01
Site capacity
Can the site physically and legally hold the development being imagined?
- Plot size and boundaries
- Access, frontage, slope, and services
- Planning controls, setbacks, parking, and height
- Gross-to-saleable efficiency range
Free checklist
Check the development case before you open the model.
A pre-feasibility checklist for deciding whether a site has enough evidence to justify full modelling, design work, or investment committee time.
Purpose
A quick gate, not a full model.
The checklist is meant to slow down false certainty. It asks for enough evidence to identify whether the site should move to modelling, redesign, renegotiation, or a clean no.
Best used before
Land offer / IC memo / design brief
Five feasibility gates
The minimum useful question set
Evidence / decision
02
Market evidence
Is there enough demand evidence to support the proposed product, price, and absorption?
- Comparable sale or rental evidence
- Buyer or tenant profile
- Competing supply and active pipeline
- Realistic absorption or lease-up pace
03
Cost reality
Are the cost assumptions specific enough to avoid a false positive?
- Construction cost per m² benchmark
- Professional fees and statutory costs
- Infrastructure, utilities, and abnormal works
- Contingency and escalation allowance
04
Capital path
Can the project survive the timing of cash out before cash comes back?
- Land payment terms
- Pre-construction and approval timeline
- Debt drawdown conditions
- Peak equity requirement and funding source
05
Return threshold
Does the development still work after margin, risk, and downside sensitivity?
- Profit on cost and margin on GDV
- Residual land value or land value support
- Price and cost sensitivity
- Go / pause / redesign decision
Evidence register
The checklist asks for proof, not confidence.
The useful move is not to make every answer perfect. It is to show which assumptions are evidenced, which are provisional, and which are doing dangerous work.
Title / ownership
Copy of title, ownership trail, encumbrances, land rent/rates status.
Planning
Zoning, permissible use, density, parking rules, approvals pathway.
Area schedule
Early GFA, NSA, parking, common areas, and efficiency assumptions.
Pricing
Comparable asking and achieved prices, age of comps, location adjustment.
Cost
QS benchmark, contractor benchmark, recent comparable project, escalation view.
Programme
Approvals, design, procurement, construction, sales or lease-up timeline.
Capital
Equity source, debt terms, pre-sale rules, interest rate, fees, repayment logic.
Red flags
Signals that the project needs a pause.
01
The model needs a premium price but the product is ordinary.
02
The land value only works if construction cost stays perfectly flat.
03
Efficiency is assumed before the architect has tested parking, cores, and services.
04
Debt is assumed before pre-sale or covenant conditions are understood.
05
The strongest sensitivity case is described as the base case.
Free working resource
Use it before a site visit, land offer, or investment memo.
Download the printable PDF or the editable Excel workbook. The spreadsheet version can also be imported into Google Sheets.