Ask most people what a property developer does and they will describe a builder. Even newspaper articles mix the two up. On a recent episode of the Property Mastermind Podcast, Bob Andersen and Hilary Saxton set the record straight: builders can be developers, but most developers are not builders, and you do not need a trade, a construction background or a degree to become one.
A developer’s job in one sentence
Bob’s definition is simple. A property developer is someone who coordinates a number of people to create a beautiful project. You engage an architect or building designer, engineers, a town planner, financiers and a builder. They are all part of your team, and you brief and coordinate them. You do not have to be an architect, a builder or a town planner yourself. Bob likes to say that in 40 years as a developer he has never picked up a hammer, a shovel or a trowel on a building site.
A normal week with a duplex under construction
Take a duplex where the site is bought and construction is underway. The developer deals with one person: the builder. In a typical week Bob will:
- Visit the site once if it is not too far away, catch up with the builder, take photos and video, and check the program is on time. A site visit takes about 40 minutes.
- Deal with any variations.
- If the builder has lodged a progress claim, organise the quantity surveyor to inspect and get the money paid.
- Towards the end of the build, start talking to marketers.
During construction a developer averages about an hour to an hour and a half a week. It is one of the quieter and more exciting stages of a project.
What you can leave to the builder
You do not need to know the nitty-gritty of construction. If you are curious, an owner-builder course will give you the basics, but it is not required. The mentoring program is full of people who had never set foot on a building site and are not handy at home. Jenny and Richie did a nine-apartment joint venture as their first project. At the end, Jenny laughed that she wouldn’t know which end of a nail to hit.
Can not being a builder be an advantage?
Hilary thinks so. Many builders join the mentoring program because they want to stop building. The work is hard, managing clients is draining, and they are held by golden handcuffs: good money, employees to look after and no spare time. The same handcuffs hold plenty of people in well-paid jobs. A developer makes more than the builder on a project anyway, by a fair margin, without running the teams.
How many hours does property development take?
At the start there are decisions to make: what to develop, where, and whether you can afford it. Then you build relationships with agents and look for a site, or use a buyer’s agent to do the legwork, which cuts the search to a few hours a week while you check the numbers and do the due diligence.
Bob logged several of his projects. Some weeks there is nothing to do, especially while the development application is with council. Others are busy. Averaged across a whole project it came to about four or five hours a week, with a maximum of around ten hours in the two busiest periods:
- Just before construction, when approvals and finance are being finalised.
- Just after construction, when the project is inspected, staged, marketed, sold and settled.
Henry, a mentoring student in Sydney, kept a senior management role at a large telco while developing three staggered projects, one of them interstate.
How much do you need to learn first?
Learning the basics does not take long, and you can learn ahead of where you are. You do not need the construction side before you have a site. Bob’s advice to new students is to watch the first third of the course and get started, because that is the part you need now. A university degree in property development exists, and you will need one to work for a large development company, but you do not need it to develop property yourself.
Start the investor conversations early
If you do not have all the equity you need, talk to potential investors and joint venture partners as early as possible. Bob learned this the hard way, finding deals before he had people ready to come in. You are offering an opportunity, not asking for a favour. One new student arrived with a list of five or six potential partners and a reason each would be interested, and is already meeting them for coffee.
Rapid fire: developer, or hand it off?
- Choosing the site: developer.
- Pouring the slab: hand it off.
- Deciding what to pay for the land: developer.
- Drawing the plans: hand it off.
- Running the feasibility: developer. Get help finding out what things cost, but take responsibility for the numbers.
- Lodging the DA: hand it off.
- Picking the builder: developer.
- Saying no to a deal: developer.
- Setting the sale price: developer, in consultation with the marketing team.
The developer always has the final decision, but it needs to be based on some science.
Any background will do
Bob came to development through real estate after running small cash businesses. Aaron on the Property Mastermind team started in health science and mining. Ollie was a head chef in Sydney and now surfs most mornings with several projects on the go. Gary played rugby league, trained as a pharmacist and ran a restaurant before developing. Mark came from marketing. Surgeons, truck drivers, you name it. There is no correlation between your background and whether you can do this.
Never set foot on a site? Do this
Drive around your area and look at what is going up: fences, slabs, frames, roofs. Then think about how it would feel to be the developer who created that, without pouring the slab or putting up a frame. If that appeals to you, do something about it. Start showing yourself what is possible.
Hear the full conversation, including the week-by-week walk-through: listen to episode 276 of the Property Mastermind Podcast. And to see the whole process laid out step by step, join the free Profit with Property Development Masterclass on Saturday 21 November 2026, 9am to 1pm AEDT, live on Zoom with Bob and Hilary.