Estate Living Magazine Design for living - Issue 42 June 2019 | Page 32
I N V E S T
&
D E V E L O P
IN CONSULTING
ON RISK, ITS NOSE IN,
FINGERS
OUT!
Nose in, fingers out! This is how I was taught to
approach risk detection in property development
consultancy. In other words, ask lots of questions, look,
learn and observe everything, and yes, sniff around.
But don’t interfere.
The real estate development industry assembles and applies the
financial and physical resources to construct new built space in its role
as a converter of financial capital into physical capital. In meeting these
objectives, a developer has to focus on the satisfaction of the needs of
both target and client groups, e.g. the users of the property and the
investors.
As a company we are careful not to interfere with the work of the
executives, but sometimes it’s hard – especially when considering the
results of a recent study conducted by the Internal Audit Authority, which
found that 78% of respondents said they turn to management to identify
risk. But management noted they are surprised by risk more than
60% of the time, so how can they be the source of your mitigation?
A risky business?
Real estate development is considered to be one of the riskiest
corporate activities there is. As the creation of real estate products