Strategic Review of Lyndarum North by AV Jennings
AV Jennings is a trusted, community-driven developer with 85 years of demonstrated experience. They approached Judi Carr, Director of Property Republic, to conduct a strategic review of their Lyndarum North community in Wollert. In addition, we were asked to provide recommendations for future opportunities while taking into consideration the current and future market conditions with the impact of COVID-19 as the backdrop.
Located in Melbourne’s highly competitive northern corridor, this masterplanned community has been designed to provide affordable and high-quality housing to meet the needs of a wide range of buyers.
As Wollert faces competing developments in the corridor, with differing price points and amenities, it’s important for the Lyndarum North team to understand where they sit within the market, and where they can improve and identify gaps. Ultimately, Lyndarum North has the potential to establish itself as the most sought-after residential community in Melbourne’s highly competitive northern corridor.
The primary goal of the strategic review was to provide Lyndarum North with a framework to achieve sales success through evaluating the market position, impact of COVID-19 and competition.
Other goals included:
Obtaining market knowledge that will help solidify Lyndarum North’s brand reputation and awareness.
Achieving price growth aligned with preferred price points.
Gaining valuable insights to capitalise on opportunities, allowing Lyndarum North to realise its potential as one of the most sought-after residential communities in the Wollert corridor.
The Approach
Utilising workshops, online surveys, desktop research, mystery shopping and builder reviews, Property Republic gathered highly valuable insights for the Lyndarum North team.
Phase 1 - Market Position
The first phase involved collecting data to establish Lyndarum’s position within the market. A range of methods we used to gather this data.
Workshops
Property Republic conducted two workshops with prospective and current purchasers, aiming to establish some key points, including:
Perception of Lyndarum North in the marketplace and current value proposition and positioning
The value placed on the product offering
Product requirements
Household sizes
Jobs, pains and gains
Motivations, driver constraints
Needs in terms of amenity, community and developer
Impact of COVID-19 on income, work location, attending sales office, life in general
Thoughts on competitors
2. Online Surveys
Two online surveys were designed and supervised by Dr. Marzena Baker, PhD, MBus (Research). A large number of prospective and current purchasers were invited to take part, with participants given an opportunity to win an overall prize plus nominate one of three local charities, to which AV Jennings donated $5 for every survey completed.
The survey questions sought to provide insight into:
Demographics including local and ex-pat purchasers
Product requirements
Jobs, pains and gains
Motivations, driver constraints
Needs in terms of amenity, community and developer
Impact of COVID-19 on income, work location, life in general
Competitor purchase considerations
3. Desktop Research
Property Republic conducted desktop research and gathered information, including data that’s publicly available through organisations such as the City of Whittlesea.
4. Builder Review
Property Republic also reviewed the current builder product and conducted discussions with local builder consultants, major builder principals and sales managers to gain insight into their future product planning as well as any research they had conducted.
Phase 2 – Impact of COVID-19
Property Republic conducted a thorough desktop review of COVID-19 related forecasts and opinions, as well as the provision of Government stimulus and support. The review also included information from organisations such as:
Department of Treasury and Finance
Victorian Government
University of Melbourne
Reserve Bank of Australia
Questions relating to COVID-19’s impact were also asked in the customer deep dive workshops and online surveys.
Builder partners’ senior personnel were interviewed to garner their views on the northern corridor market in 2021 and beyond.
Phase 3 – Competition
Property Republic conducted an online mystery shopping and competitor analysis of the Wollert, Craigieburn, Mernda and Donnybrook corridors. This was aimed to highlight Lyndarum North’s current and potential points of difference and competitive edge. Some of the things that were reviewed include:
Social media footprint
Initial customer experience and prospect management
Value proposition, positioning, product, pricing, and promotion
Builder relationships
Current and future amenities
Sustainability and similar initiatives
Project presentation
The Results
Property Republic provided Lyndarum North with a detailed report that presented outcomes from the prospect and purchaser workshops, online surveys, major builder interviews, site inspections and online mystery shopping.
We highlighted important observations and provided recommendations to help the Lyndarum North team understand where they sit in the market, develop and refine their strategies and drive successful sales outcomes.
Judi Carr was invited to present the report’s methodology and key findings to senior personnel within AV Jennings and their joint venture partner.
Impressed with the thorough research and recommendations provided, AV Jennings engaged the Property Republic team to produce a range of ongoing content marketing material for Lyndarum North, including social media posts and monthly blogs.
The Feedback
“AV Jennings was interested in engaging Property Republic to review the current market and make recommendations on new and different marketing and sales opportunities. We were drawn to Property Republic due to Judi Carr being a highly respected Victorian development industry expert in project marketing and sales.
Property Republic have helped our team identify new project opportunities and strategies to improve sales and development outcomes. Judi and the Property Republic team have been a pleasure to work with and I would recommend them to organisations who require experienced and expert marketing and sales advice and strategy development.
As a result of our overwhelmingly positive experience with Property Republic, we are now engaging them to produce engaging content across multiple platforms.”
Joe Cassera
Senior Development Manager AV Jennings