It generally exactly what it says on the tin. But what makes it so unique and special? Well a few things. You might be aware that building projects can be residential (as in for housing purposes), they can also be commercial, retail, hospitality, civil etc etc. but for the purpose of this blog we’re focussing on residential projects.
Question. If I want to convert my garage into a room - is this a residential project?
Yes. Is it high end residential? Possibly (in my case it’s not but for some of you it might be).
If your garage is less than 20 sqm the chances of it being a high end residential project are quite slim. You’re probably not going to have an Olympic size pool installed and you’re not going to spend hundreds of thousands of pounds on it. But if your garage happens to be 120 sqm housing 5-6 cars and it’s attached to your 600 sqm main house the chances are that conversion of this garage will be a high end residential project.
Within residential projects generally we can differentiate two types. Investment/ development work and private client / end user projects. So what does that mean and what’s the difference?
High End Residential Development Projects
Development projects are generally those set purely for profit. These can be single unit (house or flat) purchased and renovated for sale or rental as well as multi unit schemes (blocks of flats, several houses over plot of land, conversions of a single building into multiple flats etc etc). But you get the principle. These are projects where someone buys a property, invests money in developing the project with the aim of generating a profit at the end. These types of projects are usually very budget sensitive, timescale driven and quality is the factor that might be compromised. (We have already spoken about projects only ever achieving two out of three qualities here).
Private client high end residential projects
The other projects are those for private clients / end users. This is typically a property that someone has bought to live in. These projects are categorised into a few groups;
General residential projects
I’d probably class most of Grand Designs projects here. They have a budget and usually they are built to last. But they can take absolutely forever. A good example is my own house. When I said I had a budget of £60k to refurb it I meant - I have £60k in my bank account and I’m not going to spend a penny more. It took us about 18 months to get to the final stage and we lived in the house as well. But the main budget was kept.
High end residential projects
These are usually projects that exceed 6 -7 figures. It’s the projects where people want marble, gold handles, preselected wood for the flooring, smart home systems etc. The type of project that when someone says “My budget is £1M which basically means I would be happy if we could keep it to £1M but if my wife says £1.5M is what she wants then she gets what she wants”.
Super prime residential projects
The 8 figure plus, single unit, single family projects. Those where people can go really crazy with stuff. Home spa, lift drive car park, chefs kitchen, staff quarters etc.
My specialism sits bang in the middle. In the high end residential sector. It’s where people have the funds and means to create their dream forever homes. It’s where they still need to be pretty aware of their finances but they are willing to spend more than average on nice things. Just because they can.
It’s a very specific niche and it requires suppliers and tradespeople who understand it as well. I’m sorry to have to tell you but if your builder used to do offices and now is claiming to work on high end residential homes - it’s probably not right. I will challenge anyone who is claiming that high end residential is the same as any other sector because it’s not. It requires a lot of forward and strategic thinking as well as planning. If anyone says to you that they can do it all alone for you - it’s probably a lie.
I collaborate with industry leaders, architects, interior designers, engineers and other specialists to deliver the best outcomes to my clients. I never do it alone.
If you are looking for a Project Manager who will help you organise and manage a team of specialists you can book a discovery call with me by using this link 👇