Gross Realisation Value (GRV) is the total sales revenue a completed development is expected to produce: every lot, unit, car space and commercial tenancy sold at its expected market price, added together. It is the top line of every feasibility, the number a lender sizes a loan against, and the figure most likely to be quietly wrong on a deal that looks like it stacks up. Get the Gross Realisation Value (GRV) right and the rest of the feasibility has something honest to sit on. Get it wrong, usually by a few optimistic dollars per square metre across forty units, and a marginal project can read as bankable when it is not.
This guide is written for the developer working out what their finished project will actually realise, and what that number does and does not include. It covers what goes into Gross Realisation Value (GRV) and what stays out, how Goods and Services Tax (GST) is treated (the part that trips most people), the difference between Gross Realisation Value (GRV) and Net Realisable Value (NRV), how to estimate it without fooling yourself, and how lenders read it when they decide how much to advance. Figures are hedged throughout, because end values, selling costs and lender appetite move with the market, and a Gross Realisation Value (GRV) that looks comfortable in one cycle can read as thin in the next.
What is Gross Realisation Value (GRV)?
Gross Realisation Value (GRV) is the estimated total value of a completed development if every sellable part of it sold at its expected market price. It is the gross figure, before any selling costs come out and before you net off what it cost to build. On a residential project it is the sum of every unit or lot price; on a mixed-use site it adds the commercial and retail components; on a subdivision it is the sum of the finished lot prices.
The same number travels under several names, which is part of why it confuses people. Valuers and lenders often call it the “on completion” or “as if complete” value, because they are valuing the project as though it were already finished and ready to sell. Some feasibility templates call it gross realisation or gross sales revenue. They are all the same top-line number: the total sales revenue, before costs, of the completed development.
What matters for a developer is the practical role it plays. Gross Realisation Value (GRV) sets the ceiling on a deal. Total Development Cost (TDC) sets the floor. The gap between them, after funding and selling costs, is your profit, and it is the only reason to do the project at all. Because everything downstream (profit, margin, return) is measured against this number, an error in the Gross Realisation Value (GRV) flows straight through to every other metric in the feasibility.
Is Gross Realisation Value (GRV) the same as Gross Development Value (GDV)?
Yes. Gross Development Value (GDV) is the term used in the United Kingdom and across much of the international property literature, and it means exactly what Gross Realisation Value (GRV) means in Australia and New Zealand: the total expected sale value of a completed development. If you are reading a British development guide or feasibility course, treat Gross Development Value (GDV) and Gross Realisation Value (GRV) as interchangeable.
The reason the distinction is worth flagging is that a lot of online development content is written for the United Kingdom market, where the tax treatment underneath the headline number is different. The concept transfers cleanly. The Goods and Services Tax (GST) mechanics, the lending ratios and the selling-cost conventions do not, so do not carry a United Kingdom worked example into an Australian feasibility without re-checking what sits below the top line.
Gross Realisation Value (GRV) versus Gross Rental Value: don’t confuse the two
In Western Australia (WA), those same three letters usually mean something completely different, and mixing the two up can send a developer down the wrong path. Western Australia rates most metropolitan residential property on its Gross Rental Value, which Landgate defines as the total annual rent a property might reasonably be expected to earn if it were rented out. That figure is set by the Valuer-General, reassessed roughly every three years in the metropolitan area, and used by councils to work out rates, service charges and levies. It is a rating input, not a development metric.
Both terms shorten to the same three letters, which is the trap. Gross Realisation Value (GRV) is the total sale value of your finished development. Gross Rental Value is an annual rental figure used to strike council rates in Western Australia. To keep them apart, this guide writes Gross Rental Value in full whenever it means the rating figure, and reserves the acronym Gross Realisation Value (GRV) for the development metric. For undeveloped land, Western Australia applies a statutory Gross Rental Value of three per cent of the unimproved value for residential land and five per cent for non-residential land, which is worth knowing if you are holding a site through a long approval period and watching the holding costs.
Most other states and territories rate on a land or capital value basis rather than a rental one, so the acronym clash is largely a Western Australian problem. It still catches people, because a Western Australian developer reading those three letters on a rates notice and again in a feasibility is looking at two unrelated numbers.
What goes into Gross Realisation Value (GRV), and what stays out
Gross Realisation Value (GRV) includes every component you intend to sell, priced at what you expect it to fetch, and nothing else. The discipline is in being honest about both halves: counting all the saleable value, and resisting the urge to quietly improve the number by including things that are not sales or by netting off costs that belong elsewhere.
What goes in:
- Every residential lot or unit, at its expected sale price.
- Car spaces, storage cages or any component sold separately rather than bundled into a unit price.
- Commercial, retail or office components, whether sold with vacant possession or with a lease in place.
- Any other genuine sale of the completed product, such as a sold-down display unit.
What stays out:
- Rental income earned while you hold the site or during a lease-up. That is operating income, not a sale, and it belongs in the holding or revenue assumptions, not in the Gross Realisation Value (GRV).
- Interest earned on deposits, government rebates, or any receipt that is not the sale of the finished product.
- Selling costs. Agent commissions, legal fees and marketing are real, but they come out after the Gross Realisation Value (GRV) to give you the net figure (see Net Realisable Value below). They do not reduce the gross number itself.
- Development costs. Gross Realisation Value (GRV) is a revenue figure. Land, construction and fees are matched against it later; they are not part of it.
A short worked example shows the shape of it. Take a four-townhouse infill project where each townhouse is expected to sell for $900,000 and each comes with a single car space included in that price:
| Component | Units | Price each | Subtotal |
|---|---|---|---|
| Townhouses (incl. car space) | 4 | $900,000 | $3,600,000 |
| Gross Realisation Value (GRV) | $3,600,000 |
If two of those townhouses instead sold their second car space separately at $40,000, that $80,000 would be added to the Gross Realisation Value (GRV), lifting it to $3,680,000. The principle is simple: if you are selling it, count it; if you are not, leave it out.
The most common way this number gets inflated is not fraud, it is drift. A developer pencils in a price that reflects the best comparable sale in the street rather than the median, repeats that across every unit, and the optimism compounds. Forty units priced $25,000 too high is a million dollars of Gross Realisation Value (GRV) that does not exist, and it can be the entire difference between a project that clears its margin hurdle and one that does not.
How is Goods and Services Tax (GST) treated in Gross Realisation Value (GRV)?
For new residential property, the sale prices that make up your Gross Realisation Value (GRV) include Goods and Services Tax (GST), so the gross figure overstates what you actually keep. The Australian Taxation Office (ATO) treats the sale of new residential premises as a taxable supply, which means you are liable for Goods and Services Tax (GST) on the sale and can generally claim Goods and Services Tax (GST) credits on your development costs. A developer selling a brand-new apartment for $1,000,000 is not keeping $1,000,000; on a fully taxable sale, one-eleventh of that price, about $90,909, is Goods and Services Tax (GST) owed to the Australian Taxation Office (ATO).
This is why the question “is the Gross Realisation Value (GRV) inclusive or exclusive of Goods and Services Tax (GST)?” matters so much, and why it is worth answering explicitly in every feasibility. A gross-of-tax Gross Realisation Value (GRV) is the right number for a headline and for some lending ratios. A net-of-tax figure is the right number for working out profit. Mixing them up, for example dividing a profit figure by a Goods and Services Tax (GST)-inclusive Gross Realisation Value (GRV), produces a margin that is wrong in your favour, which is the most dangerous kind of error. In a feasibility, Gross Realisation Value (GRV) is usually carried on a Goods and Services Tax (GST)-exclusive basis for the profit figures, while the funding ratios may use either, because lenders differ on which they apply.
Full Goods and Services Tax (GST) versus the margin scheme
There are two ways the Goods and Services Tax (GST) on your sales can be worked out, and the choice can move the net result on a development materially. Under the standard method, Goods and Services Tax (GST) is one-eleventh of the full sale price. Under the margin scheme, set out in Division 75 of the A New Tax System (Goods and Services Tax) Act 1999, Goods and Services Tax (GST) is one-eleventh of the margin instead, where the margin is broadly the sale price minus what you originally paid for the land.
The difference can be large. If you bought a site for $1,100,000 and a finished unit on it carries an apportioned land cost that strips out part of the sale price, full Goods and Services Tax (GST) is one-eleventh of the whole price, while margin scheme Goods and Services Tax (GST) is one-eleventh of the smaller margin, because the land cost is removed first. Across a whole project, the margin scheme can meaningfully lift the net Gross Realisation Value (GRV) you retain.
The margin scheme is not automatic and it is not always available. You generally must be registered for Goods and Services Tax (GST), there must be a written agreement to use the scheme made on or before settlement, and you cannot use it if you bought the land from a registered seller who applied full Goods and Services Tax (GST) on that earlier sale. Whether the margin scheme applies depends on the acquisition history of your specific site, so it is worth confirming with your accountant before you rely on the better number in a feasibility. The margin scheme is an Australia-only concept; it does not exist in New Zealand. Feasly models the Goods and Services Tax (GST) margin scheme properly rather than applying a flat tax assumption, which matters precisely because the margin scheme benefit can change whether a deal clears its hurdle.
Goods and Services Tax (GST) at settlement: the withholding that hits your cashflow
For most new residential sales, the buyer pays part of the Goods and Services Tax (GST) straight to the Australian Taxation Office (ATO) at settlement rather than to you, which changes when you see the cash. Under the Goods and Services Tax (GST) at settlement rules, a purchaser of new residential premises or potential residential land must withhold an amount and remit it directly to the Australian Taxation Office (ATO). On a fully taxable sale the withholding is one-eleventh of the contract price; where the margin scheme applies, it is seven per cent of the contract price. As the seller, you must notify the buyer in writing whether they have a withholding obligation, usually in the contract.
For feasibility purposes this is a timing point rather than a profit point, but it is one developers get caught by. The Goods and Services Tax (GST) component of your Gross Realisation Value (GRV) does not all land in your account at settlement to fund the next stage; a slice goes to the Australian Taxation Office (ATO) first. If your cashflow assumes the full Goods and Services Tax (GST)-inclusive price arrives and recycles into the project, you can be short at exactly the wrong moment.
Commercial property: a going concern can be Goods and Services Tax (GST)-free
If part of your development is commercial and sold with a tenant in place, the sale may be Goods and Services Tax (GST)-free as the supply of a going concern, which changes how that slice of the Gross Realisation Value (GRV) behaves. The Australian Taxation Office (ATO) treats the sale of a tenanted commercial property as a Goods and Services Tax (GST)-free going concern where the requirements of section 38-325 of the A New Tax System (Goods and Services Tax) Act 1999 are met: the buyer is registered for Goods and Services Tax (GST), both parties agree in writing that it is a going concern, and the seller supplies everything necessary to keep the enterprise running up to settlement.
This is relevant to mixed-use developers who hold and lease a ground-floor retail or commercial component and then sell it. If it qualifies as a going concern, no Goods and Services Tax (GST) is charged on that sale, which affects how you should treat that part of the Gross Realisation Value (GRV) and the buyer’s funding. The conditions are strict and fact-specific, so it is another point to confirm with your adviser rather than assume.
New Zealand: 15 per cent Goods and Services Tax (GST) and compulsory zero-rating
For New Zealand developers, the equivalent of Gross Realisation Value (GRV) works the same way, but the Goods and Services Tax (GST) rate is 15 per cent and the land rules are different. New residential builds sold by a registered developer attract Goods and Services Tax (GST) of 15 per cent on the sale, so a New Zealand Gross Realisation Value (GRV) carries a larger embedded tax component than an Australian one before any netting.
The bigger structural difference is compulsory zero-rating. Inland Revenue Department (IRD) rules require that a land transaction between two Goods and Services Tax (GST)-registered parties be zero-rated at zero per cent rather than 15 per cent, provided the land is not intended as the buyer’s principal place of residence and the other conditions are met. That mostly affects land you buy and sell between registered parties rather than the final sale to an owner-occupier, but it changes the Goods and Services Tax (GST) timing across a New Zealand project and is worth modelling explicitly. Inland Revenue Department (IRD) also has specific guidance for residential property buyers and sellers that is the right primary source to check before relying on a number.
Gross Realisation Value (GRV) versus Net Realisable Value (NRV): which number to use
Net Realisable Value (NRV) is your Gross Realisation Value (GRV) after selling costs come out, and it is usually the more honest revenue figure to build a deal on. Gross Realisation Value (GRV) is the gross top line. Net Realisable Value (NRV) takes that figure and deducts the costs of actually achieving the sales, principally agent commissions and the legal costs of settling each lot. Some lenders and analysts also strip Goods and Services Tax (GST) out at this point, so it pays to be clear about which version of Net Realisable Value (NRV) anyone is quoting.
A common convention is that Net Realisable Value (NRV) is Gross Realisation Value (GRV) on a Goods and Services Tax (GST)-exclusive basis, minus the sales costs due at settlement, being agent fees and legal fees, with any margin scheme benefit deliberately left out so the figure stays conservative. That conservatism is the point: Net Realisable Value (NRV) is meant to be the number that survives contact with the market, so it leans towards caution rather than the best case.
The practical rule for a developer is to know which number each audience expects. A headline pitch might quote Gross Realisation Value (GRV). A profit and margin calculation should run off the Goods and Services Tax (GST)-exclusive figure net of selling costs. A lender will often work to Net Realisable Value (NRV) or to a Goods and Services Tax (GST)-exclusive Gross Realisation Value (GRV) when sizing the loan. Quoting the gross number where the net number belongs is how a deal ends up looking stronger on paper than it is in the bank’s model.
How to estimate Gross Realisation Value (GRV) without fooling yourself
Build Gross Realisation Value (GRV) from the bottom up, one saleable component at a time, priced on real evidence rather than the number you need the project to hit. The reliable method is to value each unit or lot individually against comparable sales of similar finished stock, then add them together, rather than applying a single optimistic rate across the whole scheme. The discipline is in the inputs, not the arithmetic.
Use real comparable evidence
Price each component against what genuinely similar finished product has actually sold for, recently, nearby. A rate per square metre of saleable area is a useful cross-check, but it is only as good as the comparables behind it, and saleable area is not the same as gross floor area, so be sure you are comparing like with like. Aspirational pricing is the single biggest source of Gross Realisation Value (GRV) error, and it is rarely deliberate. It creeps in when you anchor on the best sale in the building rather than the typical one, or when you assume every unit achieves the premium that only the penthouse and the north-facing corners actually command.
The scheme you choose drives the Gross Realisation Value (GRV), which is why getting the highest and best use of the site right comes before pricing it. A different unit mix, a different yield, or a different product type can produce a materially different top line from the same piece of land, so the Gross Realisation Value (GRV) is partly an output of the design decision, not just a market input.
Stress-test the Gross Realisation Value (GRV)
Treat your Gross Realisation Value (GRV) as a range, not a single confident number, and test how the deal holds up if it comes in lower. A feasibility that only works at the top of your price range is a feasibility that depends on a strong market staying strong through your entire sales campaign, which is a bet, not a plan. Running the numbers with the Gross Realisation Value (GRV) flexed down by, say, five or ten per cent shows you how much buffer the project actually carries before the margin disappears. It is far better to find a thin buffer on a spreadsheet than on site.
A point worth keeping front of mind: when a lender’s valuer assesses your project, they produce their own on completion or “as if complete” value using the Australian Property Institute (API) format, and they rely on independent evidence rather than your agent’s appraisal. If your feasibility Gross Realisation Value (GRV) is built on optimistic comparables, the gap shows up at valuation, after you have spent money getting there. Pricing conservatively from the start is cheaper than discovering the valuer disagrees.
How lenders use Gross Realisation Value (GRV) to size your loan
Lenders size development debt against your Gross Realisation Value (GRV) and your Total Development Cost (TDC) at the same time, and lend to whichever ceiling produces the smaller loan. The Gross Realisation Value (GRV) ceiling caps the loan at a percentage of the completed value; the Total Development Cost (TDC) ceiling caps it at a percentage of what the project costs to deliver. Because both apply, the binding constraint is whichever is more conservative for your particular project.
The percentages move with the lender and the cycle, but as a rough guide to current market practice, senior lenders commonly advance up to around 60 to 65 per cent of Gross Realisation Value (GRV), or roughly 70 to 75 per cent of Total Development Cost (TDC), with the Gross Realisation Value (GRV) figure often taken on a Goods and Services Tax (GST)-exclusive basis. These are indicative and vary by lender, project and borrower, and private or non-bank lenders may stretch higher at a higher cost. The Loan to Value Ratio (LVR), as ASIC’s Moneysmart explains, is simply the loan expressed as a percentage of the valuation, and for development it is the valuer’s independent figure that counts, not your appraisal.
There are a few consequences for how you should read your own Gross Realisation Value (GRV). First, a higher Gross Realisation Value (GRV) does not automatically mean more debt, because the Total Development Cost (TDC) ceiling may be the binding one. Second, lenders look at the residual margin between Gross Realisation Value (GRV) and Total Development Cost (TDC) as their buffer, and brokers describe the assessor’s view as Gross Realisation Value (GRV) setting the ceiling, Total Development Cost (TDC) setting the floor, and the margin between deciding whether there is enough room to fund. Third, where the senior loan stops short of what you need, the gap is often filled with mezzanine finance or equity, both of which are more expensive than senior debt. A good development finance broker will model these ceilings before you commit, so you know the binding constraint going in. When you build the funding stack in Feasly, you can set the Loan to Value Ratio (LVR) against Gross Realisation Value (GRV), so the senior debt is sized off the completed value and the model shows whether the Gross Realisation Value (GRV) or Total Development Cost (TDC) ceiling binds.
Where Gross Realisation Value (GRV) sits in your feasibility
Gross Realisation Value (GRV) is the revenue line that every return metric is measured against, so it is the foundation of the whole feasibility rather than just one figure among many. Profit is Gross Realisation Value (GRV), net of Goods and Services Tax (GST) and selling costs, minus Total Development Cost (TDC) and funding costs. From there, the headline metrics follow.
Margin on revenue divides that profit by Gross Realisation Value (GRV), answering what share of every sales dollar ends up as profit, and it is one of the two profit views a developer needs alongside margin on cost. The Internal Rate of Return (IRR) and Net Present Value (NPV) both depend on when the Gross Realisation Value (GRV) is realised, because revenue that arrives late in a long sales campaign is worth less than revenue that settles quickly. Profit margin, the headline feasibility metric, is profit as a percentage of Gross Realisation Value (GRV), which is another reason the top line has to be right before any of the ratios mean anything.
The practical upshot is that time spent getting the Gross Realisation Value (GRV) honest is time spent making every other number in the feasibility trustworthy.
Common Gross Realisation Value (GRV) mistakes that flatter a deal
Most Gross Realisation Value (GRV) errors push the number up, make a deal look better than it is, and only surface once money has been spent. The recurring ones are worth knowing by name so you can check for them deliberately.
- Quoting a Goods and Services Tax (GST)-inclusive Gross Realisation Value (GRV) in a profit line. This silently inflates the margin, because up to one-eleventh of that top line is owed to the Australian Taxation Office (ATO), not retained.
- Aspirational comparables. Anchoring on the best sale rather than the typical one, then repeating the optimism across every unit, so a small per-unit overstatement compounds into a large total.
- Ignoring selling costs. Treating Gross Realisation Value (GRV) as if it were money in hand, when agent commissions, legal fees and marketing have to come out to reach Net Realisable Value (NRV).
- Assuming the margin scheme applies. Building the better net figure into a feasibility before confirming the site’s acquisition history actually allows the margin scheme.
- Treating an agent’s appraisal as bankable. A lender’s independent valuer will form their own on completion view, and if it lands below your assumption, your Loan to Value Ratio (LVR) and your equity requirement both move against you.
- Assuming the whole project sells at once. A Gross Realisation Value (GRV) that all settles on day one ignores the reality of a staged sales campaign, which is what the timing in your cashflow, Internal Rate of Return (IRR) and Net Present Value (NPV) is meant to capture.
None of these are exotic. They are the ordinary ways optimism gets into a feasibility, and the defence against all of them is the same: build the number bottom-up on real evidence, state clearly whether it is gross or net of Goods and Services Tax (GST), and stress-test it before you rely on it.
Does Gross Realisation Value (GRV) change from state to state?
The Gross Realisation Value (GRV) concept itself does not vary by state or territory; what varies is the tax and cost detail sitting underneath it, plus one terminology clash. The definition, total sale value of the completed development, is uniform across New South Wales (NSW), Victoria (VIC), Queensland (QLD), South Australia (SA), Western Australia (WA), Tasmania (TAS), the Australian Capital Territory (ACT) and the Northern Territory (NT), and it carries across to New Zealand as well, where it is sometimes called Gross Development Value (GDV).
Three things below the top line do differ. First, the Goods and Services Tax (GST) treatment is set federally and so is consistent Australia-wide, but it differs from New Zealand, where the rate is 15 per cent and compulsory zero-rating applies to land between registered parties. Second, selling-cost norms (agent commission rates in particular) vary a little by market, which changes the step from Gross Realisation Value (GRV) to Net Realisable Value (NRV). Third, and most importantly for avoiding confusion, Western Australia (WA) uses Gross Rental Value, shortened to those same three letters, as a council rating figure, so a Western Australian developer needs to be deliberate about which figure they are reading. Outside that, there is no separate state-by-state version of Gross Realisation Value (GRV) to learn; the number is the number, and the work is in the inputs.
Gross Realisation Value (GRV) FAQ
Is Gross Realisation Value (GRV) inclusive or exclusive of Goods and Services Tax (GST)? It can be quoted either way, which is why you should always state which. For new residential property the sale prices include Goods and Services Tax (GST), so a gross figure is inclusive; for profit and margin work you generally want the Goods and Services Tax (GST)-exclusive figure, because up to one-eleventh of the inclusive price is owed to the Australian Taxation Office (ATO).
What is the difference between Gross Realisation Value (GRV) and Net Realisable Value (NRV)? Gross Realisation Value (GRV) is the gross top-line sales figure. Net Realisable Value (NRV) is that figure after selling costs (agent commissions and legal fees) come out, and often after Goods and Services Tax (GST) is stripped as well. Net Realisable Value (NRV) is usually the more conservative number that lenders work to.
How much can I borrow against Gross Realisation Value (GRV)? As a rough current guide, senior lenders often advance up to around 60 to 65 per cent of Gross Realisation Value (GRV), commonly on a Goods and Services Tax (GST)-exclusive basis, while also testing a Total Development Cost (TDC) ceiling and lending to whichever is smaller. The figures are indicative and vary by lender and project.
Is Gross Realisation Value (GRV) the same as gross development value? Yes. Gross Development Value (GDV) is the United Kingdom term for the same concept. The Goods and Services Tax (GST) and lending mechanics underneath differ between countries, but the top-line definition is identical.
Who decides the Gross Realisation Value (GRV) a lender uses? For lending, an independent valuer appointed by the lender assesses the on completion or “as if complete” value using the Australian Property Institute (API) format and independent evidence. Your own or your agent’s appraisal informs your feasibility, but it is the valuer’s figure that sizes the loan.
The bottom line
Gross Realisation Value (GRV) is the most important single number in a feasibility and one of the easiest to get quietly wrong. It is the total sale value of the finished development, before selling costs and before you net off what it cost to build. The work is in being honest about it: count every saleable component at evidence-based prices, be explicit about whether you are quoting it gross or net of Goods and Services Tax (GST), understand whether the margin scheme applies to your site, and remember that a lender will test it against an independent valuation and a Total Development Cost (TDC) ceiling, not just take your word for it. A Gross Realisation Value (GRV) built carefully gives the rest of the feasibility something solid to stand on. A Gross Realisation Value (GRV) built on optimism makes every metric downstream look better than the deal really is, right up until the point it costs you.
This guide is general information for property developers and does not take your specific circumstances into account. Goods and Services Tax (GST), the margin scheme and lending criteria are complex and fact-specific, so confirm the treatment of your own project with a qualified accountant, valuer and your financier before relying on any figure.