What Experience Teaches That Feasibilities Never Will

Feasibility studies remain a critical starting point in property development. They provide structure, test assumptions, and offer a snapshot of viability. But experience teaches something feasibility models never can: numbers alone do not carry projects through uncertainty.

In current market conditions, shaped by economic pressure, labour constraints, and rising construction costs, feasibility assumptions are being tested harder than ever. Current affairs reporting continues to highlight an increase in liquidations, insolvencies, bankruptcies, and contractual disputes across the construction sector. These outcomes rarely result from a single poor decision. More often, they stem from underestimating complexity and overestimating control.

Feasibility models work best in stable environments. Experience is forged in unstable ones. It is built through exposure to delayed approvals, contractor disputes, cash flow pressure, and moments where money is owed, decisions tighten, and discipline matters most.

Judgement—earned over time—fills the gaps spreadsheets cannot. It teaches restraint when margins appear attractive but risk is misaligned. It teaches when build quality must take priority over speed. And it sharpens the instinct to recognise when systems are insufficient to support ambition.

Every dollar lost in development is not wasted if it is converted into wisdom. Losses become building blocks. They strengthen future decisions, reinforce the importance of buffers, and protect against the optimism that often precedes failure.

Experience does not eliminate risk. It manages it.

This perspective is shaped by decades of delivering developments through shifting market cycles via Erfanian Constructions and Erfanian Developments, where quality, discipline, and long-term thinking remain non-negotiable.