Architectural floor plans and a scale rule spread across a desk at early design stage

Service 01

Cost planning and build cost estimates

Know the real number before you commit

Independent build cost estimates and cost plans for property developers, from an order of cost estimate at feasibility to a pre-tender estimate. Budgets built on rates per square metre fail quietly, then loudly at tender.

Discuss a cost plan See how we measure

We build the cost position from measured scope and test it against current market pricing, so the figure you take to a board or a lender survives contact with real returns.

01
Feasibility and appraisal budgets
02
Elemental cost plans to NRM1
03
Option and scenario testing

Most budgets fail long before anyone prices them. The gap between an early budget and a tender return is rarely caused by the market. It is caused by what the budget quietly left out.

A rate per square metre taken from a scheme with a different structural frame. A site with abnormals nobody priced because no survey had been done. An inflation allowance set at appointment and never revisited across a two year design programme. A contingency that was quietly consumed to make the appraisal work.

None of these are visible in a single headline figure. They only appear when the tenders return, at which point the options are all expensive: value engineer the scheme, re-gear the funding, or accept a margin that no longer exists. An independent cost consultant is worth appointing precisely because they have no reason to keep the number comfortable.

Order of cost estimate

Feasibility stage. Area schedule, benchmarked rates tested against comparable schemes, a specific allowance for site abnormals and a stated inflation basis. Enough to decide whether to spend money on design.

Elemental cost plan

Design stages. An NRM1 elemental plan that develops with the design, reissued at each stage with a reconciliation showing what changed, why, and whether it was design development or scope creep.

Pre-tender estimate

Before tender. Built off the measured quantities that go into the tender documents, so bids can be compared against a like-for-like benchmark rather than a broad expectation.

Cost plan review

A second opinion on a plan prepared by someone else. We test the quantities, the rates, the exclusions and the risk allowance, and report where the plan is exposed.

Option and value studies

Priced comparison of design or specification options on a common basis, including the programme and preliminaries effect, which is usually where the real difference sits.

Cash flow forecast

Expenditure profiled against the construction programme, for facility sizing, drawdown planning and equity release timing.

A single contingency percentage tells you nothing about what it is covering. Ours are split so each can be argued on its own evidence: design development risk, construction risk, employer change allowance, inflation to the midpoint of construction, and identified abnormals priced individually.

That structure matters when the plan is challenged. A lender asking why the contingency is eight per cent gets a schedule of what sits inside it, not a professional opinion. The same schedule is what allows you to release contingency safely as risks retire, instead of holding it until the end out of caution.

How lenders read a cost plan

How early can you produce a usable number?

From an area schedule and a site address. At that point the estimate is a range with the drivers identified, not a single figure, and we say so. What we will not do is issue a precise-looking figure built on assumptions we have not tested, because that number is the one that ends up in the appraisal and gets treated as fact six months later.

Do you use benchmark rates?

Yes, as a test rather than a source. Benchmarks tell you whether a measured build-up is in a sensible range. They do not tell you what your scheme costs, because your basement, your facade specification and your site constraints are not in the benchmark. Where we use a rate directly, at early feasibility for example, the source and the adjustments are stated on the face of the estimate.

Can you review a cost plan prepared by our existing QS?

Regularly. It is a common instruction from investors and boards before a funding decision. We test the quantities against the drawings, check the rates and the exclusions, look at what the risk allowance is actually covering, and report the exposure. Equally, we are not looking to replace the incumbent, and if the plan is sound we will say that in one page.

How does the cost plan connect to the rest of the work?

Directly. The quantities behind the cost plan become the basis of the tender documents, the tender comparison, and later the assessment of variations. Where a change is priced against the same measured basis used at cost plan stage, the argument about what was included is usually over before it starts.