Brains, Guts and Determination: How Salvo Property Shapes Melbourne’s Skyline

“People see the end result, the launch, the building, the numbers, but they don’t see the cost.” Salvo Property managing director James Maitland is making the point to a room filled with developers concerned about feasibility. “They don’t see the time, the energy, the decisions that no one applauds,” he tells The Urban Developer Greater Melbourne Residential Developer Summit. “Every development we’ve done at Salvo follows this same approach—it’s a three-pillar framework: brains, balls and determination.” By brains, Maitland means data, but not just any data. “Most developments are built on assumptions, other people’s guesses, as to what buyers want, need or ultimately can afford,” Maitland says. “We don’t guess—we use data because we live inside the life cycle of every project, not literally but operationally.” Salvo’s business arms include property management, facilities management and brokerage services. It means the development side of Salvo has access to data other developers do not. In the past year alone, the property management arm collected $97 million for 3754 landlords as well as insights and data from residents. “We get those insights as to how those residents live, what they use in those apartments, what’s missing and what they don’t use, and that ultimately fuels how we design the next project and what can be put on to the value management list,” Maitland says. ▲ A rendering of Salvo Property ’ s now-completed apartment tower Palladium at Southbank. Every month, the building and facilities management business that looks after more than 3000 residents across eight buildings receives about 2000 support cases. “It gives us insights into which of those facilities are actually being used, which are working, which are not working, where they’re really working well when they’re positioned in the building and, ultimately, the operational cost,” Maitland says. “Because we all know too well as to how operational cost budgets can destroy the value of a project if they can’t be maintained.” Salvo’s brokerage arm brings its own insights to the development process. “Our home loan brokering business ... every single month, we lodge almost $65 million in home loan applications,” Maitland says. “So we know exactly what borrowers have got in terms of their borrowing capacities, which banks are friendly, which valuers are causing trouble and what type of product does and doesn’t work.” There is also their project sales arm. “Last year alone, we sold 421 apartments worth $292 million across eight projects,” Maitland says. “That’s almost 30 to 40 sales every month—so again, we know what’s selling, and, more importantly, what’s not selling.” Putting the knowledge to use This came in handy in 2023 when the market believed house prices were going down and interest rates were going up. Salvo used its data to find the demand, where rents were going up and what buyers could borrow. So they created smarter, more efficient layouts with liveability and affordable price points. As a result, its projects sold out off the plan without discounting as other developers struggled. Initiative is also key. “Everyone in this room has hit that moment when the feasibility stops working and, God forbid, it actually turns red, because none of us are here to lose money,” Maitland says. “And what do most people do? We stop because that’s sensible, right?” He says Salvo had sat down with builders to go through line-item costs— and then decided to do the building themselves. But, Maitland says, while it was a risky business move, they had advantages—they were not chasing new work, they were building their own. And they had technology. ▲ Salvo Property managing director James Maitland during his address at The Urban Developer Greater Melbourne Residential Developer Summit. “We pre-sequence everything that we’re going to do,” Maitland says. “We pre-design everything. “In fact, with Moray House, we pre-let every single subcontract up to 96 per cent, all before we’ve gone on to site. “So that’s not wild risk: that’s calculated execution, and that’s what we call balls.” Part of that technology involves 3D digital modelling so Salvo can virtually build a project several times to check that all the elements work, and amend the design where it does not. “And they watch the whole thing going, and they say, that doesn’t work, the crane doesn’t work here, we could be faster if we did this,” Maitland says of the in-house construction team. “They remodel it and do it again, over and over and over. “Then that becomes a tool for the guys on site. The first thing they do when they come in is watch that video, so they already understand how it’s going to be built.” Maitland says success comes when people push through and make hard choices, when they act instead of waiting, even when that may be terrifying in the current economic climate. “I believe every project has a way to be successful, sold and profitable, but only for those people who show up tired, hungover, uncertain, uncomfortable—and do it anyway,” he says. It’s a tactic that has helped Salvo change the Melbourne skyline with its projects, including 109 Clarendon and Palladium. The company has a $3-billion pipeline of projects comprising more than 4120 homes to be delivered over the next decade. “You’ve got to stay at the table longer than anyone else,” Maitland says. “You’ve got to keep pushing when others walk away.”

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