Property data or site feasibility? They're not the same tool.
A question we get a lot: how is Feasibility different from a property data platform?
It's fair to ask. Both pull property information, both save you hours, and both end up on your screen when you're sizing up a site. But they answer different questions, and once you see that, the overlap disappears.
Property data platforms tell you what a property's worth. Feasibility tells you what you can build on the site.
Property data tools, the kind most real estate agents live in, are built around sales history, the CV, titles, comparable sales, ownership and prospecting. If your job is to price a property, list it, or find the owner, that's exactly what they're good at. It's the market and value side of a site.
Feasibility sits at the other end. It's a site report tool for the people who design, consent and build. You enter one address and it pulls together the planning picture: the zone and its standards, height limits, setbacks, site coverage and yard rules; active overlays and the activities that trigger resource consent; flood and hazard risk; landslide susceptibility; underground services; the LINZ title with any covenants or easements flagged; and an indicative subdivision yield. It comes back as a clear, traffic-light report you can send straight to a client or attach to a consent application. About 30 seconds, across Auckland, Whangārei and Christchurch.
So the split is simple. A property data tool answers "what has this property done and what's it worth." Feasibility answers "what can I legally build here, and what's going to bite me." One is for selling and valuing. The other is for designing and consenting.
There's a little overlap at the edges - both touch title, and some property platforms include a basic subdivision figure. But that's as far as those tools go on the build side, and it's the whole point of what Feasibility does. If you're an architect, builder, developer or planner, that difference matters. You don't want a sales record when you're trying to work out whether a site will take three lots or one.
Most people who use both keep them for different moments - one when the question is about the market, the other when the question is about the land and what can be built.
If you've mostly used property data tools, it's worth seeing what a site feasibility report actually gives you before you assume it's the same thing. The easiest way is to run a site you know and see what comes back. Your first report is free, so there's nothing to lose.
Written by Lisa Byrne, founder of Feasibility.