Increasing Demand for Property Lawyers in Australia

Recently, there has been shortage of construction and property lawyers in Australia, particularly on the east coast. Hence this has put much pressure on firms that deal with cases involving property law, leaving them desperate for property lawyers. According to Richard Abbott, who is also the head of property at Holding Redlich, the construction and property sector has been busy since it got well-established in 2006. Richard also said that he is expecting the trend to continue in the next one year since the construction and property industry is experiencing tremendous growth which will commence for the next 12 months. “Obviously, with the differentials across the states, I think the construction and property sector will remain strong,” he said. “The lawyers that will be lucky to get a foot on government projects will remain busy and generally, the construction and property lawyers will have no time to waste, since they will be busy working on property cases here and there.”

However, on the other hand, Mr. Abbott has raised an alarm to firms in Australia that property lawyers are inadequate hence they should not be fast in expanding their practices to handle legal matters in the construction and property industry. In his view, Richard thinks that the current talent pool was brought by the slowdown in the sector during the GFC limited. “The demand for property lawyers went down after the GFC, hence the construction and property industry automatically became quiet,” he said. “No one went into property and there was no much property activity for a long period.” Therefore, that’s the main reason why many firms in Australia are desperate for property lawyers while there are few lawyers with expertise in property law.

According to Nick Holuigue, a development and property partner at Maddocks, the outlook is considered the same because they are also in need of property lawyers due to the busy market which is promising and booming. Mr. Holuigue also suggested that his firm is particularly on the search for lawyers who are ready to work with investors who are from foreign countries, including China and Singapore. It’s all about advising the foreign investors on how they can relate their business with the cultural differences that they might encounter in regards to the manner of doing business and their needs. “For instance, our law firm is hiring more lawyers who speak Chinese,” he said. “The reason behind this is because our team’s practice has a good number of property clients from overseas.”

Another important factor that property lawyers need to understand is that they should be well-familiarised with the market knowledge and cross-border expertise in order to help clients who are not familiarised with the conditions in the local industry. In addition, it is important that they understand the designing investment structures that work internationally and the challenges faced by international investors. Also, they need to explain to the investors how the local market works, touching on the fundamentals of Australian real estate. This will help give the foreign investors a good insight of the local market and how the risks and returns look like.