Feasibility Study Services (UK & International)

A feasibility study from Avvale Consulting costs £2,500 to £7,500 and takes three to six weeks. It tests whether a project should go ahead — market and catchment, site, regulatory consent, technical delivery, financials and management — and ends in a signed, independent opinion written for your lender, local authority or investment committee. Written in London by Muhammad Tayyab Shabbir (UCL, published textbook author); Avvale Consulting has delivered in 30 countries.

Last updated: 22 August 2026.

What you get, at a glance

• Price: £2,500 (Focused) / £4,500 (Full) / £7,500 (Regulated & International). Fixed fee, agreed before we start.
• Turnaround: 3 weeks Focused, 4–5 weeks Full, 6 weeks Regulated. If you need it sooner, raise it at the scoping call: where the work allows it we will quote an expedited fixed fee then, and where it doesn't we will tell you so rather than promise a date we can't hold.
• Deliverable: a written study with an explicit go / no-go / go-with-conditions recommendation, a named author with a statement of qualifications, and an Excel financial model you keep.
• Frameworks we write to: HM Treasury's Green Book five case model (strategic, economic, commercial, financial, management) where public or combined-authority money is involved; lender credit-paper structure where it's a commercial loan; and the registration requirements of the relevant regulator — CQC, Ofsted or the local housing authority — where the business needs a licence to trade at all.
• Independence: flat fee only. No success fee, no equity, no commission from any lender or broker. Where the evidence points to no, we issue that conclusion to you unchanged rather than softening it. Your study stays confidential to you.
• Track record: $1B+ in funding documents, 300+ businesses, 30 countries, Shark Tank and Dragons' Den clients.

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What is a feasibility study, and how is it different from a business plan?

A business plan assumes the decision is made and sets out how you will execute it. A feasibility study assumes nothing and asks whether the decision should be made at all — then says so in writing, with the author's name attached.

The difference is structural. A business plan is advocacy — written to persuade a reader to back a course of action you have already chosen. A feasibility study is assessment: it tests a proposition, carries a recommendation that can be negative, and is only worth anything to a third party because the author was willing to reach that negative conclusion. The two share research and a financial model. They do not share a purpose.

Do you actually need a feasibility study, or just a business plan?

Most people who ask us for a feasibility study need a business plan instead, and we will tell you so on the call. If you have already committed to the project, the site is agreed, the concept is proven in your market and the reader is a lender who has asked for "a business plan and forecasts," buy the business plan. It is usually the cheaper of the two and it takes less time — we will quote both in pounds at the scoping call so you can compare them properly — and a feasibility study would not tell that reader anything they asked for.

You need the feasibility study when at least one of the following is true:

• A third party — a credit committee, a grant panel, a council, a JV partner, a trustee board — has specifically asked for an independent assessment, or their scheme documentation names one.
• You are genuinely undecided between options: two sites, two formats, buy versus build, enter versus don't.
• The project involves a regulator that can refuse you permission to trade — a care home without CQC registration is a building, not a business.
• Public money is in the funding stack, and the awarding body appraises against the Green Book.
• You are entering a country you don't operate in, and the honest answer to "will this work there?" is "we don't know yet."

What do UK lenders and funders expect a feasibility study to cover?

No UK statute defines a feasibility study, which is why quality varies so wildly. In practice four readers want four different things, and the study must be written for the one actually deciding.

Commercial mortgage lenders lending against a trading asset — care home, nursery, hotel, pub, gym — care about sustainable trading profit, because a specialist valuer will value it by the profits method under the RICS Red Book, capitalising fair maintainable operating profit for a reasonably efficient operator rather than your own projected EBITDA — which is precisely why owner forecasts get discounted. The loan is typically sized off that valuation, not off bricks and mortar. Our job is trading assumptions that survive contact with the valuer: occupancy ramp, fee or rate mix, staffing cost as a share of revenue, and the evidence behind each.

Development finance lenders underwrite on cost, GDV and exit. The feasibility work that matters to them is the exit: who buys or leases this when it's built, at what price, and on what evidence. A funding gap found in week two is a cheap problem; found after drawdown it is not.

Local authority and combined-authority grant funding — devolution-deal capital pots, UK Shared Prosperity Fund-type programmes — is appraised by officers trained on HM Treasury's Green Book: a strategic case, a shortlist of options genuinely considered, economic benefits with their assumptions exposed, a commercial and financial case, and a management case covering delivery capability. A study containing only a market section and a forecast scores badly against that framework, however good the market section is.

Innovate UK and comparable innovation grants assess innovation, impact and delivery, and the competition brief changes between rounds. We use feasibility work to establish technical and commercial viability before you spend weeks on an application — reading the live brief for your round, not last year's.

Do you need CQC registration before a care home is fundable?

In England, providers of regulated adult social care must be registered with the Care Quality Commission before carrying on a regulated activity — registration is the difference between a funded asset and an empty building, and lenders treat it that way. In Scotland the regulator is the Care Inspectorate, in Wales Care Inspectorate Wales, in Northern Ireland the RQIA; the requirements are not interchangeable.

A care or supported living study covers catchment demand and the local authority's commissioning position, the local-authority-funded versus private-pay split and what it does to fee mix, staffing model and cost per resident hour at realistic local pay rates, the registration pathway including the registered manager requirement that applies in most cases, and the sensitivity that actually breaks these projects — slow occupancy ramp combined with agency staffing cost.

What does a nursery or HMO feasibility study have to cover?

Children's day nurseries in England must in most cases register with Ofsted on the Early Years Register to provide early years childcare — statutory exemptions exist but do not cover a commercial day nursery — and the inspection regime affects both occupancy and the price a buyer will later pay. The feasibility questions: catchment birth data and competitor capacity within a realistic travel distance, funded-hours mix against private fees, staff-to-child ratio economics, and the physical constraints — outdoor space, room configuration — that cap registered capacity before a single child enrols.

HMOs turn on two separate consents that clients routinely conflate. Planning is one question — in England, use class C4 covers small shared houses, larger HMOs are sui generis, and where the council has made an Article 4 direction the permitted change from C3 to C4 requires a planning application. Licensing is a different question: mandatory HMO licensing applies to properties occupied by five or more people forming two or more households, and many councils operate additional or selective licensing on top. Because the rules and the local schemes vary by council, the feasibility study should confirm the position with the specific authority rather than assume the national default.

Can you assess a market you have never operated in?

We are a London firm with a US arm, and much of our work is a business in one country asking whether it can operate in another. A market-entry study has to establish the legal form and ownership rules for a foreign entrant, the licensing or certification your product needs to be sold at all, who actually controls distribution, landed cost including duty and logistics, local salary and property benchmarks rather than your home-market ones, and the tax friction on repatriated profit.

We have delivered in 30 countries, and we label which findings are desk research and which are primary — in unfamiliar markets the desk data is often the least reliable input, and an honest study says so.

How much does it cost, and what's in each tier?

How long does it take, week by week?

The sequence differs by tier, because the tiers buy different work. The Focused tier is desk-based and includes no primary interviews; the interview week below belongs to the Full and Regulated tiers only.

Focused (£2,500, 3 weeks):

1. Week 0 — scoping call. We establish who the reader is and what decision they are making. If the answer is "a lender wants a business plan," we say so and quote the cheaper product.
2. Week 1 — regulatory and market screen. Registration or licensing route, planning position, catchment data, competitor set, all desk-based. Any project-killer found here is reported immediately, not at the end.
3. Week 2 — financial model and break-even. Built from the researched assumptions, not from a target.
4. Week 3 — draft, one revision round, sign-off. Study issued with the recommendation, the qualifications statement and the model.

Full (£4,500, 4–5 weeks) and Regulated & International (£7,500, 6 weeks):

1. Week 0 — scoping call. As above: who the reader is, what decision they are making, and whether a business plan is the honest answer instead.
2. Week 1 — regulatory and market screen. Registration or licensing route, planning position, catchment data, competitor set. Any project-killer found here is reported immediately, not at the end.
3. Week 2 — primary work. Operator, agent and supplier interviews; site and catchment assessment; supply-side pricing evidence. Up to five interviews on Full, up to twelve and in-market on Regulated & International.
4. Week 3 — financial model. Built from the researched assumptions, not from a target. Break-even, sensitivities, funding requirement and cover.
5. Week 4 — draft and challenge. Full draft to you, with the assumptions we are least confident in flagged explicitly.
6. Weeks 5–6 — revision and sign-off. Final study issued with the recommendation, the qualifications statement and the model. Regulated & International runs to the full six weeks because of the in-market work and the regulatory pathway.

Who writes it, and are you independent?

Studies are written under the direction of, and signed by, Muhammad Tayyab Shabbir, founder of Avvale Consulting — UCL, published textbook author. Avvale's record is $1B+ in funding documents, 300+ businesses, 30 countries, Shark Tank and Dragons' Den clients. Every study names its author and includes a statement of qualifications; an unsigned, unattributed report is worth very little to a credit committee.

Independence here is specific and testable: fixed fee, no success fee, no equity, and no commission from any lender, broker or agent connected to the transaction. If the numbers say no, the study says no, and you get that answer in plain terms before you commit capital to the project.

What this study is not — honest scope limits

• Not a Red Book valuation. We are not RICS registered valuers. Where a lender requires a formal valuation, you will need a registered valuer as well as us; our work feeds theirs.
• Not a planning viability assessment. Affordable-housing viability appraisals for planning are a specialist surveying product with their own conventions. We don't produce them.
• Not a survey or engineering certification. Structural, environmental, fire and M&E conclusions come from the relevant qualified professionals; we integrate their outputs rather than replacing them.
• Not regulated financial advice. Avvale is not FCA authorised and nothing in a study is a personal recommendation to invest.
• Not an audit or accountant's opinion. Our model is a projection, not assured historical information.
• Not a US federal-programme study. USDA and SBA-facing feasibility work runs to different American rules and is handled by our US arm, Business Plan Firm.

Frequently asked questions

Will a UK bank accept a feasibility study written by a consultant rather than an accountant?

There is no UK rule requiring a chartered accountant, surveyor or engineer to author a feasibility study. That is the verified position, and it is a negative one: the absence of a rule is not evidence that any particular bank will accept the document. Acceptance is the individual lender's decision, and it can turn on their own credit policy or the underwriter on the file. Ask your lender in writing what they will accept, and who they will accept it from, before you engage us or anyone else — and send us their answer, because we would rather lose the work than sell you a document your bank has already ruled out.

Can you do the feasibility study and then the business plan?

Yes, and it is the normal sequence when the study concludes "go." The research and model carry across, so the plan is quicker and cheaper than a standalone one. We quote the plan separately so the study's conclusion is never financially convenient for us.

Do you guarantee a positive conclusion?

No. A guaranteed conclusion would make the document worthless to the person you are giving it to. We do guarantee that you will hear the direction of travel in week one or two, not on delivery day.

How much of the study is primary research?

The Focused tier is desk-based with our own analysis. Full includes up to five primary interviews; Regulated and International includes up to twelve. Every study labels which findings are primary and which are secondary, so a reader can weight them.

Do you work outside England?

Yes — Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland have different regulators for care and childcare, and we write to the correct one. Internationally we have delivered in 30 countries and will say upfront where we need local counsel or an in-country partner.

What do you need from me to start?

The site or target market, any heads of terms or purchase price, your funding structure and who the reader is, plus any existing trading figures. If you have a broker or lender contact, an early call with them sharpens the study considerably.

Can you help with an Innovate UK application?

We do the feasibility and commercial-viability work that sits behind an application, and we read the live competition brief for your round rather than working from a previous one. We do not claim any influence over assessment outcomes.

How is this priced if my project is unusual?

The three tiers cover most work. Anything genuinely outside them — multi-site portfolios, several jurisdictions at once — is quoted as a fixed fee after the scoping call. We do not bill hourly.

Next step

A 30-minute call is enough to establish whether you need a feasibility study, a business plan, or neither yet. If it's neither, we'll say that.

Book a free 30-minute consultation with Avvale Consulting →

Avvale Consulting, London — feasibility studies, business plans, pitch decks and market research for UK and international clients.