Owner-side · Before the contractor exists
The decisions that fix a project's final cost — and most of its claim exposure — are almost all taken before a contractor exists. The brief, the budget logic, the delivery model, the consultant team: these decide the outturn. We sit on your side while they are made.
Look at where claims actually originate. HKA's CRUX research across more than 1,800 projects finds the leading root causes to be scope change, late issuance of design information, and construction begun against incomplete design. Every one of those is a pre-contract failure wearing a construction-stage costume. The scope changed because the brief never pinned it. The design information came late because the appointment rewarded fee over capacity. Construction started against incomplete design because the feasibility programme was written to please the room.
Yet owners staff up for construction and improvise the years before it. The feasibility study goes unchallenged because everyone at the table wants the project to happen — the broker, the consultant, the lender's advisor, all paid on proceed. The delivery model is inherited from the last project rather than chosen for this one. The design team is selected on reputation and fee. And the brief, the document every later argument will be measured against, is written last, thinly, or not at all.
Every one of those defaults is reversible now and nearly irreversible in two years. Advisory is the discipline of spending scrutiny while it still buys leverage — and it is the cheapest engagement we offer, precisely because it happens before the money is committed.
Someone should attack the numbers before the market does.
We interrogate the feasibility study as the counterparty: revenue assumptions benchmarked against comparable assets, cost plans checked against live market rates, programme logic tested against real delivery data. A weak assumption found at feasibility costs a memo. Found in year three, it costs the project.
The budget shapes the building — not the other way around.
Elemental cost plans set before concept design, so every design decision is priced as it is drawn. Cost is a design input from day one, which is the only point at which it is still cheap to change.
The contract form decides who carries the risk. Choose it, don't inherit it.
Design-bid-build, two-stage, CM-at-risk, EPC — each allocates risk differently, and the right answer depends on the asset, the market, and your appetite. We price the options and put the recommendation on the record.
Your design team is your biggest early procurement. Treat it like one.
Candidate firms are scored on weighted criteria — relevant built work, the key personnel actually assigned, fee structure and exclusions, delivery record. The matrix goes on the record. You see why, not just who.
The brief is the first contract. Most owners sign it without writing it.
A brief written owner-side fixes what the asset must be — keys, ratios, standards, quality benchmarks — before any consultant has an interest in the answer. Every later design review, value-engineering decision, and substitution is judged against it.
The same project intelligence that governs delivery works before the contractor exists. Below — a levelled bid evaluation as owners receive it, and a trace of feasibility benchmarking on a live advisory engagement.
| Bidder | Levelled bid | Commercial /40 | Technical /40 | Qualification /20 | Weighted total | Flag |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bidder A | AED 412M | 33.6 | 35.2 | 17.0 | 85.8 | Recommended |
| Bidder B | AED 398M | 36.0 | 30.4 | 15.0 | 81.4 | — |
| Bidder C | AED 353M | 40.0 | 26.4 | 12.0 | 78.4 | Abnormally low — risk priced out |
| Bidder D | AED 428M | 31.2 | 33.6 | 16.0 | 80.8 | — |
| Bidder E | AED 445M | 29.6 | 32.0 | 13.0 | 74.6 | — |
Demonstration with illustrative data. On engagements, benchmarking runs against the actual feasibility model and market record.
Before the design brief is written — ideally at site acquisition or feasibility. The decisions that fix a project’s final cost are almost all taken before a contractor exists: the brief, the delivery model, the consultant team, the budget logic. An advisor appointed at tender stage inherits those decisions; one appointed at feasibility shapes them.
We interrogate the feasibility study the way a lender or a claims consultant eventually will: revenue assumptions benchmarked against comparable assets, cost plans stress-tested against current market rates, programme assumptions checked against real delivery data. The point is to find the weak assumption in month one, not in year three.
Like a bid evaluation. Candidate firms are scored on weighted criteria — relevant built work, key personnel actually assigned, fee structure and exclusions, and delivery record — and the scoring matrix goes on the record. The owner sees why a firm was recommended, not just who.
The first conversation is a working session, not a sales call.