Feasibility study
A feasibility study starts with what the plot can take and who owns it. Then come zoning, noise, cultural heritage, ground conditions, flooding, access, water and sewage, walking distance and terrain. This page works through the whole checklist point by point and shows which map layer answers each one.
From a week to under a day
The points below are the same list a site analysis has always consisted of. What is new is the number of lookups. Before, each point meant its own register, its own portal and its own municipality, with a download and georeferencing in a separate tool. Just working out what lay within walking distance of the plot, a grocery store, school and kindergarten, was a job in itself. Add zoning status, ownership, ground conditions, noise, cultural heritage and the rest of the points below, and the round often took several days. Each point now takes minutes, and the whole round below is typically done in under one day.
The gain lies in the combination, not in the single lookup. Fetching one zoning plan is just as quick in the municipality's own map portal, and that portal is good. What takes the work from a week to a day is fetching the zoning plan, the ownership, the public transport routes and the walking distance to the destinations, for the same plot, in the same session, without downloading anything.
Three things make the difference:
- Everything sits in the same map. Plan, ownership, noise, ground conditions, nature, road, water and sewage and destinations are layers in the same surface, not a dozen downloads that have to be georeferenced against each other.
- The plot is already identified. Matrikkel, owner, ownership chain, buildings, encumbrances and transaction history are in the Property panel from the first click.
- The findings survive the session. Tags hold the candidate list, Projects gather the plots in the study, and Reports give you a document you can pass on.
The time you save is not lost: you spend it on assessment instead of collection. Screenshots from the map can go straight into an early-stage offer, and on into your own graphic templates when the study is to be delivered.
Who this is for
Architects, planners and project owners who need to assess a plot before they submit a planning initiative or write an offer. Housing developers and contractors with their own land bank use the same list to refresh a site analysis that is a few years old.
The data is the same wherever in the country the plot lies: more than 250 main map layers in 18 categories, with around 2,300 sub-layers and more than 3.5 million matrikkelenheter. See Placepoint in numbers for the full overview.
The checklist
| Item | What you look for | Where in Placepoint |
|---|---|---|
| Parties | Owners, ownership chains, who else is building in the area | Property panel, Business |
| Plan | Purpose, development density, heights, parking, consideration zones | Zoning |
| Noise and air | Yellow and red zone under T-1442, rail, aviation | Noise, Pollution |
| Cultural heritage | SEFRAK buildings, automatically protected cultural heritage | Zoning |
| Ground conditions | Marine border, quick clay, landslides, contaminated land | Geology, Risk |
| Nature and water | Species, flooding, storm surge, groundwater, arable land | Nature, Water |
| Access | Building limits, speed limit, traffic volume | Transport and communications |
| Technical infrastructure | Water and sewage along roads, manholes, power lines | Water, Energy |
| Destinations and neighbourhood | Walking distance to school and shop, housing mix | Education, Demographics |
| Terrain and sun | Elevation profile, daylight, shadow, line of sight | 3D mode |
| Volume | Development alternatives, terrain shaping | 3D-Designer |
You switch the map layers on from Map layer in the left menu. See Activate a map layer if you have not done it before.
Parties and ownership
The first lookup is rarely the plan. It is who is based on and around the plot: which properties they own, which companies own those companies in turn, and what they have built before. That decides who you negotiate with, and whether the client has a portfolio nearby that changes the premises.
Click the plot and read the Owners tab in the Property panel. If the registered owner is a single-purpose company, the Owners tab follows the ownership chain upwards to the parent company. Then search on the organisation number to see the rest of the portfolio.
| Map layer | Answers |
|---|---|
| Ownership and Company Structure | Ownership across the neighbouring plots |
| Developer activity | Who is building in the area now |
| Real Estate Transactions in the Media | Reported purchases and sales nearby |
| Regulation plan proposals | What a neighbouring plot further along in the process has had approved |
The last point is worth more than it looks: a neighbouring plot a few blocks away that has already been through processing tells you what the municipality actually accepted on height, density and parking.
The framework from the plan
Then comes what binds: what the overarching plan says, and what applies at the detailed level. Click the plot in the map and read the Zoning tab in the Property panel for the applicable zoning plan and municipal plan, and switch on the map layers when you need to see how the plans sit in relation to the neighbouring plots.
| Map layer | Answers |
|---|---|
| Zoning Plans | Applicable land-use purpose and plan boundaries |
| Municipal plans | Overarching purpose where a detailed plan is missing |
| Regulation plan proposals | Plans in progress that may change the assumptions |
| Mapped municipal plans | Which municipalities have digitised their plans |
The building stock today
The plan describes the end state, not what stands there today. The difference between the two is the development potential itself, so read the building stock alongside the purpose:
| Map layer | Answers |
|---|---|
| Apartment building | Where the homes are, and which types of residential buildings the area consists of |
| Commercial buildings | The commercial area in place today |
| Building age | How old the stock is, and therefore what can realistically be demolished or transformed |
| Developer activity | Who is already building in the area |
| Historical aerial photos | How the area looked before, with one aerial photo per year from 1950 to today |
Building age colours the stock by year of construction. That decides what can realistically be demolished or transformed: an estate from the 1950s is assessed differently from a newly built block, and the age picture also says something about technical condition and energy requirements.
Developer activity shows who has built in the area and what they have built. For an architect that is not only competitor mapping: the newest projects in the neighbourhood are the best references for what the municipality has accepted in height, density and expression, and for which developers are worth talking to.
Apartment building is the map layer you filter in. It covers all housing types in the Matrikkelen, grouped into six categories with around 26 building types in total: Bolighus (detached house, farmhouse, detached house with basement flat), Semi-detached house (vertically divided and horizontally divided), Apt. buildings (detached and attached, 2, 3-4 and 5+ storeys, terraced blocks), Townhouse (terraced houses, linked and atrium houses, other small houses), Holiday Home and Other (student housing, shared housing). Filter on one type and you see immediately where in the area it occurs.
An estate of detached houses on plots zoned for concentrated small houses or apartment blocks has an obvious densification potential. If the area is already densely built, the density has been used up. The Building panel gives the details per building, including building type, storeys and whether the building has a lift. That is information which is heavy to collect manually for a whole block.
The details you need next are in the zoning provisions: development density as BYA or UFA, eaves height and ridge height, minimum outdoor amenity area, parking requirements, roof shape and consideration zones. The documents are in the Documents tab.
Noise and air pollution
Noise often decides where on the plot it is possible to place dwellings at all, and the yellow zone costs you outdoor amenity area. Noise mapping (T-1442) covers road, rail and aviation.
The map layers that apply: Noise mapping (T-1442), Road noise, «Noise Map – Rail», «Rail/metro/tram noise» and the big-city variants with their own night maps (road, rail). Contaminated land and «Soil Contamination – Areas» sit in Pollution and are just as relevant on a transformation plot.
ℹ️ A noise map is modelled, not measured. It locates the problem, but it does not replace a specialist noise assessment when the development lies in the yellow or red zone.
Cultural heritage and conservation
An automatically protected cultural heritage site on the plot is one of the few things that can stop a project completely, and it is cheapest to discover now. The «Cultural heritage - Askeladden WMS» layer shows cultural heritage from Riksantikvaren, including SEFRAK-registered buildings and finds that trigger a duty to investigate under the Cultural Heritage Act section 8.
If the plot lies within a registered area, it is worth reading the protection decision and checking whether the municipality has its own yellow lists before you draw. Nature conservation and antiquarian protection often go together on the same plot, so read this point and Nature, water and soil in the same round.
Ground conditions
Ground conditions shift the cost picture more than any other point on the list. The order is: does the plot lie below the marine border, is there mapped quick clay, and what does the loose masses map say.
| Map layer | Answers |
|---|---|
| Marine border | Whether marine clay is possible at all |
| Possibility of marine clay | Probability within the marine border |
| Quick clay | Mapped hazard zones |
| Quick Clay – Caution | Areas that require assessment |
| Landslides | Caution for soil, flood and rock slides |
| Loose masses | Deposit type and depth |
| Bedrock N50 | Rock type beneath the loose masses |
| NADAG – ground investigations | Existing boreholes nearby |
| Contaminated land | Registered sites from Miljødirektoratet |
The maps come from Norges geologiske undersøkelse (NGU) and Norges vassdrags- og energidirektorat (NVE). An existing borehole in NADAG a few tens of metres away is often what decides whether a geotechnical engineer has to go out to the plot in this phase or the next.
ℹ️ A caution map is not a hazard zone. It says that the conditions may be present, not that they have been mapped and assessed.
Nature, water and soil
This is where the objections lie. A record from Artsdatabanken or a valued nature type within the plan area is something the municipality and the county governor look for, and the duty to assess follows from the Nature Diversity Act (naturmangfoldloven) sections 8 to 12. The building limit towards watercourses follows from the Planning and Building Act section 1-8.
| Map layer | Answers |
|---|---|
| The species database | Registered species records |
| Species of national management interest | Species that weigh heavily in an assessment |
| Valued nature types | Mapped nature types with a value |
| Watercourses and catchments | Distance to watercourses and where the water runs |
| Caution surfaces, (regulated) water, dams | Calculated extent at given return periods |
| High tide / storm surge | Storm surge and sea level rise |
| Groundwater (GRANADA) | Groundwater level and boreholes |
| Soil moisture | Wet patches that affect placement |
| Arable land | Farmland protection from Norsk institutt for bioøkonomi (NIBIO) |
Arable land is worth a separate look on plots at the edge of a built-up area: reallocation requires its own process, and that case takes time.
Access and road
Access decides how much of the plot is actually buildable. Sight lines, an access permit, the gradient up to new buildings and room for a turning area on your own ground are points that quickly shift the volume.
The «Building Limits from the Road's Center Line» layer shows the building limit from Statens vegvesen. «Road category, authority & speed limit» says who the road authority is, Traffic volume gives annual average daily traffic, and «Traffic accidents – heat map» shows whether the junction you plan to connect to is already a problem.
Street imagery
Sight lines, gradient and how the access actually looks are easier to assess from ground level than from above. The Street View pane at the top of the Property panel lets you turn around in the access point without leaving the map. Drag the left edge of the panel to make the pane larger.
While the pointer is over the image, the map draws a yellow fan: the tip is the point the image was taken from, and the opening is the direction the camera is looking.
If you drag in the image to turn around, the fan turns with you. Here is the same plot after a rotation towards the east: the figure stays where the image was taken, while the opening has moved towards the road, so you can see which facade you have in front of you.
The coverage is Google's. If the plot lies some way from the nearest road Google has driven, you see No street view instead of the pane.
How far can you get from here?
Coming soon
Access is as much about who the plot reaches as about how you drive into it. Click Travel distance in the right-hand tool rail, click the starting point on the plot, and add several isochrones in the same map, each with its own colour.
The example below uses two: 15 minutes by car in green and 10 minutes on foot in orange, both departing from Fornebu Sentrum.
| Isochrone | Answers |
|---|---|
| 10 minutes on foot | The immediate area. Whether residents can reach a grocery store, primary school and secondary school without a car |
| 15 minutes by car | The region the plot serves, and how far a buyer group can live |
| Add public transport | How much the plot reaches without a car, which is the argument the parking norm rests on |
Zoom out, and the difference becomes the point: the walking isochrone covers the Fornebu peninsula, while the car isochrone stretches over large parts of western Oslo and in towards the centre.
Turn on map layers before you draw the isochrone, and it answers what lies inside. Here only the 10-minute walking isochrone is drawn, with Grocery Chains, Kindergartens, Primary Schools and Upper secondary schools switched on. Two kindergartens lie within the surface, Meny and Coop Prix lie just outside the boundary, and the schools at Snarøya are out of reach on foot. Seeing what ten minutes does not reach is just as useful. The checklist's question about local services is answered in one image.
If you put a public transport isochrone next to the car isochrone, you see how car-based the plot is. If the car one is much larger, the parking norm and the public transport requirement in the zoning provisions become hard to meet. Analysis describes the tool in detail, and Catchment areas - methodology the method and the speed assumptions.
Technical infrastructure
Whether water and sewage run in the road outside, or whether the connection has to cross the neighbouring plot, is the difference between a simple and an expensive development agreement.
«Water & sewer assets along roads» shows municipal pipe routes where they exist, «Manhole cover, drain and hydrant» locates the points, and Wastewater facilities shows treatment plants and discharge points. On the electricity side, Grid installations, Transformer stations and «Building prohibition zones – power lines» sit in Energy.
ℹ️ Private service lines are rarely registered. The map layer tells you where the main pipe runs, not what has already been brought onto the plot.
Destinations, walking distance and neighbourhood
What lies within walking distance
This is the point that takes two days manually and under an hour here: what exists within walking distance, and who lives around. A grocery store, school and kindergarten within walking distance are arguments in the study, not decoration, and they decide which housing mix it is defensible to propose.
| Map layer | Answers |
|---|---|
| Grocery Chains | The nearest grocery store, with chain |
| Kindergartens, Primary Schools, Upper secondary schools | The provision within reasonable distance |
| School catchment areas | Which school the plot belongs to |
| Pharmacies, GP, Fitness centre | The rest of the daily infrastructure |
| Public transport stops, Public transport routes, Public Transport Density | Public transport coverage and frequency |
| Walking to the public transport stops | Actual walking distance, not straight-line distance |
Who lives around
You read the neighbourhood in Demographics:
| Map layer | Answers |
|---|---|
| Population, Population grid 100 m x 100 m | How densely people live, down to grid level |
| Daytime population | How many are here during the day, not just where they sleep |
| Age distribution | Whether the area is young, ageing or mixed |
| Households | Household sizes, and therefore which flat sizes are missing |
| Education Level, Field of education | The education profile in the neighbourhood |
| Income, Wealth | Purchasing power and willingness to pay |
This is the basis you argue the housing mix from: an age distribution with many older people and small households points to different flat sizes than an estate with families with children, and the education and income profile says something about the price level the area can carry.
The walking distance in minutes, not in metres, comes from Travel distance, which is covered under Access and road. The method is described in Catchment areas - methodology.
Terrain, sun and shadow
Switch to 3D mode in the toolbar once the framework is mapped. How the terrain falls where you want to place buildings, parking and access is easier to read in 3D than in an elevation map, and the tools in the right-hand tool rail give you the numbers.
See the plot from several sides
One 3D view tells you little. The point is to turn around the plot: each direction shows a different neighbour, a different terrain shape and a different facade to take into account.
Seen from the east, the buildings lie between the plot and the fjord, and the fall of the terrain towards the water becomes clear.
From the north you see the plot with Snarøyveien and the public transport route behind.
Zoom in when the volumes are to be assessed against each other. Close up you read storey heights, distance to neighbouring buildings and how the terrain actually falls across the plot.
Sun, shadow and sight
| Tool | Gives you |
|---|---|
| Daylight | Sun study over the day for a chosen date |
| Shadow | Shadow casting onto the neighbour's outdoor space |
| Elevation Profile | Elevation Profile along a line you draw |
| Line of Sight and Viewshed | Sight conditions from a chosen point |
| Measurements | Distance and area directly in the model |
This is the answer to the requirement for a sun analysis and negative shadow impact that many provisions set, and it gives you an image you can put straight into the study.
Viewshed
Viewshed extends the line of sight to a whole field of view and requires 3D. Place the observation point in the map: everything visible from there is coloured green on terrain and buildings, everything hidden is coloured red, and the field of view is set to 45, 180 or 360 degrees.
You click the observation point first, and then once more to set the view direction. The green is the area the point actually sees, the red is hidden behind terrain and neighbouring buildings, and the orange frame shows the field of view. The field appears in the list under Created by you with its angle, so you can place several side by side. Hold the pointer over the row, and you can switch the field of view between 45, 180 and 360 degrees without setting the point again: 45 degrees for the view from a particular facade, 180 for the whole outlook from one side, 360 for everything a point sees.
Place the point on open ground, not on top of a building: if the observer stands inside the building stock, it sees nothing, and the whole field turns red. The example below is a 180-degree field from open ground on the plot, facing north over Fornebu Sentrum: the terrain and the facades the point sees are green, everything that lies in the shadow of a building is red. That is the overlooking picture a neighbour or the municipality will ask for.
Turn the direction around, and the same tool answers the opposite question: what the neighbour sees towards the plot, which is the overlooking assessment the municipality asks for. The height of the point decides the result, so a point high on a facade sees further than one at ground level. See Analysis for the tool in detail.
Volume study and illustration
Coming soon
In 3D-Designer you draw development alternatives as volumes with footprint and height, mark existing buildings as demolished, add building limits as guide lines, shape the terrain with volume in m³ for mass calculation and import IFC files from the design work. Until then, 3D mode and the tools above are what cover the volume study.
Neighbouring areas
- Understand property and context for the detailed lookup on each individual plot.
- Find opportunities when you are looking for the plot instead of having been given it.
- Check climate risk for a property when you need to document natural hazards and ground conditions separately.
- Daylight and shadow analysis in 3D for the geometric tools in detail.
- Analyse value and potential when the volume is set and you need to calculate the economics.