the numbers do not work. That discipline is what separates experienced developers from everyone else.