RESIDENTIAL DEVELOPERS, BUILDERS MAINTAIN SAFETY, KEEP TIMELINES
Orange County’s master planners are doing a lot more planning these days.
The coronavirus has prompted residential developers to up their organizational efforts, from communication with builders and their respective contractors, to increasing and enforcing safety protocols, and managing timelines to ensure communities are delivered on schedule.
For the three largest master-planned communities in OC—Rancho Mission Viejo, Irvine’s Great Park Neighborhoods and Irvine Ranch—an undersupplied market has helped maintain demand for new homes, and, they say, kept building schedules on track.
“We need to be careful about comparing this to the previous recession, because the dynamics are totally different,” said Emile Haddad, chief executive of FivePoint Holdings LLC (NYSE: FPH).
“That was a recession driven by the real estate market, whereas we currently don’t have enough inventory. Demand has been much higher than supply.”
Still, job sites look a lot different these days, with fewer workers, a decline in potential buyers touring sites and nearby models, and of course more masks and hand washing.