As Asian developers flock back into Melbourne, the Urban Development Institute of Australia's Victorian arm has launched a new international business unit aimed at encouraging more of them to join the industry body.
According to the UDIA, most international developers have chosen not to join in the past because of perceived negative sentiment about their role in Victoria and because they have not seen any value in being a member.
"The development industry needs to grow up and work together," said Victorian UDIA CEO Danni Addison. "Many of these international developers have been here for five or 10 years," she said.
Among the priorities of the new UDIA Global unit will be to assist international developers navigate the complex planning regime, an area where Chinese developers often came unstuck because of a failure to understand local council planning rules.
The new global unit will also promote the role of international developers in creating new housing for Victorians, seek to connect them with the wider development industry and foster an environment conducive to more joint venture funding arrangements between local and overseas developers.
"We want to advance Melbourne as an international investment destination, to encourage joint venture relationships and provide a way to access funding for new players," Ms Addison said.
The UDIA has already had some success with Landream, Dahua Group, New Sky, Golden Age, Beulah International, Glorious Sun and Hengyi among the international developers to join the institute in the past six months.
Jiaheng Chan, managing director at Malaysian-backed Beulah International which is undertaking a number of projects in Melbourne, said joining the UDIA offered a "collective space to discuss current happenings within the property space, particularly planning policies, and how these may affect the industry as a whole.
"The UDIA is a valuable platform that should be leveraged by both local and international developers to ensure the bar is consistently raised in terms of the quality of development within Melbourne and Australia as a whole," Mr Chan added.
The new global unit will host a series of lunches and networking events available to all members throughout the year covering topics like leadership, diversity, finance and international relations.
In addition the UDIA's property development program will be tailored to suit international developers who are new entrants to Victoria and be made available in Mandarin.
"The UDIA Global Unit is dedicated to servicing members with a rich international heritage who are active in Victoria," said Ms Addison.
"We recognise that global developers and finance organisations are an extremely valuable part of the Victorian property industry and play a critical role in delivering world-class projects to house our growing population," she said.
Commercial real estate agents CBRE reportedly recently that Chinese developers accounted for 75 per cent of all development site sales in Melbourne in the last five months of the year, spending more than $730 million.
"Chinese developers see a lot of value in Melbourne," said CBRE national director Mark Wizel.
