Benefiting from bulk deals and simple subdivisions

By Victor Kumar
A common marketing tool is to offer products in bulk in the belief that collectively you pay less for each item and score a veritable bargain!
When it comes to property, however, it’s not common at all for a “two for the price of one” deal to come along.
Sometimes, though, properties may be sold together, which if you’d bought them individually means that you’re buying under their true market value.
Last month, in this series on how to buy under market value, we considered those properties that are a bit “warty” – you know the ones where the homeowner or investor doesn’t make much of an effort to increase its attractiveness or saleability (Why “warty” properties can still make beautiful investments)
In this next blog, we’re going to discuss benefiting from bulk properties deals as well as profiting from simple subdivisions.
Firstly, buying property in bulk does require a certain level of capital so it’s perhaps the domain of more sophisticated or advanced investors who have plenty of equity behind them as well as access to professional advice.
The thing is, when bulk properties are sold together – such as a block of units owned by one entity – the total value is usually less than what you would pay if you’d bought each unit separately.
At RPG, we’ve previously helped a client buy an entire townhouse complex of six that had a market value of $2.7 million but we managed to secure it for $2.18 million, which produced an instant profit of more than half a million dollars!
As I’ve mentioned, rarely does property sell in bulk and present great buying opportunities, but sometimes it does and you can be lucky enough to buy multiple properties at a really under-valued price.
If we flip this strategy on its head, however, you can also profit from buying one property and turning it into two or more.
Until the past few decades, most Australian houses were built on generous proportions of land – often 800 square metres or more.
What that means today, with our growing population and the move to properties on smaller allotments, is that there are often ample opportunities to buy and subdivide (pursuant to local town planning laws, of course).
The beauty of this strategy is that you don’t even need to physically do the subdivision yourself.
Instead, you could put in some time and effort to secure the necessary planning permissions and permits and then re-list the property for sale, which can produce instant profit, especially if picked up by a developer.
Of course, you can also subdivide the property yourself and then on-sell the new block of land, often for a significant profit.
There are caveats to subdivisions, of course, because you will need to complete thorough due diligence, including understanding the relevant town planning legislation (current and future) to ensure that you will secure the necessary permissions to proceed.
If you’re considering a simple subdivision opportunity, it’s imperative that you undertake a feasibility analysis to calculate the deal’s potential profit.
For example, you will need to estimate the future sale price of two or more properties on the subdivision, less the costs to build and market the properties.
It’s only after crunching these numbers that you will get an idea of the potential value of the property and whether it is actually under-valued or not.
As you can see, there are a number of ways to benefit and profit from bulk property deals and simple subdivisions, but these are both more advanced strategies so make sure you have access to the right professional advice throughout the process.
To read the first blog in the series, click here. (How to profit from under market value property)
To read the second blog in the series, click here. (How to profit from distressed sales)
To read the third blog in the series, click here. (Benefiting from institutional sales)
To read the fourth blog in the series, click here. (How to profit from bad marketing and presentation)
To read the fifth blog in the series, click here.  (Why “warty” properties can still make beautiful investments)