Phasing is a risk instrument, not a construction sequence

Phasing is usually drawn to suit the contractor's mobilisation. It should be drawn to suit the market's answer: each phase is a question you ask, and the next phase is what you do with the reply.

That means every phase must be independently complete — its own access, parking, landscape and, where possible, its own amenity — so it can stand alone if the second phase is deferred by two years.

It also means resisting the temptation to build the signature element first. Signature elements are expensive answers to a question the market has not yet asked.

Phase one should be the most conventional, most liquid product on the site. Distinctiveness is earned in phase two, funded by evidence rather than optimism.