Land, Consent, Cost, Programme and the Delivery of a Scheme
Julian R. Sterling
These are the companion files of The Real Estate Development Manager by Julian R. Sterling.The book on Amazon →
Five Excel workbooks. The first is the residual appraisal and the four tests that turn it
into a decision document. The second is the worked scheme of Chapter 16, from first site visit to
disposal, built to show where the return was actually decided. The third and fourth are the working
documents: land diligence in five stages, the cost plan interrogation, the risk register, change control
and handover. The fifth writes down the comparison Chapter 14 asks for and does not perform.
Three of them are now corrected. Around them: a blank set for your own scheme, thirteen working documents to print, forty questions that mark themselves, and three cases the book names and never takes to a number. All free.
Free to download. No sign-up, no email address, nothing to fill in.
Five workbooks, the blank set, the three cases, the question book, the printable documents and the read-me. Each group below can also be
downloaded on its own. Last revised 23 September 2026.
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These carry the book’s own figures. Three were corrected on 23 September 2026; what changed is at the end of the read-me inside.
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Chapter 3
The residual appraisal, and where it misleads
A scheme with a value of 100 and costs of 80 supports a land price of 20. Move each by five per
cent and the land value becomes 11 — two five per cent movements, a forty-five per cent fall.
That is why development is a high-beta activity and why competitive land bidding tends to be won by
whoever is most optimistic. The four tests of the chapter run live: an 8 per cent cost movement takes
the land value from 6.4 to 1.4, a nine-month delay takes it to 2.9, a five per cent value fall takes
it to 1.4, and all three together make it negative. Two further sheets do the work that matters in
practice. One asks what the assumptions would have to be for the price on the table to work, and
produces the cost overrun and the value decline that would each eliminate the profit — the two
numbers the book says belong on the front page. The other is a quarterly cash flow: peak funding
requirement, how long it is held, and what a delay costs. On the illustrative scheme the cash
flow’s interest is 8.0 against the summary appraisal’s finance line of 4, about a quarter of the profit, and nothing on the summary would have shown it. Corrected: test 4 now applies all three stresses (the first version left out the 8 per cent rise: -7.1, not −2.1), and the cash flow now carries the summary’s 12 of fees and statutory costs instead of 7.5.
At month five the appraisal gives a residual of 3.6 against a conditional contract price of 7.6.
The scheme does not work. The team interrogates the inputs rather than abandoning it, the residual
moves to 5.9, and a difficult conversation backed by a ground investigation and a daylight assessment
moves the price to 6.4. Everything after that was execution — and the workbook proves it: had
the developer completed at 7.6, the realised profit would have been 2.4 on a cost of 27.7, about 8.7
per cent for four years of risk. The timeline records every movement in the cost, and the contingency
arithmetic beneath it is the whole argument for change control: two draws against 0.8 held leaves
0.30, and had the enlarged entrance at month 24 been approved at 0.28 there would have been 0.02 left
when inflation arrived at month 33 — enough to cover it, by 0.02, so the test would have passed, not failed as the first version said. The programme risk that mattered was not construction. One month
was lost on site; three were lost to the discharge of conditions nobody had programmed. Added: the profit bridge now matches the movements in value and cost (the lost unit alone is worth 0.66, more than twice the value shortfall), the chapter’s total cost of 26.1 is shown not to rebuild from its own lines (26.7), and the outturn is 18 per cent on the basis of the 20 per cent target, 14 only on total cost.
The 28-point land appraisal checklist in its five stages, with a column for the cost incurred so
that the sequence stays honest: desktop work measured in days, then the single obvious problem every
site has, then intrusive and specialist work only once stage one clears. Doing them in that order is
what makes cheap diligence the highest-return spend on a scheme. Then the six questions to ask of
every cost plan, every time — what design information it is based on, what is excluded, what
allowances are included, what inflation and to what date, what contingency and whose, and what the
abnormals are based on. Plus the four numbers to report monthly and the three rules of contingency
discipline.
The risk register with its five fields, including the trigger — the observable event that
says this is materialising, which is the field nobody fills in and the one that turns a register from
a document into a management tool. The eleven risks that recur, to be reviewed monthly at the same
meeting as the cost report and the programme, because they are the same subject seen three ways. The
six-step change control protocol with the category table and the claims discipline. The completion and
handover checklist, built on the principle that the handover package is not something you receive but
something you check. And ten interview questions with what a good answer contains, useful from either
side of the table.
Chapter 14 says the judgement is a probability-weighted comparison and then, in three words:
“Write that comparison down.” It never does. This writes it down, on the
chapter’s own scheme — four floors, an occupier wanting two of them at eight per cent
below market on a fifteen-year term, conditional on a dedicated entrance.
The rent concession costs 1.91 times its own NPV. A developer prices it as 16,000 a
year for fifteen years — 145,727 discounted. A buyer capitalises it in perpetuity, so at exit
it is 278,261. The rule worth carrying out of this file: divide rent foregone by
your exit yield, not by your discount rate.
The void of the whole building costs 682,000, two and a half times the concession. But the occupier takes two floors of four, and what a two-floor pre-let removes is the holding cost, rent-free and fees on those two: 206,000 over a twelve-month void. The interest runs until the other two let. And the largest line in it is not the interest
everyone watches; it is the rent-free incentive a completed empty building needs, which speculative
appraisals routinely omit because it feels like rent arriving later rather than a cost.
Then the comparison itself, corrected. The first version’s “certain” pre-let let the other two floors on completion day, and charged the speculative void interest on 60 per cent of the loan. With the same four outcomes applied to both, the pre-let earns 316,422 to 1,092,661 and speculation -801,333 to 831,667. The pre-let wins in every outcome, by at least 260,994, so no probability makes speculating right. The room to concede is smaller than the first version said: it keeps winning in every outcome up to a 15.3 per cent discount and beats the expected case up to 21.5 (not 21 and 31). The occupier asked for eight.
And the concession nobody priced. The dedicated entrance takes three per cent of the building and is
worth the same as a six per cent rent discount — permanently, where the rent
discount runs fifteen years. The occupier asked for eight on rent and six in configuration, and the
negotiation was about the eight, because the eight had a number attached. Eight plus six is fourteen: a point and a bit inside the level at which the pre-let stops winning in every outcome. Twenty-one checks.
Two workbooks with every input emptied. The checks sheets count what is still missing and test what holds for any inputs.
Chapters 3 and 14 · Appendix H
A blank residual, and a blank pre-letting decision
The residual appraisal with your value, costs and required profit, the four tests with your own delay, the reverse question for the price on the table, and a quarterly cash flow that is checked against the summary: it says so when the two stop carrying the same costs. And the pre-letting decision for your own offer: the concession priced three ways, the void, your own four outcomes for the floors not pre-let, the discount at which the pre-let stops winning, and any condition priced as a rent discount.
The book’s figures are listed in a text file inside the archive. Typed back in, they return 6.4, 1.4, 2.9, 1.4 and -7.1, and a pre-let that wins in every outcome up to 15.3 per cent.
Thirteen pages to print and use. A4, with margins wide enough for US Letter.
Chapters 2 to 15 · Appendices A to E and H
Thirteen working documents
The first pass and the walk-away number. Land diligence in five stages, with the cost of each item. The residual on one page with the four tests and the two numbers for the front page. Consent as four risks, with satisfactory consent defined and every approval mapped. The brief and where cost concentrates. The cost plan’s six questions and the monthly four numbers. Procurement and the terms that matter. The facility and the cost-to-complete test. The programme review and the site walk. The risk register with its trigger. The change control register. The pre-let paper. And completion, handover and stabilisation, to the facility’s maturity.
A workbook that marks itself. Answer in the yellow cells; the marking fills in as you go.
All parts of the book
Forty questions on the book
Seven on the role, land and the residual, seven on consent, design, cost and procurement, seven on funding, programme, the team and change, six on risk, performance, pre-letting and completion, seven on Chapter 16 and Appendix H, and six on the three cases below. Numbers are marked to a tolerance, multiple choice to the letter, and the score sheet counts your errors part by part: that is your revision list.
Nothing is hidden. The marking sheet holds every answer, every tolerance, and the reason for each answer.
New material, not a restatement. Three situations the chapters name and never take to a number. Each case is one workbook: the note is the first sheet, the model is the rest, and a checks sheet closes it. Type your own figures in and every finding recomputes.
Chapter 4 · Case one
Four units against eighteen months
Chapter 4 says to quantify the consentable scheme against the optimal one and that “the comparison is rarely close”. On Chapter 16’s scheme the four units are 0.87 of margin, a quarter of the profit; an appeal after a refusal at month 13 outruns the 24-month option by 7 months. Route B wins only once the refusal risk passes 34.3 per cent: close enough that it has to be written down.
Chapters 7 and 9 · Case two
What a week costs
Chapter 16’s contract of 15.6 and facility of 16.5. A week of delay costs the developer 0.0454 if the client caused it, 0.0238 if it was neutral and 0.0038 if the contractor did and pays damages: the same month costs twelve times more when the client causes it. The damages cap covers 39 weeks; beyond it delay is free to the contractor.
Chapter 15 · Case three
The refinancing at month ten
Chapter 15’s stabilisation on Appendix H’s building: half pre-let, a floor let at month seven with nine months rent-free, the last floor empty when the facility matures. The balance is 4,116,640; on contracted income net of incentives the lender advances 3,044,167. The developer must find 1,072,473, and the rent actually being paid covers the new loan’s interest 1.01 times. Fully let, as the appraisal assumed, there is no gap.
an input in the blank set and the cases, all emptied or marked
ADDED
a figure the book does not give, used in the cases and marked wherever it appears
Yellow fill
the assumptions that carry the answer
On the checks sheets
Fifty lines are checked across the three computing workbooks (fourteen in the residual appraisal, fifteen in the worked scheme, twenty-one in the pre-letting decision), and twelve internal checks were added on 23 September 2026; all pass. Each line carries its own tolerance, set to the precision the book actually prints. Every other workbook ends with its own checks sheet.
Two readings had to be taken out of the arithmetic rather than from the text, and both are stated on the
sheet where they matter. Chapter 3 holds the required profit at its appraised money amount across
the four tests rather than recomputing it on the higher costs — the only reading that reproduces 1.4 and 2.9 (test 4, which the chapter calls only “negative”, is −7.1). Chapter 16 states a revised residual of 5.9 without itemising the
revised cost; solving backwards gives a cost excluding land of 20.4. In each case the input that carries
the reading is blue, and the note beside it says what the other reading would produce.
Go beyond the companion files
The Real Estate Development Manager develops the complete framework behind these models, with the assumptions, trade-offs and worked examples tied together.
The workbooks open in Microsoft Excel, LibreOffice Calc, Google Sheets and Numbers; the PDF prints on A4 or US Letter. They use no macros
and no add-ins, so nothing needs to be enabled or trusted. If your spreadsheet asks to update links on
opening, decline — there are none.
The book these files come from
The Real Estate Development Manager by Julian R. Sterling. The workbooks reproduce the worked examples in the
chapters; the book is where the reasoning behind them is set out.
What changed, and when
23 Sep 2026
Three workbooks corrected. The residual appraisal: test 4 left out the 8 per cent cost rise (-7.1, not −2.1), and the cash flow carried 7.5 of fees and statutory costs against 12, so its interest is 8.0, not 7.3. The worked scheme: had the entrance been approved, the cost-to-complete test would have passed by 0.02, not failed; the profit bridge now matches the movements. The pre-letting decision: a two-floor pre-let removes 206,000 of the 682,000 void, and the “certain” pre-let let the other floors on completion day; corrected, it still wins in every outcome, up to a 15.3 per cent discount rather than 21. Added: a blank set, thirteen working documents, forty questions that mark themselves and three new cases. Each workbook can now also be downloaded on its own.
How do you calculate residual land value?GDV less costs, finance and profit leaves the residual, then strip out land costs and land finance. A 2,991,000 residual supports a land bid of 2,446,119.
How do you calculate GDV for a development?Units at achieved prices plus let space at rent over yield, net of purchaser's costs. 60 flats and a shop give a GDV of 24,017,165 in this worked case.
How do you calculate peak funding on a development?Run the monthly cash flow and find the highest balance: 17,608,133 in month 17 on 23,020,000 of cost, rising to 24,000,127 if no home sells before completion.
How is an overage payment calculated on a land sale?Run the residual with and without the new consent and share the uplift. Twelve extra homes add 688,800 of land value; a 50% overage pays 284,400, not 780,000.
How is CIL calculated on a new development?CIL = rate x net chargeable area x index. On a 5,400 sq m scheme replacing 1,200 sq m in use, the levy is 758,593, and 975,333 if the building sat empty.
Closing the DealTwo defensible bridges 20.70 million apart, a peg worth 7.00 million, and the six choices that remove 6.60 of a 12.00 earn-out.
CMBS and CRE CLOsWhere the loss actually lands, from appraisal reduction to realised severity, and what the B-piece is really being paid for.
How to Read a Commercial LeaseThe three refinements chapter 19 names and never performs, and the renewal rate below which the mark-to-market is worth nothing.
How to Read a Credit AgreementWhere the default actually comes from, the cure that costs 5.5 times the other, and the capacity nobody adds up.
How to Read a Real Estate Loan AgreementThe cure ratio in closed form, the four-point window in which the cheap cure works, and the cure sized to the wrong threshold.
Office Real EstateA six per cent yield that returns 3.2 per cent once the re-letting cycle is paid for, and the headline-to-net-effective rent arithmetic.
Private Equity Real EstateBoth worked waterfalls to the dollar, the two capital stacks, and the arithmetic of the promote made changeable.
Private Markets PerformanceThirty-one of the thirty-three figures chapter 19 publishes reproduce exactly — and the two that do not are named rather than quietly adopted.
Raising a Real Estate FundThe chapter 17 funnel run on a calendar — when the first close actually lands, and why more travel does not help.
Real Estate FinanceFour people look at one building and reach four numbers; the lender is whole only above 105,109,489, twelve per cent below today’s value rather than forty.
Real Estate Financial ModelingProperty, development and fund models built line by line, and the modelling test worked end to end.
Real Estate Fund ManagementThe waterfall of 6.11, the build-to-core of 8.7 and the proceeds gap, reproduced as live formulas rather than asserted.
REIT Analysis and ValuationFFO of 532.0, AFFO of 381.0, net asset value and dividend safety — every figure a formula you can change.
Retail Real EstateThe occupancy cost of every unit in a centre, the sixteen per cent of the rent roll no tenant can sustain, and the right-size-convert-or-hold decision priced.
Sale and LeasebackA €179.5 million transaction end to end, with rent cover measured on the entity that actually signs the lease.
Self-Storage Real EstateThe cohort engine behind a 590-unit store, and the rate increase on existing customers priced against the move-outs it causes.
The Fund Finance ProfessionalChapter 8 builds the reported-to-eligible NAV bridge; chapter 9 computes every ratio without it. Two points at every state — and what a subscription line does to the IRR.
The Growth Equity InvestorWhat a pro rata cheque really costs, and the band where defending your ownership loses money.
The Private Credit InvestorThe two coverage ratios are not measured on the same thing: the erosion is 47.7 per cent, not the 28.7 the headline implies.
The Private Equity Fund Controller PlaybookThe book defines IRR, DPI, RVPI and TVPI, tells you to update them at the exit, and prints not one value. Computed: a 1.833× deal inside a fund at 0.892 TVPI.
The Venture Capital AssociateWhat defending a position costs, and how many companies a reserve pool actually defends.
Financial Risk ManagementA fund inside every limit that cannot meet a redemption — and the number that decides it is the one with no currency attached.
Business ValuationThree advisers land 26.8 per cent apart on one company, and the whole gap turns out to be 1.96 points of perpetual growth.
Quantitative FinanceThree models agree to a quarter of one per cent about a number that one unobservable input moves a hundred and three times as much.
Asset ManagementFour people quote four returns for one mandate, all correct and 2.7017 points apart — forty-eight times the manager’s net skill.
Alternative InvestmentsA manager reports 13.29 per cent and the endowment earns 6.26 — both correct, and only a third of the advertised advantage arrives.
Credit AnalysisFour defensible EBITDAs on one borrower give leverage from 3.19x to 6.47x — and the add-back argument is fifty times the covenant headroom.
Venture CapitalOne company out of twenty-eight returns 56.7 per cent of the fund, and half the capital goes in after the decision — at half the return.
Machine Learning for FinanceFive people quote the accuracy of one credit model, all five are right, and the number that decides how much money it makes is none of them.
Commercial Real Estate InvestingThe equity earned 8.6647 per cent and the investor received exactly 8.0000 — the preferred return, and nothing above it.
Mergers and AcquisitionsThe board paper says the deal creates 13,436,667 of value. The arithmetic says it destroys 17,530,855. Nobody is lying.
DerivativesThe treasury report says the hedge cost 1,233,698. That is the interest differential, not a cost.
Treasury ManagementFive cash balances for one company, all correct and 145,600,000 apart — and the revolver that is two-thirds of the liquidity leaves at a revenue fall of 8.4127 per cent.
Financial Planning and AnalysisRevenue 3.0190 per cent above budget and operating profit 16.3209 per cent below it, in the same quarter, with every figure correctly stated.
Energy TradingA position report that is 91.7031 per cent hedged and correctly computed, on a book that is short 2,542,000 MWh — and a margin call of 198,400,000 the next morning.
Construction Cost ControlA contract sum of 26,301,102 became a final account of 29,153,363 on the building that was drawn — and 85.8 per cent of what was lost was knowable on the day it was signed.
Trade FinanceSix routes to payment on one 4,200,000 export order cost between 178,040 and 223,268, a spread worth 14.8 per cent of the margin, and a day of buyer credit costs 1,031.76.
Cost AccountingOne factory costed twice on the same 13,440,000 of overhead, and 4,053,091 moves between four product families.
Pricing StrategyA list price of 148.00, a pocket price of 112.51, and the nine deductions in between — with what one point of price is actually worth.
Contract ManagementA bid 5.50 a unit cheaper, signed on paper worth 9.81 a unit more — and 94.68 per cent of it was knowable on the day of signature.
Capital MarketsFour defensible readings of one bond, the cost of an issue under each convention, and the placement discount computed at a constant discount.
Financial RegulationThree ratios pass and the fourth is in breach by 1,956.0 million: the output floor, the liquidity buffer after encumbrance, and the loan split.
Bank ManagementFour defensible readings of one balance sheet, the deposit beta measured two ways, and the liquidity that lasts 3.9 days.
The Real Estate WorkoutFour ways out of one broken loan, discounted to today, and the 58.7 cents at which a payoff beats enforcement.
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