For Paul Bitdorf providing affordable housing is more than a job, he says he’s living the dream.
Polish-born property developer Paul Bitdorf is living proof of what can be achieved simply through hard work and determination.
“There are only two things in life that really matter,” Mr Bitdorf said.
“Vision and determination. Once you’ve got those two you get wherever you want in life.”
For Mr Bitdorf, managing director of Australian Property Alliance, the parent company of affordable housing provider Niche Living, his first vision was simple, to get out of his native Poland.
The year was 1982, and Poland was under Communist control.
After graduating from Poland’s Lodz University that same year with a Masters degree in environmental engineering, Mr Bitdorf bribed his way across the border into Germany, where he could apply for migration to Australia.
With only the clothes on his back, Mr Bitdorf said he felt moving to Australia would give him the opportunity to pursue his dream of one day establishing his own business. Twelve months later, he was on his way.
Although he said the first year in Australia was the most difficult, Mr Bitdorf soon set about establishing a clear career path.
In the late 1980s he entered the property market with a diploma in real estate from Tafe, and began working on his own business plans and models.
By 2003 Mr Bitdorf was able to establish a business based on his own model of property development, Australian Property Alliance.
The next year Niche Living was born, as Mr Bitdorf set about realising his vision of a series of affordable residential developments in desirable and well established metropolitan suburbs.
Mr Bitdorf remembers that at the time, Niche Living was something of a pioneer in the property development industry.
“When we started and looked where we wanted to go, and were looking for a niche in the market which no one really takes care of, it became quickly obvious that it was affordable housing,” he said.
“Everyone was doing the fancy projects because nobody wanted to put their name on affordable housing.
“Today you’ve got everyone, all of the big developers, everyone is promoting affordable housing.
“Six years ago no one wanted to know about affordable housing, they were all building big apartments and big mansions and this was the ambition of every developer.
“For us it was different, we knew that that’s not where we want to go, we want to go into something that’s a business, but also adds an element of satisfaction because it does help people.”
Since establishing Niche in 2004, Australian Property Alliance has sold over 300 properties in Niche estates, from the original community in Bentley, to the latest releases in Armadale.
Niche communities in Kelmscott, Langford, Ballajura, Ferndale and Beechboro are all currently being developed, and APA now boasts more than $200 million worth of projects under its management.
“When we set up the business we very quickly recognised that affordable housing is going to be the huge issue in the coming years,” Mr Bitdorf said.
“The median house in Perth was going up day-by-day, and we were probably the first ones around who started to talk about affordability before it became so apparent.”
Despite this success, Mr Bitdorf still adheres to his original vision of providing high-quality affordable housing.
“I don’t want to seem clichéd here, but for us affordable housing is not only a means of making money, but something we do with a conscience, as people who want to provide that service,” he said.
“We sell affordable housing to a lot of first homebuyers; I remember we had a 19-year-old girl who wanted to buy a house for herself.
“I thought it was so incredible to see a 19-year-old girl sitting there saying she wanted to buy a house, but she couldn’t quite afford to buy the house, so we did everything that we could to adjust the price for her liking but it was still around $10,000 too expensive for her to get a loan.
“We said we’re going to take your photo and put you in our commercial and we dropped the price by $10,000 just purely to make sure that she got into the house.
“We truly see it not as a purely business venture, of course we have got 28 staff and quite a big operation so of course we have to make money, but by the end of the day its also the satisfaction of being able to get young people into their own houses, which I think, in Australian society and our way of living, is one of the more important things.”
Mr Bitdorf’s efforts in transforming the affordable housing market from basic, cheaply finished, and poorly located housing estates into desirable dwellings earned him a commendation as one of only five finalists at the National Ethnic Business Awards last month.
Mr Bitdorf said he chose to enter the awards to demonstrate the opportunities he had been able to capitalise on simply by moving to Australia.
The only Western Australian finalist, Mr Bitdorf said he felt humbled by the experience, but added the exposure from the awards ceremony in New South Wales would provide further opportunities to expand.
“I was really overwhelmed when I found out that out of 1,500 nominees to be nominated I was the only business from Western Australia and the only business out of all nominees in property,” he said.
“For our business it created more interest in what we’re doing, and it created interest over east.
“It might be something in 2010 that we will go to Sydney, have a look around and explore the possibility of going and doing Niche in Sydney.”
The dream machine
How would you like to be remembered?
As a guy who had fun.
What's the one thing about you that few people know?
I'm an open book, everyone that knows me knows about me. People who know me, they know me well.
What's your favourite thing about Perth?
It's a constant holiday, I've been enjoying this holiday for 25 years.
What would you do with a million dollars but only one day to spend it?
I would donate it to Princess Margaret Hospital Foundation.
What three items would you take to a desert island?
Three items, if that includes living things I would have to take my wife and my kids.
What's your top business tip?
Money will take care of itself if you look after other people.
Describe your professional style?
I think I am the most easy going person I know, my style in the business is at times probably a bit too casual, but that's fine, everyone who works here knows that we are very much friends.
If you could have dinner with four famous people from history, who would they be?
Ghandi, the Dalai Lama, Pope John Paul II and Peter Matera.