Polkey Collins is a commercial architecture firm with offices in Lincoln and London. Unlike most architectural firms, they offer a full-service model spanning development appraisals, project management, delivery, and post-occupancy evaluation.
In September 2025, Director Daniel Collins brought Searchland into the workflow as part of a wider business realignment, replacing the manual process of trawling through planning portals.
Challenges before Searchland:
- Manually searching planning portals to find potential sites
- Time-consuming viability assessments with data spread across multiple sources
- Limited capacity to compete with larger practices on site discovery
Unlocking a national site pipeline
When a key client commissioned Polkey Collins to identify viable development sites across England, fast, the firm turned to Searchland's planning and sourcing tools to build a pipeline at pace.
“We built a pipeline of 34 opportunities, with six sites now progressing through legals across two local authorities”
Daniel's approach goes further than individual sites. He also uses Searchland to spot clusters of nearby sites that can be combined into comprehensive master plans for regeneration.
Data that powers development appraisals
The firm relies on Searchland's rental and sales data to inform financial modelling, feeding directly into forecasting for rent per square foot, yields, and return on investment. Planning history and allocation data complete the picture.
“Searchland helps us build development appraisals and quickly see what's viable. It just makes our process far more robust."
New building records save the day
During the conversation, Daniel was delighted to discover that Searchland had recently released Building Records, right as his team was working on a project with critical fire strategy documentation missing. The tool will allow them to find individual addresses and occupiers, floor locations, lease terms, construction materials and roof types.
"As soon as I’m off this call, I’m going to get that missing document from Searchland!"
What's next for Polkey Collins?
Polkey Collins plans to source around 10 sites per year for their key client using Searchland, with each site accommodating 50 to 200 residential units. The firm is also exploring Searchland's new Claude AI integration for enhanced site discovery, alongside plans to expand into partnered development.
"We're competing against some pretty big practices, and tools like Searchland help us stay ahead."
We look forward to supporting Polkey Collins as they scale their site discovery work and explore new capabilities across the platform.
— Quotes from Daniel Collins, Director, Polkey Collins
Want to see how Searchland can help you source and assess sites at scale? Book a demo here with our team today.
