In today’s bonus episode, we’re joined by the “Property Professor” himself, Peter Koulizos, as he breaks down the 12 essential steps to property development success. 

From setting goals and crunching numbers to working with council, Peter shares invaluable insights drawn from his years of experience.  

But property development isn’t always as glamorous as it seems. As Peter candidly reveals, it’s a high-risk, high-reward game with plenty of challenges at every turn.  

That’s why we’re tackling the tax side of development head-on, including: 

• Why understanding GST and capital gains tax is critical 
• How to avoid costly surprises 
• The importance of choosing the right accountant 

Plus, Peter reflects on his very first development project—what went right, what went wrong, and the advice he’d give his younger self. 

For the full episode, tune in here: Episode 241 | 12 Steps to a Profitable Property Development – Chat with Peter Koulizos 

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Further Resources from “Property Professor” Peter Koulizos

As mentioned in the episode, here’s the 10-part video series on one of Peter’s property developments: 

• Video 1 – Introduction  
• Video 2 – Property Development Overview 
• Video 3 – Architectural Drawings 
• Video 4 – Technical Drawings 
• Video 5 – Town Planning 
• Video 6 – The Builder 
• Video 7 – Financing a Development Project 
• Video 8 – Tax and Property Development 
• Video 9 – Property Management 
• Video 10 – Selling the Project 

If You Enjoyed TPC Gold | A Step-by-Step Property Development Guide with Peter Koulizos, You Might Also Like:

• Ep 150 | Margaret Lomas: How This Mother of 5 Turned $80,000 into a Multimillion Dollar Property Empire
• Ep 287 | Why Buying a Harley Derailed Bryce’s Property Portfolio & Ten Tips We’d Tell Our 20-Something Selves 
• Ep 511 | Transform Your Backyard into Profit: A Simple Solution to the Housing Shortage – Chat with Peter Kelly 

Transcript

Bryce Holdaway
Alright, so before we go to the last one, we’ll round them off here. Number one was set your goals. Number two was research, research, research. Number three was find a development site. Number four was choose the best site. Number five was draw up your plans. Number six was crunch the numbers. Number seven was work with council. Eight, select a builder. Nine was organise the finance. Ten was all about project management. Eleven was about the real estate agent and the property manager. And Pete, number 12 is… 

Peter Koulizos
The taxes. You need to understand the taxes because when you buy an established property investment and you sell it, right, you’re going to have capital gains tax. Hopefully if you’ve made a gain, right? Same with development. If you build something and sell it and you make a profit, you’ll pay capital gains tax. But the other tax that you will pay in property development, whether you make a profit or a loss, is the GST. So they don’t care whether you made a loss on the whole deal, the taxman wants their GST component. Now, if you go and see an accountant before you even start, they’ll tell you things like, you should register for GST. We’re going to do this under something called the margin scheme. All right, you have yourself all set up, and we’re gonna put this in this entity. Maybe because you wanna sell them straight away and you’re gonna make a big profit, why don’t we put it in your wife’s name who earns less than you?  

Ben Kingsley
Or a company structure.  

Peter Koulizos
Yeah, or a company structure. Go see your accountant first, work out the structure, get to understand what taxes you might be liable for. But a lot of developers have come unstuck because they’re happy to, well, not they’re happy to pay the capital gains tax, but they’re willing to pay the capital gains tax. But that GST…  

Ben Kingsley
10%, bang.  

Peter Koulizos
That’s being paid whether you made a profit or a loss.  

Ben Kingsley
Yeah. So on that point, not every accountant’s created equal, are they?  

Peter Koulizos
Nah.   

Ben Kingsley
So your local accountant that might be doing your typical tax return, like a volume tax return provider, not the type of accountant to go and see. You may need to get a specialist referral to an accountant who does this type of work on a more regular basis and can give you all of the pros and cons of the different types of structures and all of the tax impacts around it.  

Peter Koulizos
Certainly the accountant that I use in Adelaide, fantastic property specialist. But for those people that either don’t live in Adelaide or live somewhere else, simple things like somewhere on the contract it’s going to have is GST applicable or not. If your accountant can’t answer that question, you’d better go find another accountant.  

Bryce Holdaway
Absolutely. Hey final one for me is if you were to, we’ll do a little bit of time travel here Pete, we go back to your very first development that you ever did. What advice would the current Pete give to the Peter back then on that first development that you didn’t know at the time?  

Peter Koulizos
If only all the deals were like that! So I buy a property in a seaside suburb of Adelaide called Seacliff. And I get just the approval to build two. Just the DA. I make 50% profit. Just on the DA. Next person that buys it, they sell it a year later. The bastard also made a 50% profit, which to me is an illustration of timing the markets is also important. Because the property market was going up anyway we were making a profit, so I thought I was a genius making 50% but I went to all of that trouble.   

Ben Kingsley
The buy-and-hold strategy works.  

Bryce Holdaway
What would you have said to yourself to back yourself in staying a bit longer and don’t give away your margins?  

Peter Koulizos
I mean, I know so much more now obviously than I did before. But you’re right mate, the best way to make money in property is to buy and hold. It’s not the only way, but it’s certainly the best way.  

Bryce Holdaway
Well, I think it’s a good place to stop mate you’ve delivered some great gold. Mate we appreciate you coming on, I think our listeners will benefit from your wisdom, your experience and doing this in the trenches, not only for yourself, but also having to impart that on to students so that they can do it as well. 

Peter Koulizos
I just want to stress again; property development is not easy. You know, we’re having a laugh here and a bit of a joke. But the reality is property development, small scale residential development, let alone big scale apartment development, is not easy. It looks sexy and exciting, but it can be very risky. Be careful.  

Ben Kingsley
And I think, you know, if I was to close that out, there’s a couple of people that I’m talking to and mentoring around this stuff. And I’ve said to them, look, I’m not the expert. I’ve got some baseline knowledge that I can very much help you. One of the things that’s really clear in watching them is the uncertainty. Why can’t you give me certainty on this? And it is just a constant wheel of uncertainty. And you’re trying to mitigate risk and you can’t because no one can give you definitive answers in this space. And I think if you go in there, knowing that it’s going to be white water on some days and it’s going to clear up the next day and then more white water the next day.  

Bryce Holdaway
Stay out of the waves.  

Ben Kingsley
Stay out of the waves. That’s the piece here and I know that’s frustrating because you want to invest in something you think is: I’ve done my homework, I’ve done my due diligence, but it still can be a rough ride and no one can give you certainty. So once you get peace with that and you understand that it’s high risk, high reward then you might enter into this area.  

Bryce Holdaway
Pete, we’re gonna put some links in the show notes, a couple of the resources that you talked about, if anyone wants to reach out to you and say good day, they can do that. But mate, as always, it was a pleasure having you on The Property Couch and keep doing the great work that you’re doing at PIPA and everything you’re doing locally in South Australia. And we’ll see you next time when you come along and join us. 

Peter Koulizos
Thanks mate, I appreciate it. Thank you, Ben. Thank you, Bryce.