He might be only 28, but Capital Alliance founder Mohan Du is overseeing a $1.2 billion project pipeline. Du's property development work has already seen him named as 2015's Young Achiever of the Year by the Australian Property Institute.

Chinese-born, Du was four when his family arrived in Australia with just two suitcases. He started Capital Alliance, which focuses on combined hotel and residential projects, in 2012. "My early career story is that I started in real estate, and was one of those sales guys busy selling off the plan apartments for people," says Du. "When I started in that, I had the same misconception that people have of me today, people thought that I was a maninland Chinese kid trying to sell property until they heard me speak and realized I was pretty Aussie. People like the fact that someone local is selling propety to them, rather than someone based in Singapore or Hong Kong or Malaysia or wherever."

Du said he had a relatively good career selling apartments from South Yarra to Southbank and to Docklands, but it got to a point where he had greater ambition. "I realised there had to be more for me to do, it couldn't just be selling the same developments over and over again.What I mean by that is there's a lot of projects out there in different locations, but if you take the locations away, a lot of the apartments are the same. Sure the external facade is different because different developers use different architects, but internally they're all very similar or identical. I just thought there had to be something better." 

Du says he was inspired by traveling to other cities. "When I look at New York and I look at places like Singapore and Hong Kong and the lifestyle offerings they have there, it's just another level to what we have available to us. Melbourne wins most liveable city every year, and if we don't win it we're in the top three, but I realised that we're really not going to hold onto that title for much longer if our new developments don't improve.

"People have a very negative perception of apartments here because they think it's a shoebox, and people are used to big homes in Australia. A lot of people don't realise that living in an apartment is becoming a lifestyle choice for many people in many parts of the world. It's about changing people's perceptions of apartments."

Du said the concept of the hotel apartment, where people live in an apartment within a hotel complex that has concierge services like housekeeping, is also something Australians are getting their heads around. Capital Alliance is behind the Docklands' first five star hotel, Peppers at M Docklands, which opens today. Peppers will add 87 hotel rooms to the market and 187 apartments, which also sit within the hotel complex. Their Marriott project will have 200 hotel rooms and 260 apartments. "With out Marriott deal, who wouldn't want to live in a Marriott with these services available?" says Du. "But it's baby steps and about changing people's perception of it. Before you know it, I think we'll be creating some healthy competition with the real estate industry." 

Capital Alliance is also a major equity partner in King's Domain, an apartment project at 68 Dorcas St Southbank, which is scheduled to be finished in a little over two years. 

Du said he plans to stay in this space of mixed-use hotel and residential development.

Capital Alliance employs 14 people, and no-one is over the age of 32. "It's about giving young people a go, because there's a lot of talented young people out there who need to be given the opportunity to really do something," says Du. 

This article first appeared in The Real Estate Conversation.

http://www.therealestateconversation.com.au/news/2016/01/19/developer-br...