Planning certainty
Adopted plan, pre-application decision or just an idea — easily 30 per cent of price between those stages.
Asset classes · Land
Land & development sites
With land you are not selling a building but what may be built on it. The price hangs almost entirely on planning status — and on how solid that status is.
We place building land, conversion and densification sites, industrial plots and areas with buildings due for demolition. Buyers are developers, housebuilders, long-term holders with in-house development teams and, increasingly, institutions entering earlier.
Valuation runs through the residual method: sales value of the planned scheme less construction cost, finance, sales and developer profit. What remains is land value. Simple in theory — every assumption in it is negotiable.
So we prepare sites in a way that leaves buyers little uncertainty to price in: clarified planning, contamination register, survey, servicing status. Every open question costs more in price than it would have cost to answer.
What we look at first
- Local plan, infill provisions or resolution stage
- Achievable gross floor area and permitted use
- Contamination register, ordnance and soil survey
- Servicing status and outstanding infrastructure charges
- Encumbrances, easements and rights of way
Key figures
- Lot size
- from EUR 2m
- Typical buyers
- Developers, housebuilders, long-term holders
- Pricing basis
- Residual value per sqm GFA
- Timeline
- 3 – 9 months
- Price structure
- Often with planning uplift clauses
Value drivers
What moves the price here
Achievable GFA
Price is thought of per square metre of floor area, not per square metre of site. A capacity study almost always pays.
Contamination and ground
Suspected sites without a survey attract blanket deductions. A soil report is cheap and removes the argument.
Servicing
Clearing outstanding infrastructure charges, connection costs and utility rights upfront ends the debate later.
Process
How a sale runs in this segment
- Step 01
Baseline research
Land register, encumbrance schedule, local plan and contamination register obtained.
- Step 02
Capacity study
Where useful, an architectural feasibility study that makes the achievable GFA credible.
- Step 03
Residual valuation
Price range built on realistic construction costs and sales values, with two or three scenarios.
- Step 04
Buyer approach
Developers who genuinely operate in that use and region — targeted, not broadcast.
- Step 05
Contract design
Price adjustment on planning achieved, rescission rights and payment triggers set out clearly.
From practice
What we see in real deals
Price in stages
Without final consent we often work with a base price plus an uplift per additional square metre of approved floor area. That bridges the valuation gap without either side carrying all the risk.
The municipality sits at the table
Planning agreements, affordable quotas, parking payments — talking to the authority early tells you what the buyer will have to shoulder, and lets you price it.
Existing buildings are not a drawback
An existing structure can carry grandfathered massing beyond what the local plan allows. We check that before anyone mentions demolition.
Questions
What owners ask us
The points owners raise before a mandate — answered the way we would in a first call.
Do you place sites without planning consent?
Yes. Prices are lower and contracts usually carry uplift clauses. Buyers are developers who want to run the planning process themselves.
How long does such a sale take?
With consent in place, three to four months. Without it, the municipality sets the pace — nine months is realistic.
What does a feasibility study cost?
A low five-figure sum depending on size. Measured against its price effect, usually the best investment in the whole process.
Asset classes
What we cover
We advise on real estate and corporate transactions from EUR 20m across Europe, with a clear focus on the DACH region. Every asset class has its own buyer universe – these are the segments we work in most often.
Thinking about selling in this asset class?
Send us the key figures — you get an honest read on price and buyer universe.