Gross realisation
Achievable end value per dwelling, or rate per square metre × net sellable area, grounded in the yield the site actually supports.
Every development deal is one equation with one honest answer. Add up what the finished scheme sells for. Take away everything it costs to build, fund, sell and get approved. Take away the profit you need to justify the risk. Whatever is left is the most you can pay for the land — and if that number sits below the asking price, the deal does not work, no matter how much you like the street. A development feasibility calculator exists to surface that answer in minutes instead of at settlement, so you spend your time on sites that can actually pay you.
The pain is familiar to anyone in acquisition. You find a block that looks perfect, build a spreadsheet, chase agents for comparables, guess at build rates, and three days later discover the numbers were never there. Do that across thirty addresses and you have burned a month on deals a two-minute screen would have killed on the first pass. The payoff is a fast, repeatable GO/NO-GO filter that rejects the dross early and reserves real effort for the sites worth it.
What the calculation actually does
A feasibility calculation is a chain, and each link depends on the one before it. It starts with gross realisation — the total value of everything you sell when the project completes. For a townhouse project that is the achievable end value per dwelling multiplied by the number of dwellings. For an apartment or commercial scheme it is net sellable (or lettable) area multiplied by an achievable rate per square metre. Get this wrong and everything downstream is fiction, which is why grounding it in real sold evidence matters more than any other single input.
From gross realisation you subtract total development cost: construction and civil works, professional fees (design, planning, engineering, survey), authority and contribution charges, a contingency for the things that always go wrong, marketing and selling costs, and finance. Then you subtract your target developer margin — the profit you require, usually expressed as a percentage of cost or of realisation. What remains after profit and every cost is the residual land value: the ceiling on what you can pay for the dirt and still earn your margin.
Inputs and outputs at a glance
The table below sets out the core inputs a feasibility screen consumes and the outputs it returns. GoSiteHunt pre-fills the planning and yield inputs directly from the address so you are refining assumptions, not building a model from scratch.
| Stage | What goes in | What comes out |
|---|---|---|
| Planning | Address, zoning, what you can build | Permitted use, height and yield constraints |
| Yield | Site area, zone rules, product type | Dwelling or lot count the site supports |
| Revenue | End value per dwelling or rate per m² × yield | Gross realisation |
| Cost | Build, civils, fees, contributions, contingency | Total development cost before land |
| Selling & finance | Marketing, agent fees, funding cost | Fully loaded project cost |
| Profit | Target margin on cost or realisation | Required developer profit |
| Residual | Realisation − cost − profit | Residual land value (max land price) |
| Decision | Residual vs asking price | GO / NO-GO screen |
A worked residual-land-value example
Numbers below are illustrative placeholders to show the mechanics, not a live valuation of any real site. Assume a small infill parcel that supports six townhouses.
| Line | Assumption | Amount (illustrative) |
|---|---|---|
| Gross realisation | 6 dwellings × $650,000 achievable end value | $3,900,000 |
| Construction & civils | 6 × $340,000 build | −$2,040,000 |
| Professional & authority fees | ~7% of build | −$143,000 |
| Contingency | ~5% of build | −$102,000 |
| Marketing & selling | ~3% of realisation | −$117,000 |
| Finance | Indicative funding cost | −$180,000 |
| Target developer profit | 20% margin on cost | −$514,000 |
| Residual land value | The most you should pay for the land | ≈ $704,000 |
The logic reads straight down the column: realisation of $3.9m, roughly $2.58m of hard and soft costs, then about $514k of required profit, leaves a residual near $704,000. If the land is on the market at $850,000, the deal is a NO-GO at a 20% margin — you would either need cheaper land, a higher achievable end value, more yield, or a thinner margin than the risk deserves. That single comparison, residual versus asking price, is the heart of every acquisition decision, and it is exactly what a feasibility screen automates.
A feasibility screen is a filter, not a final answer. Small shifts in end value, build rate or yield move the residual materially, which is why the output is a screening signal to decide what deserves deeper diligence — never a substitute for confirmed sales evidence, quoted build costs and local planning advice.
How a developer uses it in practice
The workflow is the same whether you are an independent developer, an investor testing a hold-versus-develop play, or an acquisition manager clearing a pipeline. You paste an address. The tool returns zoning and what you can build, the dwelling or lot yield the site supports, a first-pass feasibility, and the residual land value. You compare that residual to the price the land is being offered at. If it clears with room to spare, the site earns a place on your shortlist and a deeper model. If it does not, you move on in seconds and keep your energy for deals that can pay.
Run at scale, this changes how a team operates. Instead of hand-modelling every lead, you screen dozens of addresses, keep the handful that clear the margin test, and only then invest in comparable-sales research, cost quotes and planning conversations. The calculator does not replace judgement — it decides where your judgement is worth spending.
Fully loaded cost
Build, civils, professional and authority fees, contingency, marketing, selling and finance — the true cost before land.
Residual land value
What is left for the land after target profit and every cost. The ceiling on what you can pay. Open the RLV tool →
How GoSiteHunt does it
GoSiteHunt is instant property-development feasibility and site-finding software. For any address across 35+ countries it returns, in seconds: the zoning and what you can build, the dwelling and lot yield, a development feasibility, the residual land value — the most you should pay for the land — and a GO/NO-GO screen. You are not maintaining a fragile spreadsheet or reconciling five browser tabs; the planning and yield inputs are populated from the address, and you refine the revenue and cost assumptions that matter for your product and market.
It is also end-to-end. Beyond scoring an address you already have, GoSiteHunt finds candidate development sites by suburb and type — subdivision, townhouses, apartments, mixed-use, retail, billboards and energy or data-centre land — scans whole areas, checks subdivision potential and watches development applications nearby. That is the differentiator: most rivals are single-country, single-function or enterprise-priced, whereas GoSiteHunt is global, end-to-end (find → feasibility → max land price → GO/NO-GO), instant and affordable. There is even an owner side — what is my site worth, and sell off-market direct to developers with no agent and no commission.
Explore the connected tools and guides:
Screen & find
Sharpen the numbers
Learn the method
Pricing is built for real screening. You start free with 50 trial credits — a site report is 1 credit and an area scan is 5 — so the free tier covers a genuine session. Optional paid products sit alongside: a $49 vendor's report, Deal Flow alerts from $49/mo, the DocFlow planning report at $249 instant or $990 planner-reviewed, White-label at $99/mo, Assembly Pro at $299/mo, and Billboard or Energy Operator at $499/mo each. See how it works for the full flow.
Frequently asked questions
- What is a development feasibility calculator?
- It estimates whether a project stacks up before you commit. It sums gross realisation, subtracts every development cost, applies a target developer margin, and returns the residual land value — the most you can pay for the land and still hit your profit. GoSiteHunt runs this from any address in seconds alongside zoning, yield and a GO/NO-GO screen.
- How is residual land value calculated?
- Residual land value is gross realisation minus total development cost minus target developer profit. What remains is the residual — the maximum you should pay for the land. If the residual sits below the asking price, the deal does not work at your required margin unless a revenue or cost assumption changes. The RLV calculator isolates this step.
- What inputs does a feasibility calculation need?
- Achievable end value per dwelling or rate per square metre, the dwelling or lot yield, construction and civil costs, professional and authority fees, contingency, marketing and selling, finance, and your target margin. GoSiteHunt pre-fills yield and zoning from the address so you are refining, not starting from a blank sheet.
- Is a feasibility screen the same as a valuation?
- No. It is an indicative first-pass filter to decide whether a site is worth deeper work. It is not a valuation, planning, financial or legal opinion. Before committing capital, confirm planning controls, sales evidence and build costs with qualified local professionals.
- Does GoSiteHunt work outside Australia?
- Yes. It returns feasibility, yield and residual land value across 35+ countries. Zoning depth varies by jurisdiction, but the revenue, cost, margin and residual logic is global — the same screen works on an international pipeline as on a local market like Adelaide.
- How much does it cost to run a feasibility check?
- You start free with 50 trial credits. A site report is 1 credit and an area scan is 5, so the free allocation covers a real screening session. Paid add-ons such as the $49 vendor's report and Deal Flow alerts from $49/mo are separate and optional.
- Can it also find sites, not just score them?
- Yes. Beyond scoring a known address it finds candidate sites by suburb and type — subdivision, townhouses, apartments, mixed-use, retail, billboards and energy or data-centre land — scans whole areas, checks subdivision potential and watches development applications nearby. Start on the FAQ or jump straight into the app.
Screen your next site now
Stop hand-modelling deals that were never going to pay. Paste an address, get zoning, yield, feasibility, residual land value and a GO/NO-GO in seconds, and keep only the sites that clear your margin.
Run a free site check Calculate max land priceOutputs are indicative screening only and are not valuation, planning, financial or legal advice. Confirm planning controls, market evidence and costs before committing to a site.