By: Matthew Kayser
Craig McDermott isn’t chasing headlines. He’s building them, one subdivision at a time. The founder of CJAM Group has assembled a pipeline of more than 1,100 homes across southeast Queensland. It’s a quietly ambitious undertaking that reflects something rarer than capital or connections: patience rooted in a genuine understanding of how markets tend to move.
Craig McDermott grew up in Queensland in a household shaped by construction. His father worked in the trade, and that early exposure gave him a working knowledge of how projects are conceived, how they flow, and where they can fall apart. Even as he went on to a career in professional cricket and later coaching, that foundation stayed with him. When Craig McDermott returned to property development in 2019, he didn’t arrive with a grand vision or a mandate to scale. He started with 13 lots and focused on getting the fundamentals right.
That discipline has gradually compounded. CJAM Group now operates several concurrent developments, including three in Toowoomba and a large-scale project in Hervey Bay. Together they form a pipeline set to deliver more than a thousand homes over the coming years. The company has also applied for its Australian Financial Services Licence, a move that signals real progress and opens the door to more structured investment partnerships.
Building Where the Infrastructure Already Exists
The strategic logic behind Craig McDermott’s site selection is deliberately straightforward. Toowoomba’s appeal is not speculative. Several of CJAM Group’s projects sit within close proximity to a $3.6 billion hospital redevelopment. That kind of committed infrastructure investment reshapes regional economics by attracting population, services, and long-term demand.
“You don’t need to guess when the shift is already happening,” McDermott says. “You just need to be positioned correctly.”
The same logic plays out in Hervey Bay. At Fraser Sands, a significant portion of homes were sold before construction had even commenced. Early buyers have already seen some price appreciation across later stages, and demand has continued to build as the project matures.
His broader thesis on southeast Queensland is similarly simple. The population is growing. Infrastructure investment is already committed. Supply is failing to keep pace in key corridors. That combination creates an opportunity that doesn’t require prediction, only observation.
“We’re not chasing trends,” he says. “We’re building where the fundamentals are already in place.”
A Manufacturing Approach to Homebuilding
Beyond location, what distinguishes CJAM Group’s projects is methodology. Craig McDermott’s developments use a controlled production model where homes are constructed off-site in a purpose-built facility. They’re completed internally within six to eight weeks, then transported and installed on site. The approach sidesteps many of the variables that routinely affect project timelines, including weather exposure, labor gaps, and site complications.
His building partner spent years researching the method before committing to it at scale. That level of due diligence matters to McDermott. Innovation without reliability is just noise.
Risk Distribution as Core Doctrine
Central to how CJAM Group operates is the deliberate distribution of risk. Rather than concentrating exposure in a single project or funding relationship, the business is structured across multiple developments and multiple capital sources. It’s a framework designed for resilience, not just return.
The application for an Australian Financial Services Licence extends this logic further by enabling more formalized investment structures and the kind of governance that serious capital partners increasingly require.
A Business Built to Last
There is also a more personal dimension taking shape within CJAM Group. Craig McDermott’s son recently joined the business after completing studies in project management. McDermott is careful not to frame it as legacy, but the presence of the next generation adds a different quality of intention to what he’s building.
“The market keeps moving,” he says. “You see how quickly things change, especially for younger buyers trying to get in.”
For Craig McDermott, that reality only reinforces the principles he has operated by since day one. Timing. Discipline. Execution. No overcomplication and no trend-chasing. Just building where the fundamentals are already in place and doing it properly.
