Listen to the full episode on YouTube here

In this episode, Paul talks about his remarkable career in property development. From his humble beginnings as a construction site labourer to becoming a successful developer, Paul shares his valuable experience, revealing the challenges facing the industry, the importance of sustainable development, and why Paul considers himself a "hippie property developer."

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KEY TAKEAWAYS

• Paul's early struggles with ADD and adoption shaped his drive and work ethic, ultimately contributing to his success in property development.
• The importance of understanding land and planning is crucial for successful property development, more so than just construction knowledge.
• Option agreements can be a powerful tool for developers to control land without significant upfront capital, allowing for bigger deals.
• The 2008 financial crisis nearly wiped out Paul's business, highlighting the importance of careful financial management and choosing the right lending partners.
• Property development has become increasingly difficult over the years, with the number of SME house builders drastically declining since 1988.
• Sustainable development and working with nature are important, but financial viability must also be considered to incentivise developers.
• The role of a property developer is like a conductor of an orchestra, overseeing various aspects and experts to create successful projects.
• Building relationships and working with the right people is crucial in property development, as it's challenging to do everything alone.

BEST MOMENTS

"I eventually came to realise you need to know a lot more than just about construction in order to be a property developer. In fact, I came to realise that what it's really all about is land and planning."

"I'm a bit of a weird one because I'm a sort of hippie property developer, but I'm living in the real world so I know what it takes to get deals done."

"Most developers actually go bust, certainly the smaller ones. People don't really know about that. They just see the success stories and think we're all flying around in helicopters, making fortunes. It's not like that for most of us."

"We're basically the conductor of the orchestra, so we need to see the bigger picture and how everything fits together. We're the ones that take the big risks, the ones that have to put our wotsits on the line."

"The problem is, you know, when you build cheap, you build shit, you create shit, the whole environment goes to shit, people start acting like shit, and everything goes to f*cking shit."

VALUABLE RESOURCES

ABOUT THE HOST 

Paul Higgs is a Chartered Planning and Development Surveyor with 40+ years' experience in land, planning and development and a 100% success track-record in winning planning consents.

Paul undertook his first refurb project when he was just 17 and then worked his way up from labouring on building sites to becoming Head of Land for renowned plc housebuilder, Barratt Developments. He managed to escape the corporate world in 2002 to set up what is now a multimillion-pound award-winning property development company, Millbank Group.  

In 2013 Paul founded the Millbank Land Academy, the UK’s first training company dedicated to property development, to teach established and aspiring developers the insider secrets the big housebuilders don’t want you to know! 

Paul is also a founding investor and former board director of the industry-leading PropTech Co, LandTech, and has lectured on Advanced Development Valuations on the MSc Property Development at London South Bank University.

CONTACT METHOD

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/paul-higgs/?original_referer=https%3A%2F%2Fwww%2Egoogle%2Ecom%2F&originalSubdomain=uk

Millbank Land Academy: https://www.millbanklandacademy.co.uk