The 2006 intensive two week course for the Property Development Programme (PDP) presented jointly by the Graduate School of Business of the University of Cape Town and the South African Property Owners Association (SAPOA), is the 31st to be held since 1969.

This course is recognised as South Africa’s premier management programme on property finance, valuation, property law, negotiation, investment, development, marketing and management.

SAPOA CEO Neil Gopal says the PDP is one of a range of short courses and training programmes the organisation, in conjunction with various tertiary institutions, presents every year in the interests of professional skills development in the commercial property industry. “It is critical, in view of the increasingly competitive nature and evolving dynamics of the commercial property industry, that executive management is constantly challenged to develop and expand their horizons,” says Gopal.

This year’s PDP, held at the GSB in Cape Town, ran from 23 July to 5 August and was attended by 64 executive level delegates selected by the organisers and drawn from all sectors of the commercial property industry including property development, legal, financial, engineering, architectural, building planning, broking and quantity surveying.

Elaine Rumboll, director for executive education at the GSB, says that the PDP is one of the oldest standing joint partnership programmes they run and they are incredibly proud to be associated with SAPOA, as this course is seen as one which adds tremendous value. She says; “The PDP is the highest level programme of its kind, it’s very holistic and integrated; delegates get exposure to all the different aspects of the industry, as well as building lasting and valuable relationships through the close teamwork involved. A lot of thought goes into this programme – we meet with SAPOA once a month during the year preceding the course to discuss and decide all aspects involved and we are oversubscribed every year. We are also seeing increased representation from other countries – in fact this year we had delegates from Egypt, Botswana and Zimbabwe – which is a tribute to the stature of the PDP. “

The course includes a combination of class instruction, discussion, seminars and participation in group projects. The delegates are divided into groups of 8, with each group including a carefully selected complementary mix of skills. The first week of the course focuses on lectures and facilitated discussions while in the second week the groups are given a project to complete as a team.

Clive Shepherd, chairman of SAPOA’s PDP committee, says the objective of the group project is to put delegates into a simulated real life situation where they use the group skills to present a development plan for a local Cape site. This involves all aspects from feasibility study and site analysis to development and marketing, giving each member of the team exposure to the different roles played by the practitioners in various disciplines and the opportunity to interact. The challenge this year was to come up with a sustainable and financially feasible development plan for the site of the old abattoir in Maitland. This site forms part of the City of Cape Town’s broader development plan for revitalisation of the area and delegates were given a brief which called for 20% of the developed area to be given over to affordable housing and taking into account a BEE component, which made the project quite complicated. Shepherd says the quality of the submissions was, once again, very good, showing a high level of innovation and professionalism.

The judges selected as overall winners (sponsored by Moreland Developments)  the project submitted by the team comprising Archie Mogokonyane, Craig Stuart, Clive Osterloh, Phutego Dikgole, Natalie Innes, Thabo Ntseare, Zanele Ngwenya and James Balzer.  Runner up project (sponsored by Hemlyn Gebhardt) was awarded to team Celeste Peverett, Louis Weitz, Cita Simthembile, Graham Greentree, Kumeshini Naidoo, Thandi Mazibuko and Adam Kane-Smith.

Best Design/Marketing project (sponsored by Stauch Vorster) was awarded to the team comprising Patrick Mawesana, Mark McCreadie, Howard Silvertsen, Bongani Ntshingila, Tobias Mynhardt, Phia van der Spuy, Hugh Page and Werner Wirth.

Over the years, it has become traditional for the delegates at the PDP to identify a charitable cause for which they raise funds. This year, a school in Maitland was chosen as the beneficiary, and for the first time, over R5000 was raised.