Planning brief / Apartment development
The unit mix is a market position expressed as a floor plan.
A disciplined way to balance demand depth, ticket size, absorption, efficiency, parking and value before the schedule hardens into design.
Published 2 July 2026 · Planning tool, not a market study · Validate every assumption locally.
Six tests
A mix must work in the market and in the building.
Optimising only revenue usually transfers risk into absorption, affordability, parking or design efficiency.
01
Demand depth
Who can actually buy or rent each product at the proposed ticket size—and how strong is the evidence?
02
Unit economics
How do size, price per square metre, total ticket, rent, service charge and buyer affordability interact?
03
Absorption
How many units of each type can the market absorb per month without relying on the same small customer pool?
04
Building efficiency
What happens to cores, circulation, frontage, wet stacks, balconies, structure and net saleable area?
05
Parking & amenities
Does the mix create parking, storage, lift, water, power, refuse, amenity and management obligations the site can support?
06
Revenue concentration
How much GDV or rental income depends on one unit type, one price band or one demand assumption?
Planning sequence
Move from evidence to architecture without pretending certainty.
01
Define the market position
State location, tenure, target household, use case, affordability band and competing supply before drawing the schedule.
02
Build a product evidence table
Record achieved comparables, asking stock, enquiries, transactions, rent, price, size, age, amenities and evidence quality.
03
Translate demand into a test mix
Allocate saleable area—not only unit count—then derive whole units, tickets, revenue, parking and absorption.
04
Test constraints and downside
Stress price, absorption, size, efficiency and product concentration; identify which unit type becomes the bottleneck.
05
Issue a design brief
Give the architect a range, stack logic and performance criteria—not a frozen schedule pretending to be architecture.
Decision rule
Do not optimise the mix before deciding what failure looks like.
Define the downside first: slower sales, lower rent, smaller buyer pool, more parking, lower efficiency, higher service charge or one product carrying too much revenue.
The preferred mix is the one that protects the project across several plausible futures—not simply the one with the largest spreadsheet GDV.
Use the tools together
Plan the hypothesis. Then test it live.
The workbook creates an auditable planning brief. The calculator lets you test revised shares quickly as design and market evidence change.
Questions / method
A planning brief, not a universal answer.
What is an apartment unit mix?
It is the allocation of unit count and saleable area across studios, one-, two-, three-bedroom or other apartment types. It shapes affordability, pricing, absorption, parking, design efficiency, revenue and operating complexity.
Should the mix with the highest GDV be selected?
Not automatically. A high-GDV mix can depend on slower, more expensive or thinner-demand products. Test revenue together with ticket size, evidence quality, monthly absorption, concentration risk and delivery constraints.
Should unit mix be fixed before concept design?
Set a market-led range early, then iterate with the architect and cost consultant. Structure, frontage, cores, wet stacks, parking and efficiency can materially change which mix is physically and commercially credible.
How often should the mix be updated?
At each evidence or design gate: site screening, concept, coordinated design, pre-sales or leasing launch, procurement and any material market shift. Record the date and source of every assumption.
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