1. What can I build?
Zoning, planning controls and the physical constraints of the parcel decide the envelope — townhouses, apartments, a subdivision, mixed-use, retail or something the site simply won’t take.
Every property developer has done the same slow ritual. You find a site, open a spreadsheet, hunt down the zoning, dig up comparable sales, guess a build cost, sketch a yield, and reverse-engineer a land price — and by the time the model says no, you have burned an evening on a block you should have rejected in a minute. Development feasibility software exists to collapse that ritual. It turns the question “is this site worth chasing?” into an answer you get before the site meeting, not after it.
This page explains what development feasibility software actually does, how a developer uses it on a real site, the logic behind a residual land value calculation, and how GoSiteHunt runs that whole chain — find, feasibility, maximum land price, GO/NO-GO — for any address in more than 35 countries, in seconds.
What development feasibility software is
Development feasibility is the discipline of proving, before you buy, that a project stacks up: that the site can legally hold enough dwellings or lots, that the finished product is worth more than it costs to build, and that there is still margin left over to justify the risk. Feasibility software automates the data-gathering and the arithmetic that used to sit in a hand-built spreadsheet.
A good feasibility tool answers four questions in order:
2. How much?
Dwelling or lot yield — the realistic number of sellable units the envelope supports once setbacks, access and site coverage are respected.
3. Does it pay?
Feasibility: expected end value against construction, fees, holding and finance costs, and the profit margin you require to take the risk.
4. What’s it worth to me?
Residual land value — the most you can pay for the dirt and still hit your target return. Pay more and the margin evaporates.
Get those four right early and you filter a long list of addresses down to the handful worth a valuer, a planner and a real offer. That is the entire point: reject fast, so your expensive due diligence only ever lands on live prospects.
How a developer actually uses it
The workflow is deliberately blunt. You either start with an address you already have your eye on, or you ask the software to find candidates for you.
If you have an address, you run a single-site report. GoSiteHunt returns the zoning and what you can build on that parcel, an indicative dwelling or lot yield, a feasibility summary, the residual land value, and a GO/NO-GO screen — all from the address alone. If the residual land value sits well below the asking price, you move on without a second thought. Check the zoning lookup and the subdivision potential checker to sanity-check what the parcel will legally carry.
If you don’t have an address yet, you use the development site finder. Tell it a suburb and a product type — greenfield subdivision, townhouses, apartments, mixed-use, retail or bulky-goods, billboards, or energy and data-centre land — and it surfaces candidate sites. An area scan sweeps a whole suburb at once and hands back a ranked shortlist instead of one parcel. From there you can watch development applications lodged near an address, so you see what the neighbours are getting approved before you commit. Two quick tools sharpen the yield question: the how-many-townhouses-fit checker and the subdivision checker.
Inputs and outputs at a glance
Feasibility software is only as useful as the map between what you give it and what it hands back. Here is that map for GoSiteHunt.
| You provide | GoSiteHunt returns | What you do with it |
|---|---|---|
| An address, or a suburb + product type | Zoning + what you can build | Confirm the site can legally hold your intended product |
| Site type (subdivision, townhouses, apartments, mixed-use, retail, billboard, energy/data-centre land) | Indicative dwelling or lot yield | Size the project and the revenue |
| — | Development feasibility summary | See end value against costs and margin at a glance |
| — | Residual land value (max land price) | Set your ceiling offer — never overpay for the dirt |
| — | GO / NO-GO screen | Keep it on the shortlist or kill it in seconds |
| An area to sweep | Ranked candidate sites + nearby DA activity | Build a pipeline instead of chasing one block |
A single-address site report costs 1 credit; a whole-area scan costs 5. New accounts start with 50 free trial credits, which covers a genuine shortlist before you spend anything.
The residual land value logic, worked
Residual land value (RLV) is the single number that stops developers overpaying, and it is the heart of any feasibility model. The logic runs backwards from the finished project. You start with what the completed dwellings or lots will sell for, strip out every cost of getting there, subtract the profit you demand for the risk, and whatever is left is the most you can rationally pay for the land.
The worked example below uses illustrative placeholder numbers for a small townhouse project. They are not a quote, a valuation or a market forecast — they exist only to show the shape of the calculation.
| Line (illustrative only) | Amount |
|---|---|
| Gross realisation — 4 townhouses × $650,000 | $2,600,000 |
| less Selling & marketing (approx. 4%) | −$104,000 |
| less Construction (4 × $360,000) | −$1,440,000 |
| less Professional fees, contingency, council contributions (approx. 12% of build) | −$172,800 |
| less Holding & finance costs | −$150,000 |
| less Required developer profit (approx. 20% of realisation) | −$520,000 |
| = Residual land value (max land price) | $213,200 |
The lesson matters more than the figures. If that site is on the market at $300,000, the deal is dead at your required margin — either the price has to come down, the yield has to go up, or you walk. If it is listed at $180,000, you have room. The GO/NO-GO screen is really just this comparison, run automatically: residual land value against asking price, with a margin buffer. You can run your own numbers in the residual land value calculator, and the RLV guide walks through each line in plain English.
Read this before you rely on a number. GoSiteHunt outputs are indicative screening only. They are not a valuation, planning determination, financial advice or legal advice. Confirm zoning controls, market evidence, build costs and approval risk with qualified professionals before you commit to a site.
How GoSiteHunt does it end to end
Most feasibility tools do one thing. Some are single-country zoning lookups. Some are enterprise cash-flow models priced for large firms. Very few take you from a blank map to a ceiling offer. GoSiteHunt is built to be global, end-to-end, instant and affordable — the full chain from find to GO/NO-GO in one place.
Find the site
Search by suburb and product type, or sweep a whole area, to surface candidate development sites and rank them. Site finder →
Screen the feasibility
Zoning, yield and a feasibility summary from the address alone, so you know within seconds whether the envelope and the numbers can work. Zoning lookup →
Set the ceiling price
Residual land value hands you the maximum you can pay and still make margin, so you negotiate from evidence, not hope. RLV calculator →
Decide GO / NO-GO
A single screen tells you to chase it or drop it, and DA watching near the address keeps the picture current. How it works →
There is an owner side too. If you hold land, GoSiteHunt can tell you what your site is worth to a developer, let you sell off-market direct to developers with no agent and no commission, and even coordinate sell-together amalgamation where neighbouring owners assemble a larger, more valuable parcel. It is the same feasibility engine, pointed at the seller instead of the buyer.
Because the engine is global, the same workflow that screens a block in Adelaide screens one across dozens of other markets. If you want to see how GoSiteHunt lines up against the alternatives, the feasibility software comparison lays it out. New to site sourcing? Start with the guide on how to find development sites.
Who it’s for
Small and mid-size developers who need a fast, evidence-led first pass before commissioning consultants. Buyer and acquisition managers building a pipeline across suburbs. Buyer’s agents screening client briefs. Planners and architects testing yield early. And landowners who want to know what their site is really worth to a developer — and reach one directly. If your job involves deciding whether a piece of dirt is worth a real offer, this is the tool that makes that call in seconds instead of days.
Frequently asked questions
- What is development feasibility software?
- It takes a property or an area and estimates what you can build there and whether the numbers work — pulling together zoning and planning controls, likely dwelling or lot yield, build and development costs, expected end value, and a residual land value. GoSiteHunt does this for any address across 35+ countries and returns an indicative GO/NO-GO screen in seconds.
- How does GoSiteHunt calculate residual land value?
- It works backwards from the finished project: take the estimated gross realisation, subtract construction and development costs, professional fees, holding and finance costs, and your required profit margin. What is left is the most you can pay for the land while still hitting your return. It is a screening estimate, not a formal valuation.
- Can I use GoSiteHunt outside Australia?
- Yes. GoSiteHunt runs feasibility and site-finding for addresses in more than 35 countries. Data depth for zoning and planning varies by region, but the core workflow — zoning, yield, feasibility, residual land value and GO/NO-GO — is available globally, which is rare for feasibility tools.
- Is GoSiteHunt a valuation or a planning approval?
- No. Outputs are indicative screening only — not a valuation, planning determination, financial advice or legal advice. Use them to shortlist and reject sites quickly, then confirm the detail with qualified professionals before you commit.
- How much does it cost to start?
- Free, with 50 trial credits. A single-address site report is 1 credit and a whole-area scan is 5 credits. Paid add-ons include a $49 vendor’s report, Deal Flow alerts from $49/mo, DocFlow planning reports ($249 instant / $990 planner-reviewed), white-label at $99/mo, Assembly Pro at $299/mo, and Billboard or Energy Operator tiers at $499/mo.
- What can GoSiteHunt tell me from just an address?
- Zoning and what you can build, likely dwelling or lot yield, a development feasibility summary, the residual land value, and a GO/NO-GO screen — plus subdivision potential and DA watching near that address.
- How is this different from a feasibility spreadsheet?
- A spreadsheet makes you gather zoning, comparable sales, costs and yield by hand before every site. GoSiteHunt assembles those inputs automatically for any address and returns a consistent, repeatable screen in seconds — so you can test dozens of sites in the time a spreadsheet takes for one. More in the full FAQ.
Run your first site check free
Start with 50 free credits and screen a real address end to end — zoning, yield, residual land value and a GO/NO-GO call — before you spend a cent or commission a consultant.