Pre-Lease First, Build Second: How I'm Turning $420K Industrial Land Into $1M+ Equity

Andrew:: So before I spend money pouring concrete and building sheds, I line up the tenants first. That's how you turn dirt into serious industrial cash flow without gambling.

Andrew:: Hi, I'm Andrew Wright, principal of Professional Southport, and this is the Andrew Wright Property Podcast. I've built a multimillion dollar property portfolio delivering a seven figure annual rental income. And led my real estate team through thousands of sale and lease transactions. In each episode, I share real deals and strategies that will help you find, fund and operate profitable property deals.

The aim of this show is to provide education and build a community of like-minded investors who can collaborate, share insights, and help each other in each other's journeys. You can make excuses or you can make money, but you can't do both. So come and join us.

Adam:: Hello and welcome back to the Andrew Wright Property Podcast. Now, today we're unpacking a live development deal, not theory. A real industrial land acquisition near Toowoomba that Andrew purchased back in April, 2025 for $420,000. What we're gonna look at is why he chose this particular area called Helidon. Why a Truck Depot? How planning risk is managed. Why he's pre-leasing before construction and how a $2 million development could potentially create $1.5 million in equity. Andrew, welcome to the podcast.

Andrew:: Adam, how you going?

Adam:: I'm very well, mate. I'm very well. But look, before we even start with this deal, I just want what's happening with your portfolio.

Andrew:: Oh, there's, there's plenty happening. That truck depot up, three lots up in Townsville. The tenant moved out 31 December and I've had two months of vacancy already.

Adam:: Oh, okay.

Andrew:: Couple of nibbles. I'm still waiting on a quote there to upgrade the place with security lighting and electronic gates. Still waiting for the tradesmen to gimme a quote. So I have got a couple of nibbles there. Maybe someone interested in taking one of the lots, 2000 square meters. But this is part of running a property portfolio. I've now got those three empty blocks of land. I've got another three blocks of land that are sitting empty as well, which are development sites, which the portfolio's gotta generate enough cash flow to fund holding those assets.

So I've just finished restructuring a lot of my finances. That is gonna put myself in a position cash flow wise, where I can just move forward with comfort. So what I did is I've just refinanced a couple of loans, six of them and I've just put 800 grand in the bank. Revalued my office and I've drawn out 800 grand just sitting in the bank now, ready to go for this development.

We're talking about near Toowoomba building a truck depot. So I'll use that money to fund that. I've rented out an empty office next door to me, which was empty for more than a year. I've got 45 grand a year rent coming in from that now, which is great.

Adam:: Great.

Andrew:: And I've just given myself another $325,000 a year pay rise by changing six of my loans from principal and interest to interest only. So I was paying down 325 grand a year just on those particular loans. And now I'm just going interest only to give myself a big pay rise so I can fund all of this property development stuff.

Adam:: Did you get professional advice on doing this and how to structure this, or is this just knowledge you've built over time that you now know what to do and how to make this structure? Because structure is very important. And what you've just described blows me away.

Andrew:: No, I didn't get advice on it. My portfolio told me, Andrew, you've got multiple property developments here running. You can't fund this. And my portfolio told me I need to go interest only. But see, the thing is, if you understand the value of money — last week we interviewed John Facer, he bought a block of land for 55 grand in 1978. Houses in the street are now selling for $10 million. So over as every decade goes by, whatever loans you have is gonna be so much easier to pay back.

So I mean, I have a goal — I want to leave my kids a hundred million dollars. Now that sounds, oh wow, that's cruel, Andrew. But if you think about that, if there's a $200 million property portfolio, 50% LVR, a hundred million dollars of debt, if every 10 years that property portfolio doubles — when I die, 200 million in one decade will be worth 400 million. After decade two, the 400 is worth 800. After decade three, 800 is worth 1.6 billion. And after the fourth decade, that 1.6 will be worth $3.2 billion. Now, do you think my kids are gonna be worried about the hundred million dollars of debt if they have a property portfolio worth $3.2 billion?

Adam:: Look, I'll bring it back a level. If someone is out there thinking, Andrew, you're a toss with these big numbers you're throwing out, just look at it like this. What if you're just leaving your kids a $2 million home that still owes $1 million on it. It's the same principle, just bringing it right back.

Andrew:: Yeah, that's exactly right, Adam. And that's a good point. What I want the viewers here to think of is — I'm here trying to help people improve their portfolios for their families and friends. So if you can't think in those terms or you don't have the capacity to think anywhere near those numbers, all I'm encouraging you to do by saying that is to understand the maths. And instead of maybe borrowing $1 million to buy property, set yourself a 10 year goal to borrow 10 million.

Now I have 10 million of debt. I don't lose a minute of sleep at night worrying about it. The interest is probably $650,000 a year, but I've got one and a half million a year now coming in in rent, and when I finish these next couple of projects in Toowoomba over the next 18 months, my rent will be over $2 million a year. I don't lose any sleep and I'm only just getting started.

Adam:: I absolutely love the way you think, Andrew. And you've got a mindset for growth. Look, it's something I'd really like to expand on with you in another episode. But look, let's get to the Helidon deal.

Andrew:: Before I say that, I want the listeners to know that I genuinely care. I'm not selling courses or mentorship or anything. I'm trying to help people make money. And I've already from this podcast, the first 14 or 15, I've got a couple of close friends of mine, and I'm really pleased that they're actually sending me deals now. "Andrew, what do you think about this? Do you think I should do this?" And I'm really happy about that.

But the message I want to get across — the philosophy for the day is: don't wait to buy property. Buy property, and wait, because of the compounding we've been talking about. Get in and do something. Don't just listen to the podcast.

Adam:: I love it. Fantastic. Alright, can we get to the deal now?

Andrew:: Yes, we can.

Adam:: Okay. So Helidon.

Andrew:: I say Helidon, it might be Helidon. I've gotten that wrong. Apologies to anyone in Helidon that is listening.

Adam:: Mate, where is it?

Andrew:: I looked at it yesterday on the Google thing and it said it's 14 kilometers west of Gatton. And about 18 kilometers east of Toowoomba. So basically halfway between Gatton and Toowoomba.

Adam:: Okay. And what's in the area?

Andrew:: Nothing. A thousand people?

Adam:: Nothing. Yeah. But it's close to the Warrego Highway.

Andrew:: Yeah. This property is less than a hundred meters from the Warrego Highway.

Adam:: Less than a hundred meters. And why is that important?

Andrew:: The use that I have planned for the site is a truck depot. When truckers work all day driving their trucks, they don't then need to wanna spend an hour going off the highway trying to find a park. This one is 10 seconds off the highway. So it's just a lot more efficient for truckers to park their vehicles really, really close to either a port or a major highway.

Adam:: Sure. Fantastic. So what attracted you to this specific site? And we know that the price is 420 grand.

Andrew:: It's sort of, I couldn't afford to buy the multimillion dollar sites that are in the Yatala area between Gold Coast and Brisbane. I mean, that'd be the ideal stuff, but I just couldn't fund it. So it really was a bottom up situation. Property spruikers say all the time, you want to pick the blue chip areas and the market will do the heavy lifting for you. Well, that's great if you can afford it. But I couldn't afford to buy a $2 million block of land in Yatala before you start building.

So it was really a bottom up thing. I looked at the price. Just up the road in Withcott, they were selling one acre blocks of industrial land for 800 grand. I picked up this site, four acres for half that price, $420,000, and it's a very comparable area. So it was $27 a square meter, 15,800 square meters, and I paid 420 grand. Instead of $1,500 a square meter near the Gold Coast.

Adam:: Sure. And when you did actually make the purchase, this is almost a year ago now. Was the truck depot always the plan?

Andrew:: Yeah. So I bought maybe six or seven blocks of dirt last year, which were all industrial and all my target for all of those properties is truck parking. And industrial outdoor storage. I've just changed the development application to council just before we paid the fees and we ticked an extra box. So it's not just truck parking, it's also industrial outdoor storage because I've found with another site in Emerald, I got a nasty letter from the Emerald Council. My tenant started having some shipping containers there for storage. And they actually emailed me saying, Andrew, you're not allowed to have shipping containers there. It's only allowed for truck parking. And I thought, well, isn't it the same thing? No, you gotta tick another box with the council or most councils to have shipping containers and storage. It's actually a separate approval to truck parking.

Adam:: Amazing. The red tape that's out there. Which you've always gotta be aware of.

Andrew:: I've got some more red tape to cover on this one as well.

Adam:: Okay. So when buying this particular block, was the plan to develop immediately into the truck parking?

Andrew:: Well that was the plan. But as I got through — once I'd already bought the site, I started doing my due diligence and rang the council just to make sure I could build a truck parking depot there. And even though it was zoned industrial, they said, no, it's not approved for that. So I mentioned this in another podcast — I asked them, what can you use it for? And they said, well, Andrew, out of this 15,800 square meters, you can use 15 or 20 square meters for a battery storage device. And anything else you need to apply for a material change of use, pay all your fees and get the consultants' advice.

So I was blown away 'cause it's actually zoned industry. But you can't use it for industry until you jump through more hoops.

Adam:: Were you expecting that? They've actually now had to refer you onto the state government for approvals.

Andrew:: No, I wasn't. I'm not an experienced developer. I'm learning as I go. I know that there's good margin there. I know it'll work, but I'm learning every step of the way.

Adam:: What gives you the confidence that demand exists for this site before building?

Andrew:: We talked about that in the episode on truck parking. There's over a million heavy vehicles in this country and there's not a million truck parks for them. The demand is just there, it's just numbers. I'm not really all that smart in any area of my life, but I do understand mathematics and if you've got a million trucks looking for somewhere to park and there ain't enough parks, the demand's there.

And that particular corridor — they've just built a big airport in Toowoomba, I think it's called Wellcamp or something like that. There's approvals there for a billion dollar expansion of a train track. And the local state government here in Queensland has definitely got plans to expand the Warrego Highway, and that site is right next there. So even if it's not truck parking, there's gonna be a lot of trades that have to work. If you're expanding a highway, they're gonna have all their machinery, they're gonna need to store somewhere, and there ain't too many sites available.

Adam:: So didn't realize you needed certain approvals. Council's come in and said, we're giving this to the state government for you to go and talk to. What risks did that bring up?

Andrew:: Well, I just wanna read the email I got two days ago from the town planner dated 23rd of February. The State Assessment and Referral Agency, SARA, received your referral agency material. The application does not meet the requirements for a properly referred application under section 54 of the Planning Act 2016. The reasons for the decision are the premises is located within 25 meters of a railway corridor and within 100 meters of the state controlled road intersection at Lola Road. The correct fees have not been paid. You need to pay us more money and refer it to this other state government department.

Now, the town planner had already spoken to that other department in the state government. They said that we don't need to refer it to them, but this is the red tape.

Here's the email from the town planner dated yesterday. "Hi Andrew. I just wanted to give you an update. As you are aware, we referred the application to the state due to the proximity of the railway corridor because it's less than 25 meters away from the railway. The State Assessment and Referral Agency, SARA, have issued an action notice arguing that we are within a hundred meters of an intersection with a state controlled road being the Warrego Highway. I went back to SARA outlining that we weren't within a hundred meters according to their mapping. However, SARA have come back saying the mapping is conceptual, and they have gone out and measured from the edge of the intersection, and we are now magically within a hundred meters of the Warrego Highway."

So what that means is I've gotta pay more fees, I've gotta get engineers out there to do a traffic impact assessment report on this Lawless Road, which is a ghost town, no one uses it. And there's another two or three month delay.

Adam:: Do you ever get this kind of correspondence and get worried that you're not gonna get the approval?

Andrew:: No. Look, it's zoned industry. They want it to be used for industry. The biggest risk of something like this is when you get the state government involved — they could come out and say, "Andrew, your proposed water tanks there aren't good enough. We want you to extend mains water from one kilometer away up to the truck depot." Now, if they did something like that, that'd be a million dollar cost. That would just kill the project. But I'm pretty confident that's not gonna happen. So yes, development is risky. They could come back with unreasonable requirements that would force me to walk away, and that's a one in a hundred chance.

Adam:: Alright. So stage one of this is you want to put in 7,400 meters of compacted gravel. Fencing. Heavy duty crossover. Electronic gate. Lighting. No sheds initially. Why start with that rather than just building the shed straight up?

Andrew:: So I'll step back one step. That site is 15,800 square meters. We actually initially started with 10 and a half thousand square meters of hardstand. We've dropped it down to 7,400 because the engineers have come up with flood mapping reports from the council that suggest in a one in a hundred year flood, some water might pass on half of that land. And it'd be a lot more expensive to build that up so that it's not gonna be water affected. So instead of going down that track, we've reduced it down to 7,400, which is just under two acres.

Now what I've done is the budget in very simple terms is about 800 to 900 grand to do everything we've spoken about. Compacted gravel, put up the fences, a concrete overpass, some landscaping to hide the ugly place, electronic gate, all that sort of stuff. The sheds — it's 846 square meters of sheds at $1,250 a meter roughly for a shed. That's about $1.1 million extra.

So as part of the process going forward, I've done the application in two stages. Stage one, just the hardstand. Stage two is for the shed so that I don't have to pay the infrastructure charges on the shed, which is probably a hundred grand, unless I build the sheds. Now, how do I work out if I'm gonna build the sheds? I don't try and be smart and guess — I ask the potential tenants.

So I've been advertising this site for six months. I've got a couple of leads there that wanna rent the place. And I've asked them, "Do you want a shed?" And the answer is "No, Andrew, we either can't afford to pay the higher rent of the sheds or we don't need it." And second question: "Do you want me to spend over a million dollars putting concrete on this ground or are you happy with compacted gravel?" And the answer to date from those two prospective tenants is "We're happy with compacted gravel, which will keep our rental down, keep your infrastructure down."

Adam:: Is bitumen in the middle?

Andrew:: Might be 900. So it goes 500 grand compacted gravel, 900 grand bitumen, 1.3 million concrete. So at the moment I'm going the Holden Commodore, not the Rolls-Royce. Because that's what the tenants are asking for.

Adam:: So you've thrown out a few numbers now. There's a potential 1.5 million dollar increase in equity?

Andrew:: It'd be about $1 million if I just do the hardstand. If I get a tenant that then says build the sheds, there might be another half a million dollar uplift by spending $1.1 million on the sheds. But I'd rather do the first bit — I can have a million dollar uplift by spending eight or 900 grand. That's a much better return than maybe an extra half a million going through all the hassle of building two sheds, which will take a lot of time and extra finance.

So I'm hoping I just actually do the first bit — million dollar uplift by spending eight or 900 grand, refinance, because my mate lent me on that one. Go to the bank and then I get the cheaper 6% interest on it. And just coming back to the timing — we haven't talked about it, but the timing is important because I went up to Hervey Bay a couple of weeks ago to talk to that gentleman who I bought those four sheds from. We're going to do a deal where I buy an extra couple of sheds from him, but if I spend my money buying those sheds, I don't have any money to build this truck depot. So I've said to him, "Look, are you in a hurry? Can you wait six months or so to sign a contract because I actually need the money to build something else?"

He said, "Yeah, no worries, I'm happy to wait." So instead of buying those sheds first, which wouldn't have any uplift because they're just passive ones, I'm putting the money first into this development to get the immediate uplift. Then I'll borrow against that and in six months time I'll drive back to Hervey Bay and buy those extra couple of sheds.

Adam:: Makes sense. That's the mindset. Alright, let's talk the timeframe then — the next probably nine to 12 months. When do you expect to get planning approval?

Andrew:: My hope is that my town planner will negotiate in the next week. SARA do not need me to refer this to them. And then the state government will just say, yep, we're right to go. You can just go ahead and then I'll get the approval next month, and then over the next six months, I just go and build this thing.

Adam:: The civil works get started.

Andrew:: Yeah, that's right. So that's my hope. But as we discussed in another podcast, I have another site in Helidon, which I'm getting approval for 15 units on. I've owned that for two years. And the town planner sort of — it was meant to be a three month process because we are dealing with the state. They're wanting to buy some of that land off me to expand the Warrego Highway. And as soon as you get the state involved, well guess what? You're talking two years minimum.

Adam:: Your timeline blows out, doesn't it?

Andrew:: So I'm hoping that we don't have to go down that track with this one.

Adam:: Yeah. So probably another really good takeaway for our listeners too. Always build into your risk profile on any deal the amount of time that could extend right out with approvals.

Andrew:: Absolutely.

Adam:: And be aware of it.

Andrew:: Good advice, Adam.

Adam:: See, I'm learning a few things here, aren't I?

Andrew:: Yeah, that's fantastic.

Adam:: Alright. Would there be anything that could happen that would accelerate you into wanting to go to stage two with concrete and sheds?

Andrew:: Oh, only one thing — that the tenant says, "Andrew, I need a shed." If you've got a good tenant and a tenant wants a shed, then I'll build it for them. Like Bigger Dairy, for example, up in Hervey Bay — they've said, "Andrew, you're gonna lose us if you don't give us more cold storage." I'm gonna do everything I can to build some more cold storage for them. I don't wanna lose a great tenant.

And next month, when NaVasca, the people who service cold storage facilities go up there, the guy's gonna have a look around the site and the little bit of spare land I've got there and he's gonna do a quote for me to build some extra cold storage for them. Of course I'm gonna do it because my tenant demands it.

Adam:: What's the biggest risk with this deal?

Andrew:: As I mentioned before, if the state government for some reason said that if there was a fire at these sheds down the track, the firefighting department, the state firefighting brigade, they wouldn't have enough water to put out these fires. You need to connect the public water mains to this site. That's probably about it.

Adam:: So what's plan B if that was to happen?

Andrew:: We're talking one in a hundred chance here. I'd go back to the council and say, look, you've zoned this for industrial use. Surely, okay, we're not gonna build the sheds. There's not gonna be a fire risk because all I'm gonna have is compacted gravel. There will be no sheds, so I'll prove it.

Adam:: Andrew, having done this whole series with you, I have absolutely no doubt you would find a way around it if that happens. But look, if someone is listening — what I've loved about this series is that most investors out there are always thinking residential. It's just what they know most about. But you've gone into regional industrial property. So what mindset shift does anyone out there need to make to move to that rather than residential?

Andrew:: Yeah, look, it is a mindset shift. At the end of the day, I'm only in these industrial areas because the ones around the Gold Coast are providing a 5% net return. They're so damn expensive. And when you're borrowing money at 6%, the numbers just don't work. So I'm forced to go regional because the Gold Coast is just too damn expensive.

But as far as the mindset goes of investors — resi versus commercial — you've gotta come back to my podcast one where I said that most commercial property is probably providing 6% net returns and houses, after you pay your rates and your insurances and maintenance and property management fees, they're probably providing 2% return. So commercial property is gonna produce three times higher returns.

So in theory, even right now I've got maybe 45 different tenants paying me rent right now, every week. In theory, I could have half of those properties empty, but because they're providing three times higher returns, I'd still be getting better cash flow than someone with 45 houses.

And that's where it allows you to not be so concerned about a one year vacancy with an empty block of land or something like that, because the other ones are making up the cash flow. That's the mindset shift.

Now, if you are just buying your first property, it's probably a good reason why you wouldn't just buy a commercial property first off, because if you have that one year vacancy upfront, you're gonna be shot forever. But if you can build a resi portfolio of maybe four or five, and then take a punt on commercial, you're gonna be okay. Because if you've got 10, 20, 30, 40 commercial properties and half of them went empty, which wouldn't happen, you'd still be better off than the resi guy with a hundred percent occupancy.

Adam:: It's great advice. And look, I want to take this opportunity to say to our listeners — doing this podcast, he genuinely wants to share his knowledge, his expertise at this different look at investing in property rather than the standard residential investment. So please do reach out. He's happy to talk to anybody. The email is [email protected]. Please do sign up on the website — there's gonna be newsletters and all sorts of things coming through. But this is for you. And if you're looking at a deal and you want Andrew to have a quick look over it, anything like that, please do reach out. He's here to help. This is what he wants to do. It is his passion. It's why we do this podcast.

Andrew:: Can I just expand on that, Adam? A mate of mine I had lunch with, he's a property developer. He said, "Andrew, why are you spending all the time doing these podcasts? You're not selling any courses. You're not selling mentorship. You're paying this guy, Adam, to produce these podcasts. What are you spending all this time for?"

And I said, well, first of all, I'm passionate about property and I just wanna help educate people. But secondly, I want people to see what I'm doing and come to me with joint ventures and go into deals with me. Thirdly, this guy is one of my private money lenders. If I can't find someone who wants to do a deal with me, they might trust what I'm doing and might want to lend me some money to buy further projects and I'll pay them a higher interest than money in the bank. And that's what I'm here for. I'm not here trying to sell something. I'm trying to build relationships where we can help each other.

Adam:: And you've made that crystal clear and we know from our chats outside of this that it's already starting to happen. So we implore you, reach out, talk to Andrew. That's what this podcast exists for. We're not selling courses as you said.

Andrew:: Not yet anyway. Down the track, if people demand it, that might change, but honestly, that's not my intention.

Adam:: Absolutely. So look, this kind of episode and deal is for serious investors — things you need to understand: staged development, industrial positioning, pre-leasing strategy, and looking at all the numbers.

So look, if you have enjoyed this episode, please share it. Hit the follow button so you don't miss any episodes. Reach out to Andrew. In the next episode, we're gonna unpack another live strategy and break down the numbers behind it. And I'm really looking forward to that one as well. Andrew, thanks so much for joining me, mate. I'm really enjoying this.

Andrew:: Thanks, Adam. And let me say to the viewers — we sorted out this podcast last night. We had a guest that was supposed to come in today. Yesterday he cancelled and postponed because something came up. So we only thought about this podcast last night. I put it together. So it's been a good one because when you say you're gonna do something every week and produce a podcast, Adam told me yesterday, he said, "Andrew, you need to come in because you say you're gonna do it. You have to do it." And that's why we're here.

Adam:: We're here. Thanks so much. See you on the next one.

Andrew:: Thanks, Adam. Thanks for listening to the Andrew Wright Property Podcast. This is all about building a community of like-minded investors who can share real life stories, experiences, and collaborate with a view to helping each other. Join us. Get in touch through the link in the show notes. I look forward to you joining me on the next episode.