The essentials for small- and medium-sized developers that are looking to start, or scale, their business from a solid foundation of tried and tested methods, processes and strategies.

Successful developers invest time, effort and money to understand the fundamentals of the business; Process, People, Product and (Market)Place. These fundamentals form a solid foundation in which to build a low risk, high reward property development business that can have a positive impact on many.

The appraisal process is stage 2 in the property development lifecycle and is the topic of this article.

APPRAISE
The appraisal is the most important stage of the entire process. In this section we will take you through the four levels of deal appraisal and discuss our 9 Pillar methodology to appraising deals fully, ensuring that you are minimising your risk and maximising your return.

Level 1 - Initial Assessment
When an opportunity lands on our desk the first thing we do is conduct an Initial Assessment. This is an 8-part data collection to establish whether there are any ‘showstoppers’ that would bring an end to any further assessment and allow us to move on to the next opportunity in our pipeline.

The 8-point IA Checklist is;
1. Land Registry
2. Flood Risk
3. Tree Preservation Orders
4. Access
5. Designation
6. Market History
7. Planning History
8. Local Restrictions