Being a successful property developer in today’s market takes more than just a passion for the industry.
It takes innovation, surrounding yourself with a driven team and a commitment to mentoring the next generation – all things that Melbourne-based developer Michael Mai prides himself on.
Arriving in Australia from China when he was 15, Michael Mai has turned his passion for property into one of Melbourne’s most successful property development companies, with ICD Property boasting projects across Australasia with a value of $2 billion after only having been in operation for 10 years.
From incorporating innovation into every project, and working with partners that understand his and his team’s vision and internal family culture, Michael is a stand-out when it comes to the future of the industry, and he is consistently working to inspire and mentor the next generation.
In an interview with The Urban Developer, Michael shared his approach to success and how he is planning on shaping the industry throughout Australia and New Zealand.
TUD: When did you realise your passion for property and development?
MM: When I came here 20 years ago, I loved how beautiful Melbourne is, the culture and the people. That’s why I stayed here to start a family business. I realised that when people first see a property it’s like their first impression of a new city – almost like the face of the city – that’s why I believe property development is so important.
My journey in property development has come from my passion, and my desire to create buildings that stand the test of time. But, it has also been influenced by my culture with my mother being a Buddhist and my father being an entrepreneur.”
TUD: How have these cultural influences shaped your approach to development?
MM: I’ve pulled on these influences to create a company that captures the entrepreneurial spirit, while creating a family-like culture.
In our developments, we are very much trying to create benchmark projects without cutting any corners. We only develop projects that myself and the team would actually live in and this makes us consistently deliver projects that are of the highest quality for residents.
TUD: How is your approach to development different?
MM: I think we have two key points of difference, one being our belief in partnership and the other being our focus on innovation and entrepreneurialism.
With our partnerships, we are not just working really closely with our consultants, but all of our projects have a joint managing partner that are some of the leading companies from across the world.”
We partner up with people who are able to come up with better ideas, creating better outcomes for our developments.
This pairs well with our focus on innovation, and we even have an internal department called ‘Innovation Hub’ where they are focused on researching the latest designs, technologies, interesting contacts and ideas.
TUD: With a dedicated department, what types of innovation are you able to incorporate into your projects?
MM: One of our most exciting examples is our concept called HWKR, it’s a retail space under EQ Tower. We use it as an incubator for restaurants, so if someone is interested in opening a restaurant they can come and try their concept at HWKR. They come in, and stay for three to six months.
We provide them with payment systems, advertising of their business and let them really attempt and test their idea before launching a standalone restaurant of their own.
At the moment the concept is one year old and we have hosted two MasterChef winners, one My Kitchen Rules finalist, and this type of innovative project approach is really giving our company an edge as well as providing residents with a unique project experience.
At HWKR we have also just rolled out an AI project: ChatBot, and I have been told that we’re the first company to roll out this type of AI project in Australia in the food and beverage industry.
It enables people to ask questions and have them answered – either via phone or our ordering system. Whether it’s ordering food or problem solving, it’s all run by cognitive computing.
TUD: Why is it so important to combine property development with innovation and entrepreneurialism?
MM: It’s a part of what my family taught me. My family is quite entrepreneurial and from a young age I got to see how to use innovation to create an edge and to give a company a clear point of difference.
Innovation will also help us avoid delivering any ‘cookie-cutter’ projects while also giving back to the community, because we’re quite young as a team we want to make sure we leave a legacy.
Another example of our innovation is our Gen Fyansford project where we had some old silos on a neighbouring property and our team came up with the idea to paint over them.
We commissioned a locally born international artist to come and paint these giant silos in order to not only give back to the local artistic community but to give the residents of our development something unique and interesting to look out onto from their new home.
The Victorian government even used the painted silos as a gift to Meghan Markle and Prince Harry when they came out to Victoria on their Royal tour.
It was a huge commission for the artist, as well as creating an innovative point of difference for our project.”
TUD: What mistakes have you made on your journey to becoming a national company possessing roughly $2 billion worth of projects?
MM: The key lessons I’ve learned is that in the early years we were like any other start-up and we quickly learned that we needed to create a good internal culture.
When we first started the culture was pretty bad and we discovered that we wanted a sense of family, innovation and that entrepreneurial spirit to come through, and that’s what we’ve created now.
Alongside ensuring that we had the right culture inside our business, earning trust and respect externally was also crucial for us as a young company competing against the established companies.
We needed to prove ourselves and continue proving ourselves to get to where we are today.
TUD: Which project has been the most fulfilling for you and your team?
MM: Of course, I would say all of them. But, for me, I think the big project I’m always focused on is working with our people to build a good culture – due to the early lessons I learnt.
I’m much more focused on finding passionate people and matching those people with a project they’re just as passionate about.”
I don’t even pick projects, every time we come across an opportunity, the first thing we do is ask our development team: ‘who’s passionate about this?’
If no-one is passionate about it, no matter how much money we could make, we don’t bid on it. But, if there is someone who is passionate about it, I don’t micro-manage them and they’re able to do their best work.
I’m proud of all of the projects we have. We have received a lot of awards for past projects, and we have two projects coming up for awards as well. We’re the finalist for PCA for our Hawthorne Maple project for Best Residential Development, and our HWKR concept is a finalist for project innovation.”
TUD: If you had your time over, would you do anything differently?
MM: I would say that I wouldn’t do anything differently, because all of the early learning, mistakes and early difficulties keep us humble. But, given our learnings we want to help others– that’s why we give back by mentoring lots of young professionals.”
My deputy managing director, Sal Quah, just recently joined the Property Council of Australia (PCA) Future Direction Committee, where they’re focused on giving young professionals under 35 more advice on how to really succeed in the field.
TUD: Alongside mentoring young professionals, what else do you do to give back to the community?
MM: It starts with our developments – we look at each of these as an opportunity to enhance the local community and the way people can interact and engage more.
From the philanthropic perspective of the business, we started MAI Foundation five years ago. When I first started the company I promised my mother that once it stabilised we would start to give back, and now MAI Foundation is focused on social enterprise.
We partner with YMCA supporting local youth and YGAP (which is a great social enterprise incubator in Africa and South East Asia).
We also run a social enterprise café in HWKR and give back to the local community through charity events. Recently, our team attended a great event called ‘Housing of Australians’, who are trying to help solve the homeless issue. The event managed to raise over $250,000.
TUD: Finally, what’s next for ICD Property?
MM: At the moment we’re shaping the family office to be more and more professional. We just appointed Matt Khoo as our managing director and he is running the land development company.
For ICD Property, we’re continually trying to diversify and look for great opportunities. We’re not just in Melbourne, we’re in Sydney, Adelaide and Auckland and now we’re expanding beyond just residential to include retail and hotels.”
For me, personally, I want to keep building the family business and keep contributing to the multi-cultural aspects of Australia. This year, we have sponsored an event in Melbourne called Light Up Melbourne Festival. It’s originally from Sichuan Province in China and their lantern festival has been rated World Heritage.
This international event is coming to Melbourne for the first time and we’re really proud to help bring this to the people of Melbourne and Australia.
We’re excited to be a part of events like this that give people a reason to get out and be with their family, neighbours and foster a real sense of community and togetherness.”
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