Buying a development site on the Sunshine Coast: due diligence checklist

Buying a development site is the single largest financial commitment in any property development project. It is also the point where the most value is created or destroyed. Once you sign the contract, your negotiating leverage disappears and your capital is committed. Everything that follows, design, approvals, construction, sales, is constrained by the site you chose and the price you paid for it.

This checklist covers the key items to verify before committing to a development site on the Sunshine Coast. It is not exhaustive (every site has its own peculiarities), but it covers the issues that most commonly catch developers off guard.

Planning and zoning

Verify the zone, not just the zoning map. Check the actual planning scheme zone code, not just the colour on the map. Confirm that your intended use (e.g. multiple dwellings, dual occupancy, apartments) is listed as accepted, code assessable, or impact assessable in that zone. Some uses that seem logical for a zone are actually impact assessable or inconsistent with the zone purpose, which dramatically changes the approval risk.

Check for local plan provisions. Several areas on the Sunshine Coast are subject to local plans (Caloundra South, Maroochydore, Mooloolaba, and others) that override or supplement the general zone provisions. A site in a local plan area may have completely different height limits, setback requirements, and density expectations compared to identically zoned land elsewhere.

Map every overlay. Run the site against the council's overlay mapping and the state government's spatial databases. Flood, bushfire, landslide, acid sulfate soils, heritage, building height, scenic amenity, and other overlays can all affect your site. Each overlay has cost implications. Our article on overlays covers this in detail.

Understand the assessment pathway. Is your proposed development code assessable or impact assessable? Code assessable applications are assessed against the codes without public notification. Impact assessable applications include public notification and are subject to third-party submitter rights, which can add months to the approval timeline and introduce uncertainty.

Site and physical constraints

Commission a survey early. You need accurate site dimensions, levels, and boundary locations. Many site acquisition decisions are made on the basis of approximate measurements from aerial imagery. A formal survey often reveals boundary discrepancies, easements, or level changes that affect the development yield.

Assess the topography. Slope affects construction costs significantly. A site with a cross-fall greater than 5% will require retaining walls or cut-and-fill earthworks that can add $100,000 or more to the project. A site with a slope greater than 15% may be unsuitable for the intended product type altogether.

Check for easements and encumbrances. Drainage easements, sewer easements, electricity easements, and right-of-way easements can all restrict where you can build. These are recorded on the title but are easy to overlook in the excitement of a site acquisition. An easement running through the middle of the site can fundamentally change the building layout.

Investigate services capacity. Confirm that water, sewer, stormwater, and electricity services are available to the site and have sufficient capacity for the intended development. In some growth areas or fringe locations, service augmentation may be required at the developer's cost.

Financial due diligence

Get a realistic construction cost estimate. Use local Sunshine Coast benchmarks, not national averages. Construction costs vary significantly by location, site difficulty, and current market conditions. A feasibility model built on generic cost rates will give you a false sense of the margin.

Quantify the infrastructure charges. As discussed in our article on infrastructure charges, these can run $28,000 to $35,000 per dwelling on the Sunshine Coast. On a multi-unit project, this is a material cost item that must be accurately budgeted.

Model the revenue conservatively. Use comparable sales data from the same suburb and product type, not aspirational pricing from premium locations. Test what happens to your margin if sale prices come in 5% or 10% below expectation. If the project only works at the top of the market, it does not work.

Contract conditions

Include adequate due diligence periods. A standard 14-day due diligence period is rarely sufficient for a development site. You need time to conduct searches, commission a survey, assess overlays, and ideally obtain a preliminary feasibility assessment. Negotiate for 21 to 30 days minimum.

Make the contract conditional on satisfactory planning assessment. This gives you the ability to walk away if the planning investigation reveals constraints that materially affect the development potential. The wording matters. Work with a solicitor experienced in development site acquisitions.

Understand the settlement timeline. Longer settlement periods give you more time to advance design and approvals before committing the balance of the purchase price. But they also mean longer holding costs on any deposit or option fee. Model both scenarios.

The common thread across all of these items is information. The developers who consistently make good site acquisition decisions are the ones who invest in understanding the full picture before they commit. A feasibility assessment is the most efficient way to get that picture.