When Jennifer Sinclair turned her architecture expertise toward the creation of her family home, she never anticipated it would evolve into a ground-up project due to its sordid meth lab history. That unexpected twist propelled her on an odyssey into property development, culminating in the inception of Comma Projects. In our latest episode, we sit with this trailblazing entrepreneur to discuss how she's reshaping the industry with her heartfelt approach to creating living spaces that resonate emotionally. Jennifer reveals how she turned a hurdle into a record-breaking success via strategic social media marketing, selling the Laya Development project and proving that an intimate understanding of the market, coupled with personal branding, can lead to phenomenal results.
As the conversation flows, Jennifer delves into the ethos of Comma Projects, where design meets the human touch, crafting homes that are both distinctive and deeply personal. She lays bare the challenges she faced—navigating skepticism in a male-dominated field and the solitude of solo entrepreneurship—while emphasizing the power of community and mindset shifts in managing professional dynamics. This episode is a treasure trove of insights for anyone intrigued by the balance between individuality and financial success in property design. Jennifer's commitment to creating emotionally engaging, affordable homes is a clarion call to developers everywhere: Exceptional design is not just for the elite; it's for every home that touches the heart.
You can find Jennifer Sinclair of Comma Projects HERE.
When Jennifer Sinclair turned her architecture expertise toward the creation of her family home, she never anticipated it would evolve into a ground-up project due to its sordid meth lab history. That unexpected twist propelled her on an odyssey into property development, culminating in the inception of Comma Projects. In our latest episode, we sit with this trailblazing entrepreneur to discuss how she's reshaping the industry with her heartfelt approach to creating living spaces that resonate emotionally. Jennifer reveals how she turned a hurdle into a record-breaking success via strategic social media marketing, selling the Laya Development project and proving that an intimate understanding of the market, coupled with personal branding, can lead to phenomenal results.
As the conversation flows, Jennifer delves into the ethos of Comma Projects, where design meets the human touch, crafting homes that are both distinctive and deeply personal. She lays bare the challenges she faced—navigating skepticism in a male-dominated field and the solitude of solo entrepreneurship—while emphasizing the power of community and mindset shifts in managing professional dynamics. This episode is a treasure trove of insights for anyone intrigued by the balance between individuality and financial success in property design. Jennifer's commitment to creating emotionally engaging, affordable homes is a clarion call to developers everywhere: Exceptional design is not just for the elite; it's for every home that touches the heart.
You can find Jennifer Sinclair of Comma Projects HERE.
Hi there, welcome to the Creating Australia podcast. My name is Jessica Reynolds and I'm a private town planner and business owner based in Queensland. I'm passionate about engaging with the amazing people that make the property and development industry what it is today. In Creating Australia, I want to learn from experts in the industry and share their knowledge and wisdom with you. In each episode, we'll talk with different people and unpack their past experiences and innovative ideas for the future. Join me now for an episode of Creating Australia where we dive into the industry, exploring local stories, projects, businesses, people, ideas and more.
Jessica Reynolds:Today, I am thrilled to introduce a woman who is making waves in the industry Jennifer Sinclair, the founder and director of Comma Projects, based in Queensland's Gold Coast. Jennifer is not just a property developer. She is an architecture graduate, a visionary and a mother of two who has successfully navigated the challenges of taking a project from idea to sale. She has quickly established her credibility and is now a respected figure in the field. Her recent maiden project, the Layla Development at Palm Beach, is a testament to her strategic approach. This project, which includes two luxury duplexes, villa A and Villa B, filled a gap in the local market between beachfront apartments and duplexes. Villa A set a record for the highest price ever paid for a non-waterfront duplex in the sought-after suburb, selling in just 14 days for $2.41 million. Jennifer believes in creating properties that evoke emotions and appeal to potential buyers. She understands that it's often women who make the decision to buy a property and she designs with this in mind.
Jessica Reynolds:Join me now as we discuss Jennifer Sinclair's projects, her unique perspective on property development and architecture in Australia. Thank you for joining me, jen. Thank you so much for having me, jen, I guess. First things first. I want to understand a little bit more about your background. You obviously have a background in architecture, but why the big jump to property development? So it seems natural to maybe people outside of the industry to you know, be an architect, work with projects every day and then become a developer, but that's actually quite a big leap. What inspired you to enter this field? What inspired me I?
Jenn Sinclair:don't know if I was inspired by anything specific. I think we're just growing up and always being taken to open homes and, having my dad and my uncle both very interested in property, I just naturally thought that's just something that we do. Yeah, growing up, one day I'll just, you know, invest in property. But yeah, like you say, it does seem like a big leap. But I think to us back four years ago, when we first decided to build our first family home, it just seemed like the no-brainer thing to do, like, rather than put our money into another property investment, we'll actually put that money into something that could serve us as a family. And so we thought, well, why not, why not build our next family home? And so we did and we went from.
Jenn Sinclair:It was basically a major renovation, not so much a knockdown rebuild that was the plan anyway. But turns out that we found out the framing that was left of that house that was sitting there for like quite a number of years. What used to be was a meth lab. A number of years, what used to be was a meth lab. And because we straightaway ordered as soon as we found out, we straightaway ordered a meth test and it was still highly positive. There were still traces of the meth sitting on the frame, and so, because of that, the building certifier allowed us to pull down those walls that we were originally planning to as part of the renovation. So the only thing, basically, that we were left with of the original house was the slab, flat and um. So technically it's still considered a? Um, a renovation and addition rather than a knockdown rebuild. But yeah, everything else was pretty much start from scratch and for that particular site.
Jessica Reynolds:When you say that the certifier let you pull down the framing, your property wasn't protected on any character or heritage requirements, was it?
Jenn Sinclair:no, no, we're, I guess um on being on the gold coast.
Jessica Reynolds:Uh, there's not really that many um old or old buildings for it to be heritage know that they cannot just go and demolish any house and have their certifier signed off on it. If there has been a meth lab, it can't be a protected home.
Jenn Sinclair:Yes, yes, don't act hastily like we did.
Jessica Reynolds:So that was a pretty big steep learning curve, then building that first family home, and then you've gone into the Layla project and then you've gone into the Layla project. Layla, to me, stands out in the sense of you did document that journey online through Instagram. I'm not sure if you do TikTok, I'm not on there, so I'm assuming it's mostly just Instagram. What was that about? There's a very like strong aesthetic design to Layla and to your Instagram channel. Was that a? There's a very like strong aesthetic design to Layla and to your Instagram channel. Was that a strategic approach?
Jenn Sinclair:Well, I actually started that account back when I was building our family home four years ago. I thought I'd be cool to like separate it, but I didn't really quite document that first house build as much as I'd like, just because I was a bit embarrassed about it. I didn't want to pull out my phone while I was outside. But then, literally as soon as I finished building that family home, all these renovation and house build accounts blew up on social media. And house build accounts blew up on social media and I was like, damn, I really should have, um, did a little bit more of that like showcasing the actual journey of the house build.
Jenn Sinclair:So this build for the layer development, I went into it, um, very intentional, but it it was also more about really wanting to show every facet that comes with building, not even just developing a set of duplex, but even just, yeah, anything to do with construction, building your home renovation. Like I wanted it to be relatable to a lot of women out there in particular, just to really understand how much really goes into building every pretty picture that you see in the magazines. We're bombarded every day with all these beautiful photos on Pinterest and social media, but people aren't often aware that behind every photo, there's literally like 2,000 decisions that had to be made to create that photo, to be made to create that photo. Yeah, so that was always at the forefront of my thinking, really just to let everyone know how much is involved, what goes wrong, what goes well and, yeah, just to bring people along the journey every single step of the way.
Jessica Reynolds:And what do you do? You feel like there's a return on investment of the time that you put into that social media. Obviously, you didn't start it with an intention of any commercial benefit, but I guess, from my own experiences, have there been new connections made new business opportunities?
Jenn Sinclair:Have you been able to find, say, I believe you may have found a real estate agent through socials, or maybe, maybe I'm not sure yeah, when you say return on investment, I do often ask that question myself, um, but I think for me, my whole intention and my goal from the beginning was more to create a platform to help others.
Jenn Sinclair:It was never a business, but I am now seeing how many women out there are actually interested and the amount of women who have reached out to me since this has all been finalised and built.
Jenn Sinclair:How many of them have reached out and said, like, seeing your journey has inspired me so much to actually kick myself into gear and whether it was starting what they'd been dreaming of, like starting their renovation, or even finishing their renovation, or even just to give them the confidence themselves to have that conversation with the trades, or, yeah, like little little, it's been little sprinkles here and there and I think that to me, ultimately is is a winner. That's the gap. That was the aim and the goal of me sharing my journey so that, um, other women can feel empowered to do the same and, um, yeah, and I think that's what the platform is basically for me and you know I also personally enjoy a bit of video editing. Anyway, like, going through school, I always enjoyed the multimedia subjects and playing around with software and technology. It's also a bit of fun on the side, so yeah, but it I also now see it as investing in my own marketing for for the brand comma projects.
Jessica Reynolds:So there's a future for comma projects.
Jenn Sinclair:Yes yes, and that's, I think that's the whole reason I called it Comma Project, because developing layer fillers as well as developing our family home. I honestly cannot say that I've done anything else in my life that has brought me so much joy, and I just know that that is where my passion lies, in developing homes, and I just I wouldn't want it to stop. Like comma it signifies that it's a comma, like it's not a full stop, that there will be more projects to come. So that's how, that's where comic projects originated.
Jessica Reynolds:That's really good to hear. So obviously there's a future. You've learned, you've done two projects now. One was a development project, one was your family home. What have been the biggest challenges in doing those projects, or maybe just with leila? What was your biggest challenges and what have you learned from that process that maybe you would or wouldn't do on the next project?
Jenn Sinclair:yeah, If I'm honest, very early on during planning stages, I did get a fair bit of disrespect, I guess, from consultants. I was made to feel like I was just another number at a fish and chip shop and I was even asked the question are you even going to be able to build this thing?
Jessica Reynolds:Did that make you like resolve to just get done even more?
Jenn Sinclair:a little bit, but when I was going through it it was really quite disappointing to be treated the way I was and and know it might have just been a personality misfit or everyone is busy, so I get it. You can't, you know, bend over backwards to every single client's timelines and wishes.
Jenn Sinclair:But yeah, there was definitely a level of disrespect there in terms of they're probably had no idea who I was. I probably just knocked on their door looking like just another, like hopeful mum and dad investor trying to have a crack at this, which I was, you know. But yeah, I definitely it brought on a lot of anxiety, to be honest, and how did you overcome that then?
Jessica Reynolds:Is it just by just keep moving?
Jenn Sinclair:Yeah, yeah, I think that was also quite a pinnacle moment for me to realize that I really need to get myself around other people who are doing similar things, because another massive challenge for me with with layered development was that you know you see a lot of husband and wife teams or like business partners doing it together, but I didn't. I guess that was a luxury that I didn't have for this project. My husband is in a different, complete, like completely different field, so developing layer was solely my, my project, my baby and I had me myself and I. And so that's when I, yeah, just realized that it can be a very lonely game and realize the importance of fishing out those trusted people who are in the same field, doing something similar, who understand what you're going through, and or even just to talk some sense into you and say, hey, it's actually not that bad or well, what if you tried to approach it like this or say, say it like this?
Jenn Sinclair:At the end of the day, it was basically a mindset shift as well for myself. Um, just thinking, you know, just gonna either put my big bill pants on and have have real and honest conversation with the consultants or, um, just ride it out and just learn from it and know to. You know that particular consultant might not be the best fit moving forward for my next projects, but also, you know, grateful for the experience, because if I hadn't been put in that situation then I wouldn't have learned to next time to be upfront and specific before I choose to engage with anyone. What my expectations are yeah, in terms of communication and timelines.
Jessica Reynolds:That's really helpful advice, I think, for anyone looking to move forward.
Jessica Reynolds:So one thing that I wanted to end this on was the other day, all places I was at the butcher and there was this man. It's not verified whether or not he was a successful property developer or not, but he was actually lecturing the butcher shop employees about how to do property development and he was saying I was listening to this whole thing very with great interest and his thing he said that most property developers go wrong with is that they put their heart and soul into the design of a building when they really should just be making something that has no personality and selling it. And I feel like you would have a strong opinion on this. I personally have a strong opinion on it. I understand that he was trying to be business savvy. I understand that not everyone's taste is the same, but I personally don't want to live in a world where people are developing and designing and building things with no personality. That's a very boring world. What is your take on that if you had to sit down and have a conversation with this guy?
Jenn Sinclair:Yeah, like I mean I totally understand where he's coming from because at the end of it, like it is a numbers game and if the numbers don't stack up, there will there won't be another project to go on to. You know, in the sale figure, like everything has to work. But in saying that it doesn't mean that I guess, coming from an architecture and design background, that it doesn't mean that I guess, coming from an architecture and design background, it doesn't mean that good design needs to cost an arm and a leg. I was just sitting at last week at International Women's Day, I was sitting in Australian Institute of Architect event where they talked about good design should be more accessible. You shouldn't have to pay millions of dollars just to get something well designed.
Jenn Sinclair:Like design impacts us every single day, on a daily basis, and I think that's why I've kind of set myself a mission and a vision for Comma Projects to deliver something that is unique Not just unique and one of a kind, but also not disregarding developing something that is as simple as of the correct orientation.
Jenn Sinclair:Of the correct orientation, or don't deprive end users of natural sunlight and breezes, or just, or build something that is being surrounded by all these great big buildings looming over your balcony space or your swimming pool. Population growth is inevitable but there are ways around that to still make the end user feel good when, when you walk into a space and and I think that's why that's also why I was very big on not culling out too many of those moments or spaces in layer villas where it did evoke those emotions and pull on those heartstrings. Because when you think of some way to call home like you want that home to make you feel relaxed, you know a sense of calm and peaceful, and I just really wanted for lay villas and for every future comma project development to have those elements where good design is accessible for the end users that is some really good advice to end on.
Jessica Reynolds:Thank you so much, jen, for joining us. I'll make sure that all your details are in the show notes. Yeah, thank you so much for having me, jess.