Use this before you spend money
A due-diligence checklist should stop bad sites before they absorb consultant time. The goal is not to answer every technical question on day one. The goal is to identify the deal-killers early enough to avoid emotional buying.
Planning checks
- Zone, overlays, height, density and minimum site-area rules.
- Neighbourhood character, heritage, trees, flooding, bushfire and infrastructure constraints.
- Nearby approvals and refusals for similar products.
- Any live or pending planning amendments that could change the rules.
Physical and legal checks
- Title, easements, covenants, encumbrances and access.
- Survey dimensions, fall, retaining, services and stormwater discharge.
- Demolition issues, contamination risk and existing leases or occupation.
Financial checks
- End values from comparable evidence.
- Construction, consultants, authority contributions, contingency and finance.
- GST/tax treatment and selling costs.
- Residual land value and sensitivity to lower sale prices or higher build costs.
Turn the principle into an address-level test
Use the guide to understand the decision path, then run the actual address through GoSiteHunt before paying for survey, concept plans, planning advice or a full feasibility model.
Run a site report · Open the residual land value calculator · Read more development guides