Our journey goes from the sales of developments right through to when we hand over the keys to your new home. It’s not often you will find developers that are with you every step of the way. Bruce Ross, Project Manager of M3 Africa, asks Brad Winstanley, Commercial Director of Devmco Group, the pertinent question, “How many of the units in Salta, that you were involved in selling, did you end up handing over to the owner and have to deal with the snags and issues?” The answer, countless!
This chat highlights how Devmco Group and the professional team are there from the very beginning with clients, ensuring they deliver what they bought into.
Listening and working together
Salta Sibaya was a development created during the Covid pandemic and it enabled John Van Wyk, COA architect, and Charles Thompson, Director of Devmco Group, to refine the vision and design of a development of this magnitude. It was during a time where focus on property wasn’t solely about the location, but what the lifestyle offered. It’s during this time that having outdoor spaces for families was paramount, when community was an important aspect of getting through hardships. During this time, Charles and John would get onto a video call and go through the design, analysing every decision and adjusting it to shift in lifestyle desires and needs.
One of the differentiating factors with working with Devmco Group is how they listen to the professional teams they have brought on board and work together in pushing our comfort zones and creating exceptional developments. Unlike other developers, Devmco Group is not only looking at what makes a development feasible, but they are questioning the value they can offer people. The focus changed from how many homes we could create in this space to asking the question of how we can create more value for those living in Salta Sibaya. If you have more value, like safe green spaces, sports facilities steps from your home, and retail just outside your estate, would people pay a little more for those added extras?
The success of Salta Sibaya is that there was a lot of listening and going back and forth. Time was spent on understanding every role from architects, project managers to on the ground construction teams. There is a lot more involved when collaborating with different types of teams to deliver on a project of this magnitude.
All-in approach to development
When Bruce, the project developer, asked Charles, ‘What are we doing first?’ with regard to the development of Salta Sibaya, Charles responded with conviction, ‘ALL OF IT. There is only one phase’
When faced with the decision of what to construct first, Devmco Group’s bold response was to build everything simultaneously – from residential units to community spaces. This ambitious strategy has resulted in the rapid emergence of 360 Sectional Title units, two clubhouses, retail space, and extensive recreational facilities, including trails and sports courts, all underscoring the greater estate’s dynamic growth.
Detailed approach
Salta Sibaya is aptly one of those projects that come once in a lifetime – where you are not only challenged to deliver everything at once, but it has been one of the bigger projects the team has been involved in. It certainly is the biggest project that Devmco Group has developed to date. This meant that there was no room for error and the success laid in the detailed approach.
We looked at different ways of constructing roads and sewers. We went through iteration to iteration until we had the right solution for the estate. The team had one chance to deliver this project and get it right.
Odds stacked against them
While we had planned meticulously in detail, there were factors far out of our reach that the team had to adapt and manoeuvre around. It was a wild few years with conditions that would never have been predicted.
One such element that we had to work through was delivering on time. Despite whatever came our way, we knew we had to deliver, as there were retail tenants needing to move in by a certain dates and homeowners who had sold their homes and ready to take transfer and move. There was no denying, when you had so many factors culminating and a good reputation at hand, we had to deliver.
Watch Devmco Diaries Unplugged as we share the journey of Salta Sibaya, from vision to delivery. This not only sets a benchmark for property development in KZN but also reiterates the power of a shared dream and collective effort in creating spaces that resonate with life and purpose.
