Project assessment: culling and planning rules
Hold your new-build project's unit plan up against the local plan, municipal plan and sub-area — check building percentage, building height, parking and road access, and clarify dispensation needs before running the sales numbers.
Before a new-build project is worth the money, it has to be feasible within the planning rules that apply. In Projektvurdering you build the project's unit plan and hold it up against the local plan, municipal plan and sub-area the property sits in — so building percentage, building height, parking and road access are settled before you run the sales numbers. Plan data comes from public planning and building registers.
1Build the project plan in Projektvurdering
Open Projektvurdering in the left sidebar under Valuation, and search for the address or cadastral parcel you want to develop:
Search address or cadastral parcel…
Then build the project's Unit plan by adding row types with count, sqm per unit, dwelling type and floor. This plan — the total number of units, floors and sqm — is what you later check against the planning rules.
Row type 1 — Count Sqm/unit Dwelling type Floor Row type 2 — Count Sqm/unit Dwelling type Floor
Use Add row type to model several building types in the same project, and Edit plan to adjust as you go.
The unit plan is the basis for the culling: the closer your plan is to the parcel's actual limits, the sharper the assessment of whether the project fits without a dispensation.
2Find the applicable planning rules
The binding limits for the parcel sit as map layers on Map. Enable the plan layers in the layer panel and click the parcel to read the provisions:
Local plans Municipal plans Sub-areas Building percentage
When you click the parcel, the map shows among other things:
- Local plan and Municipal plan — the plan numbers in force for the property
- Sub-area and Sub-area no. — the zone within the local plan that applies right here
- Max building % and Max building height — the hard limits the project must stay under
A local plan can split one area into several sub-areas, each with its own limits. Always check which sub-area the parcel falls in — building percentage and building height can be completely different from the neighbouring parcel.
3Hold the project up against the limits
Now compare the project's unit plan with the limits you found on the map. This is where the culling happens — projects that cannot fit within the limits must either be scaled down or require a dispensation.
For each line you assess whether the unit plan stays under the limit:
- Building percentage — the total floor area relative to the site area, against the max the local plan sets
- Building height — the project's tallest floor against the permitted building height
- Parking — the required number of spaces per dwelling
- Road access — whether the parcel has lawful access to a public road
If a line does not stay within the limit, you have a violation that either requires adjusting the plan or a dispensation from the municipality.
4Get the planning rules interpreted by PlanAI
If the provisions are unclear, ask PlanAI — the chat agent for the Planning Act, local plans and municipal plans. It answers with legal references every time.
Open Chat, choose PlanAI, and ask for example:
- Explain building percentage in local plans
- Can you get a dispensation from a local plan?
PlanAI — Planning Act, local plans, municipal plans and planning practice Local plans Municipal plans Dispensation
Use PlanAI to assess whether a specific violation is likely to get a dispensation — or whether the project should be scaled down so it stays within the applicable limits from the start.
PlanAI can also open the full local plan as a PDF, so you can read the exact provision that applies to your sub-area.