Development Feasibility

Most development mistakes are made before a designer is engaged. The decision to buy a site, to retain or demolish the existing dwelling, to pursue one typology over another — these are made on incomplete information, and the cost of getting them wrong is significant. A feasibility study done properly is not a sales document; it is an honest assessment of what a site can and can't do.

We carry out feasibility work for landowners, developers and investors across Tāmaki Makaurau who want architectural intelligence at the point of decision. That means reading the Auckland Unitary Plan zone provisions in detail, identifying the relevant rules around height, recession planes, site coverage and outlook protection, and translating them into a clear spatial model of what can actually be built. We also identify the less obvious constraints — utility easements, character overlays, flood plains, ground conditions — that don't appear on the listing but matter to consents.

The output of a feasibility study is a clear briefing document: what the planning framework allows, what a realistic development would look like, what the approximate scale of a consent process would be, and where the risks sit. It gives you the information to proceed with confidence or to walk away early — either of which is a better outcome than finding out mid-process.

What this includes

Auckland Unitary Plan zone and overlay analysis

Permitted activity assessment and height / coverage modelling

Identification of designation, easement and covenant constraints

Flood, overland flow and ground condition review

Development typology options (comparative massing)

Yield assessment and approximate GFA calculation

Resource consent pathway and complexity assessment

Approximate construction cost indicatives

Heritage and character overlay implications

Geotechnical and services constraint summary