Why we publish targets before results

The instinct in real estate marketing is to publish what you have already hit. The instinct is honest, in a way: the result is the proof, and the proof is what the buyer wants.

We have come to think the instinct is also, quietly, the wrong one for a developer at our stage.

A finished building on a brochure cover is a result. The buyer has nothing left to verify. The building either works or it does not, and the brochure has stopped helping. A target, on the other hand, is a contract you write with the buyer in advance. It says: this is what we are aiming at. This is what we will measure ourselves against. This is what you can hold us to, in writing, before we have hit it.

Publishing targets is uncomfortable because targets sometimes get missed. We accept that. We would rather miss a target in public, with the methodology in the open and the missed delta explained, than hit a target nobody saw us aim at.

The targets we are publishing on The Dagaz are the targets that already shape the design: EDGE Advanced thresholds for energy, water, and embodied carbon; specified construction tolerances for joinery, tile, and wall plumb; a fixed handover date with a stated late-delivery clause; a 24-month defects warranty. Each of these is in the contract. Each is on the website. Each will be reported against, on the same website, on the published cadence.

A buyer who reads the targets and the reports and decides we are not for them has been served well. A buyer who reads them and decides we are has chosen a building they already know how to evaluate.

That second buyer is the one we are building for.