Hi bob, sorry to hear about that mate, I can only imagine how frustrating it must be for you and the folks buying, or trying to buy, houses. Agree with all of what you say above..i'm frustrated because I believe in teh fundamentals of our economy, and while it's a bit dire for some, its not all as bad as its being made out to be. Of course compared to record highs and boom times a fall seems bad.. we've taken a right cross big time!! But we'll recover, get our hands back up, and keep punching and keep going forwards. It may take some time but we'll get there.
Anyway.. good luck Bob i'll keep some good wishes coming your way!
Cheers
Matt

attrill: i asked the same questions…. still waiting… 3 years later.. still waiting.. finding anyone who's been paid out over there is quite a task I find! i think some of the people who speak of successful students over there may mean one or two who have successfully managed to get an option over something. The confusion then arises as many think that's a ticket to a million bucks…when in reality it means very little… Its getting the DA, adding vlaue and then being able to sell it to someone or have an end buyer in place and people who'll deal with you, that's the key, this is when you can profit from it..not a lot of point in having the option if you don't have those other factors in place…at least in the development sphere…whether or not the profits occur to the tune Rolton claims is another matter.. especially in this market place. Loads of stock out there, overabundance of it in fact, not a lot of buyers for it.

Assumption is the mother of all mistakes and to assume anything about the project and the reasons behind the sales etc is probably not a good way forwards, especially if you're going to formulate plans based on that assumption. Unless you know something absolutely, from seeing it or hearing it first hand, or you can verify it legitimately, I'd be hesitant to assume the $30Mill write-off is in fact an accurate figure, or indeed a 'write-off'. They may have made a loss on inititial projections sure, (I don't know the area or project so I'm guessing outright) but it also may be a case of take a hill instead of a mountain of money, keep our creditors at bay and live to fight again another day.
Problem with NSW/VIC/TAS etc is the outflux of people to WA and QLD. 'Our' developers in Qld ( as John mentioned above) are starting to find two things: one is demand is still there up here for product and two, sadly they cant' find finance on-shore to finish their projects, which is where someone like me can potentially do something
Interesting viewpoint though wealthforlife, I don't think its a valid macro (national) viewpoint though, perhaps micro for NSW.. just my opinion of course.

Hi Polski23: my experiences and those of others with Massland are well documented, if not too well documented…. and I can't really offer more than what's been said already, but especially I'd suggest going over the post by Inthegame on page 1 of this post. I suggest you take that particular post to heart.

My only suggestion is that you ask for proof of all claims made, in written form (at least something that will then hold them legally liable for the claims they make if they turn out to be false or not) including company value, projects and location, referees from past students (in person, not something posted on a website as they can be faked). If you know a good lawyer tell them (massland) you want to do a 10A (I think that's the associated number) due dilligence inquiry on Massland and its associated companies before entering into a JV with them (have your lawyer look at that too by the way and see if it compels them to pay you anything at all)…..see what reaction you get. Its' standard risk management practice by the way if anyone tells you otherwise….If they can't or won't provide any kind of proof, you can ask yourself why that is, make your own judgements….. I've been blissfully ignorant of that lot for a while now and i'm quite happy with that. Things may have changed there, but my own opinion is probably not based on what I keep hearing and reading.

Having heard others experiences with trying to get money back I'd suggest a lot of  persistence is required and always remember that the media love a good story …I'm not advocating or suggesting you do that, that's entirely up to you..just something I hear once…..but be persistent and have a good lawyer at your disposal just in case.. otherwise they'll just keep ignoring and trying to upsell you.
Good luck.

Most important thing you can do at this point is investigate what sort of Development Approval you can get for the block, by speaking with Council Planning/Town Planning. Once you have an understanding of what you're allowed to, and not allowed to do, your next step would be to get some plans put together via an architect/engineer/builder. Once you have your project scoped out, then you can start to get pricing for construction via quantity surveyors etc. THEN you can start to think about whether you'd try for finance in which case you'd need to securitise or tip in some equity for the construction funding (and now wouldnt' be the best time to go looking for that as LVRs etc are changing rapidly) OR sell the site with the DA further down the track to someone else and let them have the headaches of construction. Of course feasibility studies are integral to all of this as well, such as factoring in completed value, construction costs, project marketing, holding costs etc etc etc ad nauseum..
Another useful thing to do is find out what the market wants from the real estate agents, and once you have an idea of the council's wants needs and desires via their town plan, you can then start to focus your project scope at something that will be more likely to attract buyers etc.
Good luck!

Poss.. sure, PM me here if you like.

Hi
I got a refund but only after they suspected I knew a lot more about them than they were comfortable with. I did not have to hand back any course materials either.
Hope that helps.

Agreed Michael good one. Munchkin. Most of what I have to say supports what "inthegame" says in the open forum. If you still feel you're unsure after going through the thread Michael has directed you to, PM me if you like.
cheers
Matt

Thanks Bob, kind of what I thought.. lots of large blocks of land coming onto the market via agents with blue sky price tags and loads of 'potential'.. if resi is in demand and the houses are being sold/occupied, then the cycle usually follows that commercial/industrial to support the new residents may be on the horizon..I'm not interested in buying an investment property there just to be clear, i'm more interested in development opportunities.
Thanks for the feedback, good to hear from someone on the ground.

borrowing at low interest and re-investing at high interest is known as a 'carry trade' (see the following for an explanation: http://www.economonkey.com/2007/09/01/an-explanation-of-the-carry-trade/) large financial institutions and banks have been doing it for decades with trillions of dollars. There is substantial currency risk involved. You can access it as a retail investor via standard currency trading platforms but the risks involved are significant.

Do your research.