Know where the real red line is.
An independent planning second opinion on London small sites — before you commit six figures. One sentence: what I’d do if it were my money, and why.
Every site you’ll ever buy starts with a red line plan. The Red Line Review shows you where the real red line is: the point past which you should stop spending.
Every review ends in one sentence
Every verdict carries a confidence rating — High, Medium or Low — with the reasons, and where confidence is not high, the specific things I’d need to know before it could be.
How it works
What you send
The agent’s particulars, the address, any drawings, your intended purchase price, your development idea, and any planning history you know of.
The four lenses
Planning context (what this borough actually approves for similar sites), development potential, the risk review, and the verdict.
What you get
A five-page written review closing on a standalone verdict page, with comparable evidence and annotated site observations as appendices, and a 45-minute call.
My verdict
“I’d buy it.”
Confidence: High
A professional judgement, not a prediction. Information, not advice; no reliance.
No launch discount. Two commitments instead.
The business is never rewarded for encouraging a purchase, only for helping you make a better one.
Who it’s for
SME developers at heads of terms, auction bidders working to a lot date, and acquisition teams weighing an option — the buy-side, whose capital is at risk. The review exists for the moment before commitment.
London small sites, one to nine homes. Not sold for sites in any borough where Perfect Scale holds policy authorship (currently Merton) — a structural separation from the SPD authorship and the design-review seat.
About
Independent, and on your side of the table.
I’ve sat on every side of this one. Designing schemes as an architect. Assessing them at a London council. Acquiring sites and managing planning as a developer. Fourteen years of watching the gap between what policy says and what officers actually approve.
An architect and planning consultant advocate for a scheme. I don’t. The one thing an advocate can’t tell you is to walk away — and that is often the most valuable thing to hear.
Abre Etteh, ARB Registered Architect. Author of the Merton Small Sites Toolkit SPD — one of only three adopted small-sites design guides in London. Design review panel member.
The evidence behind the verdict
My verdicts are backed by hundreds of comparable schemes across London. The borough data is free to download if you want to check my working.
Before you commit six figures, get a second opinion.
One sentence on what I’d do if it were my money, and why. £950, five working days; £1,250 for the 72-hour fast-track. If you don’t think it was worth the fee, I’ll refund it.