Posted 28/09/2026
When values are under pressure, finance is expensive, build costs remain stubbornly high and viability becomes increasingly difficult, the margin for error disappears.
In my experience, five principles become particularly important.
A development appraisal should tell you the truth, not the answer you want to see.
Stress-test values, construction costs, finance, programme and exit assumptions. Understand exactly where the scheme breaks and what needs to change to make it work.
In a challenging market, identifying a viability gap early is considerably more useful than discovering it after significant time and money have been committed.
Traditional debt and equity may only be part of the solution.
Grant funding, public-sector investment, forward funding, affordable housing partnerships, institutional capital and alternative tenure strategies can fundamentally change the economics of a scheme.
The question shouldn’t simply be: “Does this scheme work?”
It should be: “What combination of capital, tenure and delivery structure could make it work?”
Property remains a relationship business.
Local authorities, planning officers, funders, registered providers, investors, contractors and development partners can all play an important role in unlocking difficult projects.
The strongest relationships are built through transparency and credibility — particularly when the numbers are challenging.
Bringing the right people around the table early can often create solutions that aren’t apparent from the appraisal alone.
The scheme you started with may not be the scheme you ultimately deliver.
Unit mix, tenure, specification, phasing, procurement strategy and funding structure may all need to evolve as market conditions change.
Being emotionally attached to the original business plan can be expensive.
The objective is to preserve the fundamental value of the opportunity while remaining flexible about how that value is realised.
Perhaps the most important rule of all.
Difficult markets naturally encourage people to wait: wait for interest rates to fall, wait for values to recover, wait for construction costs to soften or wait for somebody else to move first.
Sometimes waiting is the right decision. But inactivity shouldn’t become the default strategy.
Continue testing assumptions. Continue talking to funders. Continue exploring planning improvements. Continue looking for subsidy. Continue building relationships.
Because markets eventually change — and when they do, the projects best positioned to move are rarely the ones that have spent the previous two years standing still.
The opportunity in a difficult market
Good markets can make average decisions look clever.
Difficult markets expose weaknesses — but they also reward creativity, discipline, relationships and persistence.
The fundamentals of property haven’t changed.
Understand the economics. Structure the capital intelligently. Build strong relationships. Stay flexible. And keep moving.
Those five rules won’t make a difficult market easy.
But they can turn difficult projects into deliverable ones.
