The word property development for most conjures an image of a structure somewhere in the range of a simple single-story house in Mutare to the Billionaire’s Row in Manhattan, New York City. While the image has no wrongs, it leaves out much to be desired in understanding property development.
Property development is the process of improving the usefulness of land and/or attached property through the development of facilities that meet social, commercial and infrastructural needs.
From this definition, the development of say Mbare falls under property development. Instead of only the residential and commercial buildings, the definition includes amenities and necessary infrastructure. In that image of ours let’s add roads, sewer works and electricity supply grids. Quite literally anything installed onto the land to derive marginal benefit.

In everyday use, a property developer generally provides for housing in mass. A serial provider of housing or the client commissioning the development of say Hopeville in Bulawayo is referred to as a property or real estate developer. Development firms often specialise. Leading to them being called civil works companies for roads and so forth depending on the expertise.
Who qualifies as a property developer?
The title property developer is generally one denoted based on reputation. It is very rare to have job openings that have positions for “property or real estate developer”. That job title would be way too broad. The term is therefore bestowed on those with a track record of serially providing housing and office space to the market.
In simpler lines, those who inject capital and resources to supply large quantities of property qualify. While capital deployment is a large part of the process, those given the title are often expected to have adequate knowledge of the market and technical environment.
Does Property development have a professional body?
The property development industry is not regulated by government in Zimbabwe. It’s almost a free for all with regulation only occurring per task or process. Building a residential complex for example will have to comply with the Regional, Town and Country Planning Act (Chapter 29:12) and other engineering doctrines to be free of legal risk.
As there’s no regulation around the broad term of the industry. Professional bodies in their strictest sense do not exist. The bodies that do exist are largely voluntary and mostly operate as lobbying groups. One such body is the Zimbabwe Property Developers Association which is an umbrella for land developers in the country.
For students of property development and estate management. Maybe the Black Trump Initiative may help you traverse into the more technical side of the property industry. Finding peers who can help you take the next step is just as important as your differentials.
Property Development firms in Zimbabwe
Some major property developers in Zimbabwe include Westprop, Grand Homes and JRG in the up-market sector. The government and other private firms such as Picco Construction are also noteworthy property developers in the low to medium-income sectors.
If you feel there’s something, I did not cover that your feel needed to be included please don’t hesitate to leave a comment and I’ll get “write” on it. See what I did there :-)?
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