Why we build fewer projects than we could

We could run more sites concurrently than we do. We choose not to, and the reason is not caution for its own sake.

A development consumes senior attention unevenly. The demanding periods — acquisition due diligence, the response to a planning objection, the first six weeks on site, and the run to settlement — do not spread themselves conveniently across a portfolio. Run too many projects at once and those periods collide, at which point the people who should be making judgement calls are instead triaging.

Our development philosophy has always been fast capital return, controlled risk, and a small number of high-quality projects rather than many ordinary ones. Fewer projects is what that philosophy costs, and what makes it true.