Sustainable real estate & territorial development

What are you looking for?

Making sure that my project is viable & sustainable

Managing the shift towards sustainable practices
over the next 10 years?

Securing and developing space for future needs within
a context of No Net Land Take?

To better understand land use dynamics in order to configure desirable outcomes and implement the actions that will support them?

Develop public policies to address the challenges
of housing accessibility and territorial development?

The town or city council plays an ever-growing role in the management of spatial developments. But they are becoming more complex and the investments and risks involved are increasing. That is why we contribute to policy issues concerning the design and implementation of various spatial projects.

Real Estate and Masterplan Design and Feasibility

IDEA Consult supports both public and private landowners in the development and utilisation of their assets to strengthen the environment, to improve quality of life, and to enhance the attractiveness of the territories. Our experts establish development
strategies for a range of sites.

• Following commissioning, the IDEA Consult team leverages site positioning analysis, specifies the territorial development objectives to which it can contribute, identifies potential competition, outlines the resources necessary for its development, and estimates the revenue it can generate.

• We commission market studies in the residential segment, EDA’s (economic development areas), office spaces, horeca (hotels, restaurants, and cafes), commerce, and tourism infrastructure. From these studies we construct a real estate balance sheet to determine the economic feasibility of the proposed development and the key indicators which demonstrate that a balance has been achieved between private and public objectives
• Optimising revenue-generating activities, seeking regional and European subsidies, and reducing costs are among the KPI’s in which IDEA Consult has developed expertise.
• All long-term options are considered, including land subdivision, quality public-private partnerships, and using planning tools to improve socio-economic outcomes
• Seeking stakeholder engagement and including multiple disparate viewpoints on land development objectives are part of the program's co-construction methods.
• Finally, IDEA Consult helps build client expertise which can be used to analyse the carbon footprint of the options under consideration.

Enabling resilient territories and industries

We support public and private stakeholders in defining strategies and policies designed to reduce their environmental impact and to help adapt society to climate change.

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) points out that climate change is significantly influenced by human activities and demands urgent action from all actors and institutions.

The linear "extract-manufacture-dispose" production cycle and the
consumption model contributes to resource depletion and environmental degradation. IDEA Consult plays its part in ameliorating this damage by facilitating the transition to comprehensive sustainable practices and integrating environmental and social resilience.

IDEA Consult leverages its expertise and creativity to transform its partners into climate change challengers and mobilizes all stakeholders towards a sustainable future.

• Support in Developing Transition Policies and Strategies: IDEA Consult identifies the most effective levers to pull, all other stakeholders involved in the transition, the governance models that are most appropriate to these changes, and the sequence of public policies changes that need to be implemented, including: the establishment of ambitious and realistic targets, collectively validated, support for
research and innovation (S3). Subsequently followed up through calls for projects, helping to scale up through public procurement, partnerships with field actors, and finally, normativity and regulation.
• Assistance in Strategy Implementation: Our team provides thorough monitoring and operational support to ensure effective implementation of transition strategies.
• Customized Advice for Public and Private Actors: We offer tailored
recommendations, adapted to the unique needs of each actor, designed to optimise their positive environmental impact.
• Development of Innovative and Circular Business Models: We design innovative business models that incorporate circular economy principles, promoting sustainable and inclusive growth.

'No Net Land Take' Planning

To assist public and private entities in accomplishing their development plans, while adhering to the principles of No Net Land Take and planning neutrality, we offer the following tools and services:

•Quantifying the requirement for residential and economic development areas: IDEA Consult mines European, federal, and regional data to determine the area necessary.

• Quantifying and calculating compensation: We use cartographic tools (GIS) to measure and calculate where and how to compensate for the loss of forest, nature, and agricultural land.
• Spatial optimisation solutions: We provide solutions for spatial optimisation, such as promoting the most efficient mix of living and working spaces, addressing vacant occupation issues, and ensuring the right company is in the right place, through qualitative and cartographic analysis.
• Stakeholder engagement: We work with landowners and other relevant parties to find solutions and create common ground through stakeholder engagement, highlevel focus groups, and strategic interviews.
• Empowering public actors: We enhance public actors' land use strategies and energise their negotiations with the private sector through market studies and real estate finance modelling.
• Researching opportunities for regional compensation and collaboration: We explore opportunities for compensation and collaboration trade-offs on an intermunicipal and regional scale by combining all the previous competencies.

By leveraging these tools and services, we enable sustainable and effective development planning that aligns with the No Net Land Take policy.

Designing a desirable future for territories and economies

IDEA Consult develops visions for territories and economies at municipal, supramunicipal and regional scales.
Our approach to strategic territorial development is based on:

• Multiscale Foresight Analysis: This establishment of milestones for land use planning actions that preserve the uniqueness of territories. Simultaneously, it permits unparalleled engagement with contemporary challenges and dynamics, including the essential environmental transition.

• Economic Development in its Spatial Dimension: A focus on the intersection of
European trends and the concrete realities of our economic activity spaces.
• Involvement of Territorial Actors: Through co-productive approaches and
motivation through case studies and joint visits.
• An Operational Dimension: Transforming the territorial project into a quantified
and detailed action plan. Our subsidy managers now play their part in identifying
fully credible funding sources.

Spatial and Housing Policy Design and Evaluation

IDEA Consult helps local, regional, and European governments to design, develop, and evaluate public policies, regulations, and mechanisms aimed at addressing the challenges of housing accessibility and territorial development.

An efficient housing policy relies on a mix of tools, each targeting a specific income category and life phase. These tools vary different parameters, such as the share of household contribution (from the smallest to the highest depending on the financial stability of the targeted households), the nature of the contracts (rental, sale, or dismemberment such as emphyteusis or Community Land Trust), and the duration of the conditions (temporary (AIS) or indefinite (social housing)). The quality of the articulation of these parameters will determine a good housing policy.

In terms of territorial development, the goal of reducing land artificialization is becoming increasingly unavoidable. This goal is reflected in various ways within European land use regulations. In some countries, national policies aimed at limiting land artificialization have sparked debates rarely encountered by urban planning stakeholders, involving accusations and counter-accusations such as favouring "attacks on the countryside," the "race to unbearable densities," "excluding lower-income individuals from decent housing," or "the inability to meet industrial needs."

To achieve this goal, Idea offers various supports:

Quantification of needs for different activities (housing, economy, etc.) based on national forecasts.
Definition of smart objectives
Setting the investment capacities of target audiences (from the weakest to the highest requiring support) and the residual public costs, and planning investments.
Building shared solutions in co-production with key stakeholders through strategic interviews and high-level focus groups.
Financial modeling of the consequences of housing policies, fiscal policies, and territorial regulations to facilitate informed decision-making.
Socio-economic ex-ante evaluation of regional and local territorial policies in terms of housing and territorial development.