Étape 4 : mettre les promoteurs en concurrence, à vos conditions

The recommended route is a competitive invitation for bids. The owners' attorney approaches several developers, with a timeframe for examining the bids fixed together with the representation. The attorney typically uses a comprehensive questionnaire sent to each interested developer, together with a technical specification prepared by the engineering supervisor for the owners. The questionnaire covers the building's details, the initial consent rate among the owners, and the request for a bid.

• General experience in residential construction — projects in planning, in execution, and completed in recent years.
• Proven urban-renewal experience: TAMA reinforcement (38/1), demolish-rebuild (38/2) and pinui-binui projects — especially within the relevant municipality — with each project's current status: negotiation, signed contracts, in execution, completed, occupied.
• Proof of financial strength and the ability to raise financing for the project.

A crucial element to examine before engaging: how the developer behaves. How do you find out? Simply talk with owners who completed the journey with that developer. Ask about:

• The developer's (and the team's) attitude to owners during negotiation and construction, and their availability for questions and solutions.
• Whether owners were included in the planning at the permit stage, and their needs addressed where possible.
• How involved the developer personally (or senior officers) was, and who was in ongoing contact with the owners.
• Credibility.
• Meeting timelines — in planning and licensing as well as execution.
• Construction quality and the handling of defect repairs.

A developer is the business entity that advances the deal — it must know the market and its risks, hold equity and be able to raise financing, and it hires professionals including execution contractors. A contractor is the entity that physically builds: by law it must be a registered contractor with the appropriate classification, employing engineers, site supervisors and crews. Some developers also build — a developer-contractor — which can be a good solution for projects whose economics are borderline, keeping margins sufficient for the project's financial accompaniment.

Often a developer approaches the owners on its own initiative. But the more developers compete, the more each improves its opening bid against the others — and the beneficiaries are the owners, who end with meaningfully better terms than where the process began. (It's also important to understand what it means when a developer or organizer approaches you first and asks for a non-shop agreement — see our non-shop guide.)

Owners in an old building? Come set urban renewal in motion — we represent hundreds of apartment owners from the idea stage to the key.