Site Feasibility
Appraisal

The problem

Bidding without knowing what you can build

The gap between what a site looks like it can take and what a council will actually approve is where most small development money is lost. An extra unit assumed at bid stage that never materialises can turn a workable scheme into a loss.

Constraints are the usual cause. A conservation area caps the form. An Article 4 direction removes routes you assumed were available. A flood zone brings a sequential test. An adjoining listed building narrows what can go near the boundary. None of these are visible from a site listing.

Our site constraints checker surfaces the designations free in under a minute. The appraisal is what turns that into a number you can bid against.

What you get

What the appraisal covers

A written appraisal, not a conversation. Everything below is documented so you can share it with a lender, a partner or a vendor.

Where the answer is that the site does not work, we say so plainly. That is a useful outcome and it is considerably cheaper than finding out after exchange.

• Full constraint analysis, including designations, flood risk and access
• Indicative unit capacity and mix
• Developable footprint and outline massing
• Planning strategy and likely officer position
• Planning risk rating with the reasoning behind it
• Indicative programme to determination
• Recommended route: full application, prior approval or permitted development

Planning risk

Where schemes actually get refused

Refusals cluster around a small number of themes. Overdevelopment for the plot. Impact on neighbouring amenity, meaning loss of light, overlooking or a sense of enclosure. Access that cannot take the servicing the scheme generates. Design that ignores the established character of the frontage.

Each of those is assessable before you bid. What is not assessable is the specific officer, which is why the appraisal gives you a risk rating rather than a guarantee. Anyone offering certainty on a planning outcome is selling you something they cannot deliver.

Where we think pre-application advice would materially change the risk, we say so and tell you what it costs.

Fee

What it costs and how it works

Appraisals start at £1,000. Straightforward sites sit at that level. Complex ones, meaning multiple designations, a listed neighbour, flood risk or an awkward access arrangement, cost more and we agree the fee before we start. There is no hourly billing and no scope creep.

Turnaround is 10 working days from receiving the site information. If you are working to an auction date, tell us and we will say honestly whether we can meet it.

The fee is credited against our fees if you appoint us for the planning application. So on a scheme that proceeds, the appraisal effectively costs nothing.

Scheme types

The sites we appraise

We work on small and medium residential schemes rather than strategic land. In practice that means backland and infill plots, garden land, house to flats conversions, small multi-unit schemes of two to nine homes, and commercial to residential conversions under Class MA.

We also appraise sites for owners who are not developers, typically people with a large garden or a redundant outbuilding wondering whether there is value in it before they approach an agent.

Working with us

Design and build under one contract

Rosace Design Studio is an architectural design and build studio. We take schemes from appraisal through planning and technical design to construction, under a single contract.

For a developer that removes the coordination gap between designer and contractor, which is where variations and programme slip usually originate. The detail that gets approved is the detail that gets built, because the same team is responsible for both.