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