The Director of DA Approved Properties, Lachlan Martin, says the site is Australia’s only devoted portal for featuring DA-approved properties for sale.
“It’s a platform where agents can come to find properties that have already been DA approved. The site makes it easier for developers to scroll through and find their next projects,” Mr Martin said.
This website accommodates both residential and commercial listings, from duplexes to high-rise apartments.
Mr Martin launched the site a month ago aftermarket testing to ensure a streamlined user experience for agents and buyers.
21-year-old Mr Martin started his career as a real estate agent in Parramatta in Sydney’s western suburbs two years ago and was constantly being asked to find DA-approved properties. With the support of mentors, Mr Martin started the company to address a gap in the market.
He says the site is optimised to focus on accessibility and conversions as well as strategic promotion designed to generate maximum exposure in both domestic and international markets.
“I’ve got family and friends in the development industry and they would always ask me where I could find DA-approved property. I couldn’t find one easily and there were no sub-categories in the bigger property portals to search for them.
“I thought, ‘Why has nobody thought of this before?’
“The agents list the vendors’ property on our site. Any type of property can be listed as long as it’s got approval applications. It’s a straightforward process, same as bigger portals. The agents upload the property information, pay a fee and then developers can easily search for and find properties.”
DA Approved Properties has seen positive feedback since its launch, Mr Martin said.
“The feedback from developers is positive; they’ve said it’s less time-consuming now to search for a property. They can easily scroll through the website.
“Apparently they were going through Gumtree before. The DA Approved Properties site is a much more professional site to be listing and finding properties on. Previously they would try and search for DA-approved properties by typing in keywords like ‘DA’ in bigger property portals, but then random things like ‘art deco’ would come up.
“Some of the developers I have been working with now have been getting a lot of phone calls from the website. The advantage for them is that the property is ready to go as opposed to waiting one or two years for DA to go through.
“Agents say that it makes sense every time they use it.”
At the moment, the site has 10 property listings and Mr Martin’s immediate goal is to grow the number of listings. His long-term goals for the site are to integrate loans and mortgage products and consulting.
“My goal is to keep focusing on getting property uploads, hoping to be a complete solution for developers. Eventually, I’d like to bring on loans and mortgages and consulting; that will be in the future though. The ultimate aim is to be a solution for developers to gain more advantage in market.”
DA Approved properties can be distinguished from other sites like Development Ready because it only features properties with DA approval.
“My main focus is property that is already approved. I have been getting feedback from agents and buyers. I heard a few stories where people buy parcels of land and the DA approval just never goes through. That’s the gap in the market that I am filling.”
“Our motto is ‘If it’s approved you’ll find it here’”.
