Acquisition appraisals
Know what you're buying.
Independent property, financial and commercial analysis for investors considering UK real estate acquisitions. Bring us a deal from anywhere and we will tell you whether it stacks up.
The premise
The price is the vendor's number.
A purchase price tells you what the vendor wants. It does not tell you what you are buying. The brochure will not either.
Ventura combines property investment analysis with commercial and cost expertise to examine the asset behind the asking price: what it earns, what it will cost to keep earning, what the paperwork says and does not say, and what a sensible purchaser would pay for it.
This is materially different from an agent telling you a property is a good investment. We are instructed by the purchaser, we are paid by the purchaser, and the report is ours to write.
What we examine
Six strands, one report.
Acquisition appraisal
The investment case
Purchase price, market positioning and comparable evidence. Existing and potential income, yield, price per square foot, per key or per unit where relevant. Strengths, weaknesses, exit considerations and an overall commercial assessment.
Financial review
What it actually earns
Management accounts and historic trading. Revenue, operating costs and margins. EBITDA or EBITDAR where applicable. Occupancy, ADR and RevPAR for hotels. Rent rolls and service charges. Normalised earnings and sensitivity analysis.
Document review
The vendor's pack
Title, leases and tenancy schedules. Planning, EPC, EICR, fire safety and asbestos records. Licences, service and maintenance history, business rates, utilities, insurance and existing contracts. We flag what is missing and what needs further investigation.
Site inspection
Condition on the day
Where instructed, we attend. General condition, visible defects, maintenance issues, operational state, accommodation, back of house and plant. Immediate repairs and likely capital expenditure, with a photographic record.
CAPEX review
What it will cost to own
Immediate repairs, deferred maintenance, refurbishment, repositioning, FF&E, M&E, external and compliance works. Indicative cost allowances drawn from quantity surveying experience, with the basis and limitations of each figure stated plainly.
Executive assessment
A recommendation you can act on
Every report ends with one of five positions: buy, buy subject to conditions, renegotiate, further investigation required, or do not proceed. Evidence-led and appropriately qualified.
Process
From instruction to decision.
Instruct
Tell us what you are considering buying, where you are in the process and what you need to know.
Review
Send the sales particulars, financial information and whatever due diligence documentation the vendor has released. We agree the scope in writing.
Inspect
Where required, Ventura attends the property and assesses its physical and operational condition.
Analyse
We examine the investment case, income, costs, comparable evidence, risks and the capital expenditure the asset is likely to need.
Report
A concise acquisition report identifying the investment case, the material risks and the matters requiring further investigation before exchange.
Decide
Proceed, renegotiate, investigate further or withdraw, with substantially better information than you started with.
Scope
Three levels of instruction.
Fees are agreed in writing once we understand the asset and the stage you are at.
Initial appraisal
Before you spend on advisers
For investors wanting an independent view before committing significant time and professional fees.
- Opportunity review
- Pricing analysis
- Investment metrics
- Comparable evidence
- Key risk identification
- Initial recommendation
Acquisition review
For a transaction in progress
For purchasers who have agreed terms and are moving toward exchange.
- Detailed appraisal
- Financial review
- Document review
- Site inspection where agreed
- CAPEX assessment
- Comparable analysis
- Risk register
- Acquisition report
Full due diligence
For larger or complex deals
For substantial transactions where Ventura coordinates the wider professional team through to a decision.
- Detailed commercial appraisal
- Financial analysis
- Physical inspection
- Cost and CAPEX assessment
- Due diligence coordination
- Specialist adviser coordination
- Transaction risk register
- Negotiation support
- Final acquisition recommendation
Hotels and hospitality
Hotel acquisition due diligence.
Trading assets need a different lens to bricks. Our first instruction under this service was a hotel, and the hospitality version of the review is the most developed.
- Property
- Building, rooms, public areas, back of house, FF&E, M&E, maintenance and compliance
- Business
- Occupancy, ADR, RevPAR, room revenue, F&B, payroll, operating costs, EBITDA and management structure
- Value
- Price per key, earnings multiple, yield, comparable transactions and alternative use
- Documentation
- Premises licence, fire and electrical records, employment and TUPE, operating contracts, title or lease, existing management arrangements
- CAPEX
- Immediate works, twelve-month and medium-term expenditure, refurbishment or repositioning requirement
Who instructs us
- Investors
- Private investors, HNW purchasers and family offices
- Companies
- Property companies, developers and hotel operators
- Overseas
- International buyers who need eyes on the ground
- First-time
- Purchasers new to commercial property who want it done properly
Asset classes
- Hospitality
- Hotels, aparthotels and serviced accommodation
- Residential
- Investments, HMOs, blocks and portfolios
- Commercial
- Offices, retail, mixed use and industrial
- Specialist
- Care, development opportunities and operational property
What this is not
Where our review stops.
This is a commercial and documentary review. It is not a formal RICS Red Book valuation, it is not legal due diligence, and a site inspection is not a structural survey.
Where the review identifies a need for a building surveyor, an M&E engineer, a fire consultant, a solicitor, a tax adviser or a valuer, we say so and recommend one. Those advisers are separately instructed and separately qualified, and on a full due diligence instruction we coordinate them on your behalf.
Request an appraisal
Tell us about the deal.
As much or as little as you have. We come back within one working day with a proposed scope.
Request received
Thank you. We have it.
We will read it and come back within one working day with a proposed scope. Nothing further is needed from you now.