Most landowners who contact us have already decided what their problem is. The site is right, the vision is clear, and the one thing missing is someone to fund it.
We have now completed fifteen pre-feasibility studies. In all fifteen, the owner finished the study further from an investor conversation than they expected to be.
The land itself was rarely what held them back. What was missing were answers to the questions an investor asks in the first meeting, and nobody had yet asked those questions about the site.
What an investor is actually buying
An investor funds a defined project: a permitted use, a number of keys the site can carry, a known cost to connect it, and a timeline they can underwrite. A plot with a view and a hectare figure comes earlier than that. It is the possibility of a project.
When the possibility is presented as if it were the project, one of two things usually happens. The investor declines, or agrees on terms that price in every question the owner has left open. Either way, the owner pays for answers they could have bought more cheaply themselves.
Where the gaps usually are
Across very different countries, the same five questions keep coming back.
- Land use. The plot is zoned for agriculture, or tourism is allowed only on a footprint far smaller than the plan assumes. A change of designation may be possible, but it is a process with its own timeline and no guaranteed outcome.
- Protected status. Coastal setbacks, habitat protection, landscape or heritage designations. They sit on maps the owner has never had a reason to open.
- Infrastructure. Water, power, wastewater and road access. Remoteness is what guests pay for and what the budget pays to overcome, and a few kilometres of new connection can change the economics of the whole project.
- Unit count. Owners usually arrive with a number of keys in mind. The site has its own number, set by ecology, topography, regulation and the experience being promised, and when the two differ, the site's number is the one that holds.
- Timeline. Owners tend to think in seasons. Permitting authorities think in years, and an investor will ask which of the two the plan is built on.
Why the order matters
An owner rarely gets a second first meeting with the same investor. If the conversation ends on a question that a few weeks of work could have answered, that no tends to stick.
The cost runs the same way. Learning that a site sits inside a coastal setback or needs a new power line is cheap at pre-feasibility stage. Learning it after concept design, architect fees and a pitch deck is not.
Sometimes the honest answer is that the project should be smaller than planned, phased differently, or not built at all. That answer is worth having before anyone's money is committed, the owner's included.
What a pre-feasibility study gives you
Our pre-feasibility study covers the site itself, its regulatory position, infrastructure, the market it would compete in and an outline financial model. It closes with a risk summary written for the person who will eventually be asked to fund the project.
The result is one of two things: a defined project you can take to capital with confidence, or a clear view of what has to change before you do. Both are worth more than a pitch built on assumptions.
The study is paid, and its fee is credited against the project if you continue with EPIC Cabins as your development partner.
A test before the investor
Imagine an investor asks you tomorrow what can legally be built on your land, how many keys it can carry, and what it costs to bring in water and power. How many of those could you answer with a document rather than a belief?
If the honest count is lower than you would like, write to andis@epic-cabins.com and tell us about the site.
Andis Ronbergs, Founder, EPIC Cabins