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Land
Raw land to serviced lots: residual land value, entitlement risk, and highest-and-best-use analysis.
Property Types
- Raw / unserviced land
- Serviced development land (shovel-ready)
- Land assembly (consolidated parcels)
- Brownfield (formerly contaminated / industrial)
- Greenfield (undeveloped on urban fringe)
- Agricultural land (with development potential)
Physical Attributes
- Lot size, dimensions, and configuration (frontage, depth, irregular shape)
- Servicing availability: municipal water, sewer, power, gas at lot line
- Zoning designation and permitted uses, FAR, height limits, setbacks
- Topography, slope, and soil conditions (bearing capacity, contamination history)
- Environmental constraints: floodplain, wetlands, endangered species habitat
Value-Add
- Entitlement: rezoning or OPA amendment to higher-density designation
- Land assembly: acquiring adjacent parcels to create a larger developable site
- Servicing extension: funding municipal infrastructure to unlock building permits
- Environmental remediation: brownfield cleanup to remove development constraints
- Pre-application and community engagement to de-risk the entitlement timeline
Appraisal Approach
- Residual land value: project revenue minus construction costs, profit, and finance charges
- Sales comparison using price-per-acre or price-per-buildable-SF / density unit
- Hypothetical condition or prospective value opinion for pre-entitlement sites
- Subdivision / land development approach for multi-lot residential projects
Management
- Carrying cost management: property tax, insurance, weed/snow control
- Permit and entitlement timeline management with municipal planners
- Environmental monitoring obligations during remediation or interim hold
- Security and encroachment prevention on larger vacant sites
Strategic Concepts
- Land banking: acquiring ahead of urban growth boundaries and holding for density uplift
- Entitlement risk: gap between purchase price on zoned vs unzoned basis
- Highest-and-best-use analysis determines which permitted use maximizes residual value
- Absorption and phasing strategy for large subdivision or master-planned releases
- Optionality: land purchase options as a lower-capital entitlement strategy