Chapter 7 The business case (sketch)

Now that we have finished one development project, it is time to start thinking about the next one. While most people would assume that projects start with a business case, my experience tells me that this is not always the case.

Some people think their grandmother’s house is priceless, regardless of what the market says. The cost of renovating the house may also be far higher than its eventual sale price. Are these situations important? Probably not; not everything in life is about money, unless you want to be a property developer. If that's the case, you need to get the business case right from the start.

Business cases are important, but they are not foolproof. There are many variables that we cannot predict or control, such as time.

I am a big fan of using land residual value to assess property value, so most of this chapter will focus on searching for alpha using this method.

For now, I intend to tackle this chapter once all the others are complete. However, please let me know if you think I should prioritise this one.