The site had been marketed twice. It carried a consent for twenty apartments averaging 640 square feet — a mix drawn for a rental buyer in a street that had since become owner-occupied and expensive.
The owner was pricing the scheme off the consent because it existed, not because it was right.
We re-modelled the envelope at eleven residences averaging 1,180 square feet, with two duplexes taking the corner and its light. Unit count fell by nearly half; saleable area fell by six percent.
Specification moved up one tier, the amenity budget was cut to a single well-made entrance rather than three under-used rooms, and the brand was written before the marketing suite was built.
Revised consent in nine months with no appeal. Average price per square foot up eighteen percent against the original appraisal, seventy-two percent of homes reserved by the end of the launch period, and a cost plan that carried fewer bathrooms, fewer kitchens and fewer risers.