Send the opportunity
Send the property address plus the agent, Rightmove or Zoopla link, any plans and what you are hoping to achieve.
Development · feasibility · pre-acquisition
Before you buy a site, find out what it could realistically become.
Hepburn Architects combines planning research with architectural capacity testing to identify opportunity, constraints and a realistic route forward before significant money is committed.
Why start here?
Do not discover the problems after you have bought it.
A large garden, vacant building or apparently generous plot can look straightforward on an estate-agent plan. In practice, access, local character, neighbouring amenity, policy, heritage, ecology, drainage and site geometry can materially change what is achievable.
The appraisal is designed to answer the commercial question first: is there enough credible potential here to justify the next stage?
How it works
One clear decision-making process.
We investigate
We review planning history, policy, constraints, context and the physical capacity of the site or building.
We test the potential
Where appropriate, an indicative architectural concept tests realistic capacity rather than relying on a headline unit number.
You get a clear recommendation
The appraisal identifies the opportunity, planning risk, likely next steps and whether further investment is justified.
Included in the £750 appraisal
- Site and surrounding-context review
- Relevant planning-history review
- Current planning-policy and designation review
- Key constraints: access, amenity, heritage, flood, ecology, trees and drainage where relevant
- Architectural development-capacity assessment
- Indicative concept or capacity sketch where appropriate
- Planning-risk rating with the principal issues explained
- Recommended consent strategy and next steps
- Likely specialist consultant requirements
- Written Development Potential Appraisal PDF
Clearly outside the scope
- Measured or topographical survey unless separately agreed
- Detailed architectural or planning-application drawings
- Formal pre-application or planning submission
- Specialist consultant reports
- Structural investigation or engineering design
- Legal title, covenant or rights-of-way advice
- Formal valuation, GDV, residual land-value or funding advice
- Any guarantee of planning permission, unit numbers or development value
Start with the address
Seen a property or site with potential?
Send us the address and property listing. We will confirm whether the £750 Development Potential Appraisal is the right first step or whether the site needs a more detailed bespoke feasibility scope.
Send us a site →The appraisal is an architect-led feasibility opinion based on the information available at the date of review. It is not planning permission, legal advice, a valuation or a guarantee of development capacity.