Groundsure: Is Your Site History Holding Back Your Project?

Every project starts with a site. But how well do you really know it?

For professionals working in the property and land sector, a site’s visible condition is only part of the story. What lies beneath the surface, both literally and historically, can have a direct impact on how smoothly your project progresses. In fact, it’s often what you cannot see that introduces the greatest risk. 

The unseen obstacles in your way

Old industrial use, demolished buildings, historic transport infrastructure and infilled ground are not always obvious at first glance, yet they can lead to planning constraints, environmental concerns or legal challenges down the line. These hidden layers of a site’s land use history can affect remediation strategies, valuations, planning permission, contract negotiations and more. They’re the sort of details that, if uncovered too late, can slow down or even derail a project.

Relying on assumptions is a risk

Too often, teams rely on current land data or visible site features when preparing proposals or due diligence. While that’s a logical starting point, it rarely gives the full picture. Without a proper understanding of how a site has evolved over time, you may miss former land uses, now-concealed structures or changes to site boundaries that change the risk profile entirely. 

This is particularly important when advising clients, responding to planning queries or preparing reports. If you can’t provide historical evidence to support your position, it can lead to further scrutiny or even costly delays.

Information overload or information gaps?

Accessing historical information and environmental data hasn’t always been straightforward. In many cases, it involves a combination of old reports, archived maps or separate datasets that do not talk to each other. Some professionals choose to skip it altogether because it takes too much time to source and interpret. However, skipping it can create gaps and those gaps in the site assessment can come back to haunt your project. But what if it did not have to be this way? 

Time for a better approach

As expectations around property due diligence grow and planning scrutiny increases, there’s a clear need for a more efficient way to access and use historical site data, one that removes the barriers to insight and makes it easier to spot risks before they become roadblocks. Soon, a new way of performing historical site analysis will be available. It‘ll help professionals to perform site due diligence with historical maps and see more, decide faster and move forward with confidence. If you have ever wondered whether you’re missing something beneath the surface, it may be time to take a closer look at the past.

A major update is on the horizon

Something new is coming to Groundure Insights in June. Follow us on our social channels and blog to be amongst the first to find out what’s next. This is an update you won’t want to miss. 

Kindly shared by Groundsure