Land Assembly Valuation

Concept Plan

How do you value property on a land assembly deal?

You might go to the MLS, look at active and sold listings in the last few months, look at trends and list comparbles and come up with a number. 

Here is where Commercial Real Estate and Planning Architecture join forces.

The Value of Land is based on the masterplanner's vision and the final built product price on the day of acquisition. 

Massing Study

Vision for land is created by: 

• Site Analysis 
• Masterplanning 
• Massing Studies 
• By-Law Interpretation

The aim is to build agreement between Buyers, Sellers, the City and ultimately the local community to come up with the highest and best use of the land and find a solution where everyone wins.

When we do the right amount of the upfront work to create vision by Site Analysis / Masterplanning / Massing Studies and By-Law interpretation, the whole process can be much smoother and well-reasoned.

Apart from managing the complexity of price through 'residual land value' calculations, the terms of sale in a commercial deal often involves some inventive responses as we satisfy the Stakeholders needs. This is always fascinating because there are lots of interesting moving parts.

Our ultimate aim is three things:  Find a solution that excites the Developer, satisfies the Seller and creates Value.

Wood Micro Apartments?

Economics dictates that you should build your development with wood framing if the building code lets you - unless a buyer will pay the required extra $100+ per square foot to live in the perceived solidity and safety of concrete construction.

After all, will anyone really care once the plasterboard has been set?

Recent evidence shows that the home buyer in Canada will live in smaller quarters in concrete buildings, but can the current 'micro-sized apartment' movement find opportunity in a wood framed building?

The question is a cultural history one.

In downtown Melbourne, Australia, there is one of the tallest modern timber buildings in the world (10 floors) and no one seemed to mind when the sales began. In Canada, though - a land established on tales of tall timber, it can be a concern.

Evenings toasting marshmallows in front of the campfire may not have helped the timber industry. Is it possible that deep in the Canadian psyche everybody knows: wood burns. More than that - there is a lot of it in British Columbia and like any supply and demand scenario, that makes it seem less valuable.

Add to this the bad press of the leaky mould producing four storey wood frame buildings of the nineties and wood is fighting a huge battle for equality.

In Canada the government has pushed back some, calling for wood to be a major component in any public building. Here, 'Cross Laminated Timber' and 'Laminated Veneer Lumber' known as mass timber construction is doing well to bring solidity to the wood debate.

However, in the developer's world (where the coal mine canary lives), the question for micro-apartments and wood framed buildings remains: "If you build it, will they come?"

The answer may lie in mass timber panels and prefabrication, where computer driven accuracy and fine detail resolution can bring a renewed opportunity to express the beauty of wood.