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Package 4 · One area

Call before you buy the land.

Landowner and planning authority at once — with the separation built in.

The constraints on a site — soil, climate designation, noise, planning basis — determine what the development right is worth. And the municipality's first impression of a project is hard to undo. That is why this package sits a whole step earlier than the others: before the purchase, and in any case before the first meeting with the municipality.

When the authority owns the land itself, the planning monopoly works the other way: you cannot buy a development right, you have to justify it, sell at market price and keep the administration's two roles apart. The area model, the scenarios and the planning basis are built for exactly that — and for consultation deadlines and the committee calendar.

Who the service is for

A contiguous site, a future local plan area, an urban regeneration area.

Developers and landowners with a site from around 5,000 buildable square metres upwards — greenfield or transformation of a built-up area. Below around 5,000 m² the full package is not proportionate; there we sell phase 1 on its own. Under the Danish Planning Act the client can only provide assistance — the municipality prepares the plan. Our job is to make that assistance good enough that the plan gets made.

Municipalities and regions as landowner, the state as client, social housing organisations in urban regeneration. Four markers in the register: transformation, greenfield, social housing — and the two documents that exist only when the client is also the planning authority.

Basis

Open public data — plainly stated

Elevation model, GeoDanmark, the building register, the cadastre, Plandata. There is no free Danish 3D building product; the city model is built from what exists. We never promise "retrieval of existing 3D data".

Constraints

Soil, climate, noise, planning

All Danish urban zone land is classified as lightly contaminated. Climate adaptation is a mandatory provision in designated areas. The noise limits are guidance, but they are the basis for planning. All of it is in the area model, with sources.

Scenarios

What the development right can carry

Sun and shadow, wind, climate requirement per m², floor area against plot ratio — as scenarios that can be compared, not as a single proposal. The assumptions are agreed in the analysis plan, so they can be defended to a neighbour or a committee.

Planning basis

The assistance to the municipality

The basis for the draft local plan, environmental screening, maps in the format Plandata requires — and a process that fits the 8–10 months of procedure that a case with a municipal plan amendment takes at minimum.

The process

Weeks on the basis — months with the authority.

We cannot shorten a consultation period. Pre-consultation, eight weeks for a municipal plan supplement, four weeks for a local plan proposal, a four-week waiting period, the political meeting calendar and a four-week appeal period are fixed. In return, no running fee is invoiced for a month that is spent only waiting. Click a step and see what happens, what you get, and what the gate onwards requires.

Phase 0 · 1–2 weeks

Agreement

The area is delimited, ownership is mapped, and the agreement is written with a change-of-ownership clause — because land gets sold along the way. Deducted from phase 1.

What happens

Area fact sheet: boundary, land parcels, owners, planning basis and what has already been said to the municipality
Ownership and agreements: who owns what, who holds options, who has to sign
Scope against local plan consultancy, land surveyor and environmental surveys — what is included, and what is bought as a partner service
A proposal with a fixed price for phase 1 by the size and constraints of the area

Deliverables

Area fact sheet
Ownership and agreement map
Proposal and framework agreement with change-of-ownership clause

The gate onwardsAgreement signed and area fact sheet approved → phase 1

The clientSends sketches, purchase agreements or options and what the municipality has already said — and says when the decision to buy must be taken.

Prices · excl. VAT

Five phases. One from-price per phase — from about DKK 48 per buildable square metre down to about 12.

Phases 0 and 1 have a fixed price from day one. Phases 2 and 3 are a base fee plus a monthly fee, because a planning process takes as long as the authority takes — and nothing is charged for a month spent purely waiting for a consultation period.

Phase 0AgreementArea data sheet, ownership, scope and framework agreement with a change-of-ownership clause — credited in full against phase 1from14,500 DKK

Phase 1Review and digital area strategyBase model, constraints, soil and noise · M1 ambition level · analysis plan, model and detail planfrom59,000 DKK

Phase 2Scenarios and digital area modelBase model, scenarios for sun, shadow, wind and climate — and the decision map that brings them togetherfrom109,000 DKK + from DKK 6,500/month

Phase 3Buy-in, authority process and local planThe assistance to the municipality up to publication — and a planning package with maps in Plandata formatfrom79,000 DKK + from DKK 5,500/month · planning package from DKK 45,000

Phase 4Partnership20, 35, 55 or 85 hours per month — stage by stage, through the 5–15 years an area takes to buildfrom19,500 DKK per month

What the price follows

The buildable square metres — the floor area in the development rights, not the size of the site. Four steps: up to 10,000, 10,000–40,000, 40,000–120,000 and above 120,000 m². Below around 5,000 m² we sell phase 1 on its own, and say so.

Payment

Net 14 days. Phase 0 is paid on signing and credited in full against phase 1. Phase 1 is paid in advance with a 3 % discount up to DKK 129,000 — above that, half in advance and half at milestone M1. Phase 2 in three instalments, phase 3 per deliverable, phase 4 monthly in advance. Partner services — scanning, platform — at the partner's price plus 12 % for specifying, ordering and checking. Survey work — drone, scanning, measurement — is a partner service.

Why

There is no digitisation requirement for you. There are four statutes that decide what the site is worth.

The planning monopoly

The client provides assistance, the municipality prepares the plan. There is no statutory requirement for a public meeting, but a preliminary debate is mandatory for a municipal plan amendment — and a missing preliminary debate is overturned by the Danish Planning Appeals Board.

Climate adaptation as a planning requirement

In areas the municipal plan has designated as at risk of flooding or erosion, the local plan must include mitigation measures. It is a mandatory provision, and it costs development rights if it is discovered late.

The soil, before the housing

If the site is changed to housing or institutional use, the Danish Soil Contamination Act requires a permit first — and all urban zone land is in principle lightly contaminated. Moving soil has rules of its own.

The climate requirement per m²

The limit value for the buildings the plan makes possible decides which structures the development right can carry. That is calculated into the scenarios, not discovered during the building case. The requirement is set to tighten in 2027 and 2029 — the dates are political intent, not issued rules.

On the other hand

Neither the BIM regulation nor the Public Procurement Act applies to you. You can go from decision to order in a week — and you can assign the agreement if you sell the site along the way. The model follows the agreement, not the property; that is in the framework agreement from day one.

Prices · excl. VAT

Five phases. One from-price per phase — set against the thresholds in the Public Procurement Act.

At all four steps phases 0 and 1 stay below DKK 500,000, where part V of the Public Procurement Act does not apply. The full journey must be tendered from DKK 1,044,400 for the state and DKK 1,611,360 for municipalities. Buying phase 1 on its own because you do not know whether there will be a phase 2 is legitimate — buying it to avoid a tender is not.

Phase 0Agreement and procurement basisArea data sheet, functional separation, conflict of interest, ABR 18 framework agreement, e-invoicing basis — credited in full against phase 1from24,500 DKK

Phase 1Review and digital area strategyBase model and constraints · M1 · analysis plan, model and detail plan, committee recommendationfrom89,000 DKK

Phase 2Scenarios and digital area modelBase model, scenarios and decision map — including the market price of the development rightfrom139,000 DKK + from DKK 8,500/month

Phase 3Planning basis, authority process and adoptionPlanning basis, consultation and political consideration up to publication — and the planning packagefrom109,000 DKK + from DKK 7,500/month · planning package from DKK 59,000

Phase 4Partnership20, 35, 55 or 85 hours per month, 2 years plus two options — charged to the operating budgetfrom20,500 DKK per month

What the price follows

The buildable square metres in four steps — up to 10,000, 10,000–40,000, 40,000–120,000 and above 120,000 m². You order survey work yourselves as an owner-supplied service, so the amount does not count towards the threshold.

Payment

No advance payment. Each instalment is tied to a deliverable and invoiced in arrears, net 30 days, as an e-invoice to the EAN number with a requisition number. Phase 1 in three instalments — review report, milestone M1, approved area strategy. Phase 3 in three instalments against start-up, delivered planning basis and publication — and no invoice for a month spent purely waiting. As a rule you order survey work and platform yourselves as an owner-supplied service, so the amount does not count towards the threshold.

Five drivers

What is different when the authority owns the land itself.

The dual role

Landowner and planning authority have to be kept functionally separate. The area model and the scenarios are written so they can be put openly on the table — and so the planning department can assess them like any other client's assistance.

The market price

Sales of municipal and regional real property must be at market price following a public offering, with the exceptions the regulation allows. A reduced price on building plots is unlawful state aid. The scenarios therefore also have to show what the development right is worth.

The appropriation comes a year earlier

Capital requests are discussed in the standing committees from February to June, and the budget is adopted by 15 October at the latest. Phase 1 takes 6–10 weeks and has to be in place before the planning process can go into the budget.

The BIM regulation does not apply to the planning process — and that is not an advantage

It is triggered by a construction sum and applies to building, not planning. It does, however, kick in for the building projects the plan makes possible — and if the requirements are not written until then, the model cannot be inherited.

Questions we get

The honest answer.

Can you guarantee the municipality will say yes?

No. And nor can anyone else. What we can do is make the assistance so complete — constraints, climate, soil, noise, scenarios with their assumptions — that the planning department does not have to ask for what it usually asks for. And say early if the site cannot carry what is wanted.

What if I sell the site along the way?

The agreement can be assigned, and the model goes with it. That is in the framework agreement, because the ordinary rules do not solve it: an agreement does not change party by itself when the property does. Put plainly as an advantage — it is one, for the buyer.

How long does the authority process take?

At least 8–10 months of pure procedure on a case with a municipal plan amendment — preliminary debate, eight weeks, four weeks, a four-week standstill, the meeting calendar, a four-week appeal period. An appeal does not suspend the plan unless the board so decides; the board's processing time was 4.5–5.6 months in 2025.

Does the area have to be scanned by drone?

Rarely to begin with — the basis is open public data. If flying is needed, the EU rules and the Danish executive order apply: consent from residents when flying over houses and gardens, liability insurance whatever the drone weighs, subcategory A2 in built-up areas. The partner handles it; the requirements are in our order.

What is "LoD" in a city model — the same as in BIM?

No. The city model's LoD is a geometric scale; BIM's LOD is the maturity of the information. They measure different things and appear as two separate columns in the model and detail plan. Mix them up and you have agreed nothing.

Next step

Send us the cadastral number — preferably before you have bought it.

Send us the area. Then you get a price basis, a purchasing route and a timetable with the consultation periods built in.

30 minutes, free of charge. We will say what the development right is worth investigating — and what phase 1 costs.

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