We provide acquisition and pre-purchase advice to support investment and site selection decisions. Our work focuses on commercial, healthcare, local authority and education clients evaluating new sites or assets.
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The best time to discover a site's problems is before you own them. We review sites and buildings ahead of acquisition, assessing development potential, identifying planning risks and opportunities and producing high-level assessments that tell you what the asset can realistically become and what stands in the way.
This is the "should we build?" moment. The team clarifies goals, budget, risks and constraints, explores options (including non-build solutions), and forms the business case. The outcome is a confirmed set of client requirements and a go/no-go decision.
All the groundwork happens here: site information, surveys, statutory context and stakeholder needs are gathered, and the Project Brief and outline programme are agreed. Procurement and planning strategies are sketched so everyone knows the road ahead.
Look at the whole processThis input sits alongside legal and financial due diligence in the acquisition process, giving investment decisions an evidenced architectural and planning dimension. It serves developers, occupiers and public bodies buying sites or buildings across Essex, London and the South East.
We review sites prior to purchase, identifying constraints and opportunities that may shape future development.
High-level assessments give clients a realistic sense of what a site can deliver before they commit to acquisition.
We identify planning risks and opportunities and provide strategic input to support investment decisions.
It sits alongside the legal and financial checks as the built-environment strand of the same exercise. Solicitors confirm what you are buying and accountants confirm what it costs; this work confirms what the asset can become, what planning will allow and what physical or contextual constraints the price should reflect.
Rooks Heath
Harrow
Funding secured for a two-storey replacement block with eight classrooms, recording studio, IT rooms and amenities. Planning approved and conditions discharged; AEC delivered day-to-day project management throughout construction.
View projectDevelopment potential, planning position and risk, physical and contextual constraints and a high-level view of what the site or building could support. The depth is matched to the transaction timescale.
Initial views within days, fuller desktop assessments typically within one to two weeks. Acquisition timetables drive the pace and we prioritise the risks that could change the decision.
Yes. Conversion, extension and change-of-use potential are assessed alongside condition indicators, with permitted development rights checked where relevant to the intended use.
It complements legal, valuation and technical diligence by answering the development question: what can be done here and how hard will it be. Findings are shared with the wider advisory team.
Yes. Evidence of constraints, planning risk or hidden potential is directly relevant to what a site is worth to you, and clients use our findings in exactly that way.
The pre-purchase work becomes the starting point for strategy, feasibility and design, so the knowledge gained during diligence carries into delivery without repetition.
From schools to homeowners, we work closely with every client to deliver thoughtful, lasting architecture here’s what they’ve said about working with us.
We’re always up for a new challenge. Whether it’s a home, a school, or something completely unique.
