Real Estate
Title Diligence on Assembled Development Sites
An assembled site is only as sound as its weakest parcel — and the weakest parcel is rarely the largest.
Site assembly concentrates risk in the small holdings. Access strips, historical rights of way, and unregistered interests attach disproportionately to fragments that the commercial model treats as rounding.
Diligence should therefore be weighted by legal complexity rather than by area or price. A parcel representing two per cent of the acquisition cost can hold one hundred per cent of the development risk if it carries the only viable access.
We recommend mapping servicing and access dependencies before title investigation begins, so that investigation intensity follows dependency rather than value.
Where a dependency cannot be cleared, the answer is usually structural: conditionality, staged completion, or a price adjustment mechanism tied to resolution.
This article is general commentary and does not constitute legal advice. No attorney-client relationship arises from reading it. Advice on a specific matter should be sought before acting.