Dominic Spencer / Chief Executive Officer
Perspectives from a life in leadership.
The latest essay
Listed property groups often hold office towers because selling below book value looks like an admission. I argue that the honest test is whether we would buy the building today at its market price, and that a board should act on the answer even when acting costs income.
Read the essayListed property groups often hold office towers because selling below book value looks like an admission. I argue that the honest test is whether we would buy the building today at its market price, and that a board should act on the answer even when acting costs income.
Owners still treat a fixed-price design-and-construct contract as the safest way to build. After the builder failures and price shocks of recent years, I argue that owners should keep the risks they are better placed to carry, pay openly for the builder's work and stop buying certainty that may not be there.
Debates about housing supply in Australian cities concentrate on height limits and zoning. Having written planning reports and later waited on them, I argue that time and uncertainty cost rental housing more than height does, and that developers should accept firmer limits in return for faster, predictable decisions.