property development course

The course covers the complete property development process: finding and appraising sites, raising development finance, navigating the UK planning system, managing the build, and exiting profitably — taught through Henry Davis's own completed projects.

The programme is structured to mirror the life of a real development, because that's how you'll actually use it. It starts with strategy and site finding: what kinds of projects suit your capital and experience, how to find opportunities (including off-market), and how to assess an area properly. It then moves into deal appraisal — the discipline that separates professionals from hopefuls — covering build costs, end values, finance costs and profit margins, so you can tell a genuine opportunity from an expensive mistake before you commit. From there it works through funding options (mortgages, bridging and development finance, joint ventures), the planning system (permitted development rights, full applications and how to de-risk them), and running the build itself: contractors, budgets, timelines and the problems every project throws up. Finally, it covers your exit — selling, refinancing or holding — and how to roll one project's profit into the next, so a single successful development becomes the foundation of a lasting business.

No experience is needed. The course is designed to take complete beginners to the point of confidently appraising and pursuing their first development, and it works equally well for landlords and investors stepping up into development.

Property development has no formal entry requirements in the UK, and neither does this course. What matters is seriousness of intent, because the course is practical rather than academic — you'll be learning to run numbers on real deals, understand finance products and make development decisions, not memorising theory for a test. Complete beginners typically get the most dramatic transformation: the course replaces guesswork and television-fuelled assumptions with a professional's method for assessing opportunities. Existing landlords and buy-to-let investors use it to make the step up from owning property to developing it — a different discipline with different risks, where the appraisal and finance modules do the heavy lifting. Tradespeople and construction professionals often find it fills the other half of their knowledge: they understand the build better than anyone, but not the land acquisition, finance and planning side where developments are really won or lost. Whatever your starting point, you'll follow the same proven process Henry uses on his own projects.

A property development course is worth it when it's taught by an active developer with a verifiable track record — because avoiding a single first-project mistake typically saves many times the course fee. Generic certificate courses and hype-driven seminars are usually not worth it.

It's a fair question, because the UK property training market has a credibility problem. At one end sit cheap online certificates that recycle freely available information into slides; at the other sit seminar companies selling lifestyle dreams, aggressive upselling and 'secret formulas'. Industry commentators consistently advise the same filter: check the trainer has actually developed property, is still active in the market, and can show you real projects and real student outcomes. This course passes that filter by design. It's built on Henry Davis's own developments — documented on the portfolio page — and it teaches the unglamorous skills that actually protect your money: conservative deal appraisal, realistic build budgeting, finance structuring and planning strategy. Set the cost against the alternative: first-time developers routinely lose five-figure sums to a mispriced site, an underestimated build or a doomed planning application. Measured against that, structured training from a working developer is one of the cheapest risk reductions available.

Less than most people assume. Development and bridging finance typically fund a large majority of project costs, so your capital mainly covers the deposit, fees and contingency. The course shows you how to structure and fund a realistic first project.

The widespread belief that you need hundreds of thousands in cash keeps many capable people out of development unnecessarily. In practice, specialist lenders exist precisely to fund development: bridging and development finance commonly covers a substantial share of purchase and build costs, with your own capital covering the balance, professional fees and a sensible contingency. The exact figures depend on the project type — a light refurbishment needs far less capital than a ground-up build — which is why the course spends serious time on matching your first project to your actual resources rather than your ambitions. It also covers how lenders assess you and your deal, what makes a proposal fundable, and how joint ventures and private investment can bridge genuine gaps once you can appraise deals credibly. What no honest trainer will tell you is that you can start with nothing: development requires capital, commitment and risk tolerance. What you'll learn here is how to make the capital you do have go as far as it safely can.

The course is designed to fit around a job and family life, so you can work through it at a pace that suits you — and return to each module as your own project reaches that stage. For current format and enrolment details, get in touch via the contact page.

The structure reflects how first-time developers actually operate: most start by building their knowledge and their first deal alongside existing commitments, not by quitting work on day one. Rather than racing to a finish line, the recommended approach is to work through the modules in order first, then treat the course as a working reference: when you're appraising your first site, go back through the appraisal material with your real numbers; when you're preparing a planning application, revisit the planning module with your actual scheme in front of you. Development projects unfold over months, and the course is built to be at your side throughout that journey rather than consumed once and forgotten. Because format, intake and access details are kept current on the enrolment side, the simplest way to check the specifics — delivery format, how long you'll have access, and what support is included — is to ask via the contact page before you enrol. You'll get straight answers, not a sales script.

This course is taught by a working property developer, not a professional trainer. Every module is drawn from developments Henry Davis has personally delivered — including what went wrong — so you learn how development works in practice, not in theory.

Most UK property courses fall into two camps. Certificate platforms sell generic content written by course authors who have never bought a site, secured development finance or fought a planning refusal. Seminar businesses are often led by marketers whose main income is selling courses rather than developing property. The practical difference shows up exactly where it costs you money: a theoretical course can define a development appraisal, but it can't show you a real one that nearly went wrong and how the numbers were rescued. Henry can — and does. The course is built project by project from his own portfolio, which you can inspect on the portfolio page, and it includes the uncomfortable lessons most trainers edit out: the deals he walked away from, the budgets that slipped and what he changed as a result. There are no lifestyle promises, no staged photographs and no pressure-selling — just the working method of an active UK developer, structured so you can apply it to your own first project with confidence.