Roaring success in luxury property development: Val de Vie founder shares his strategy

Many of the richest people around the world have built - and lost - fortunes in luxury property development. In South Africa, Martin Venter is the brains behind the hugely successful Val de Vie Estate, which features distinctive homes set against majestic mountains and offering a vast array of facilities and leisure activities - from golf to swimming. Venter is a lawyer who switched to property development to follow his dream career. He spoke to BizNews editor-in-chief Alec Hogg about some of the lessons he has learnt on how to make, and avoid, losing money in the real estate arena. In this podcast, the Val de Vie developer shares insights on how to cater for that elusive top end of the world's most affluent, offering ideas on branding as well as the finishing touches, such as facilitating organic produce for residents' dinner tables. As was the case for South African hotel legend Sol Kerzner, for Venter business success lies to a large degree in thinking through the finer details. - Jackie Cameron