Thanks Bill! In Vancouver there's a number of people who work in for-profit and non-profit development who have been trying to educate councillors and candidates on how a pro forma works. I wanted to come up with a version that's dead simple (not trying to break out the individual costs) and that illustrates the basic ideas.
The tricky thing is that the numbers in the calculation (selling price, total cost, what the landowner wants) need to come with huge asterisks beside them - they're hard to estimate, they're always changing, and even small changes have a big impact on economic viability. I figured if people could try it out themselves by changing the numbers, they'd get a feel for it.
This is one of those short articles that leaves all the mainstream media's work in the dust. I cannot thank you enough for these posts!
Thanks Bill! In Vancouver there's a number of people who work in for-profit and non-profit development who have been trying to educate councillors and candidates on how a pro forma works. I wanted to come up with a version that's dead simple (not trying to break out the individual costs) and that illustrates the basic ideas.
The tricky thing is that the numbers in the calculation (selling price, total cost, what the landowner wants) need to come with huge asterisks beside them - they're hard to estimate, they're always changing, and even small changes have a big impact on economic viability. I figured if people could try it out themselves by changing the numbers, they'd get a feel for it.