Balandra Development
Balandra Development is a leading developer of single family homes. With a vision to build high quality, sustainable houses, Balandra has served the Lower Mainland, B.C. market for more than 10 years.
“The product we put out is very high quality and is very desirable. We get excellent feedback,” Clive Alladin, President and COO of Balandra Development, told The Canadian Business Journal. “As a company, what sets us apart is our relationship with the municipal authorities, such as inspectors and planners who give nothing but positive feedback about Balandra in the way in which we do business.
“We care about the people who buy our homes and we try to foster a relationship with our buyers. We have relationships with people who have been living in our houses for 10 years where they can call us when they need us to help them out.”
Balandra recognizes that the cornerstone of its organizational success is the strong relationships that it builds with its home owners, lenders, suppliers, and tradespeople. In fact, much of its team has been part of Balandra since the company built its first home more than 10 years ago. Together with a great quality product, Balandra is on the forefront of the local home building industry.
“Our aftermarket service is what buoys us above everybody else. All of our tradespeople and suppliers know and understand their involvement when they work on a Balandra project – they need to be there and support the project,” Alladin detailed. “Our people understand the crucial need for interaction when homeowners have a need.”
Investment Attraction
As a relatively new entry to the home building business, Alladin also noted some of the challenges that the company has faced in making its mark in the industry. Balandra has the knowledge and ability to grow its business, but often faces the capital funding issues associated with such an industry. As a result, Balandra has made it a priority to attract further investment to the organization.
What draws investors to Balandra Development? The organization points to a selection of recent projects which have proven to be a strong return on investment, as well as the company’s recent win of a Georgie Award, presented by the Canadian Home Builders’ Association of British Columbia, which recognized a recent home building project, Balandra’s Dunlin Shore, as the best single family home in the 2,000-plus square feet, over $750,000 category. The Dunlin Shore project is the first geothermal home built for the open market in Richmond, B.C., situated on the picturesque west waterfront.
“We are well poised to attract investors. We feel that we need to do more of these projects in order to grow the volume and sales of the company,” Alladin summarized. “We have excellent notoriety in our community, so now is the time. Our challenge is to raise money through investors and our own resources to produce homes that we think will grow the company, provide us with a good return, and provide affordable and desirable homes in the marketplace.”
Sustainable Living
Balandra’s goal is to build 10 to 12 homes annually. Additionally, the company will typically construct one custom-build home project each year. While much of the company’s core focus is on single family homes, Balandra has also investigated opportunities with townhouses, row houses, and pocket neighbourhood developments. Clustered around a common area residence as well as green space, pocket neighbourhoods offer a quaint living environment with an exceptional sense of community and connectedness. Added bonuses like shared sustainable geothermal utilities promote environmental responsibility within the neighbourhood.
“We are focused on the affordable range, and we are also quite interested in doing business in a sustainable matter. We like to work in a very respectful way to the environment and everything around us,” Alladin concluded. “There is a desire for builders to be aware of what they do and how they do it, and whenever there are new innovations and new ways of doing things, costs are higher so there is always that balance between what is right for the environment going forward and having to maintain a business.
“We feel we have found a good compromise in producing products that are sustainable, desirable, and of high quality, with respect to the environment and in providing people with a safe and comfortable home.”
