Real estate and property intelligence
The land registry says one thing. The imagery says what is actually there.
Planning registers lag reality. Satellites do not.Construction start detection from satellite imagery
Ground-breaking activity leaves a detectable signature days after the first machine moves. SAR coherence and VHR pixel-differencing can flag excavation and bare-earth exposure before a planning application reaches the public register.
Sentinel-1 SAR (ESA)Planet SuperDoveMaxar WorldView-3
Permits lag reality. Satellites do not.Development pipeline tracking across urban regions
Multi-temporal optical and SAR imagery can identify active construction sites weeks or months before they appear in official permit registers, giving investors and planners a forward view of the urban development pipeline.
Sentinel-2 MSISentinel-1 SAR (C-band)Planet SkySat
Corrugated iron does not look like concrete from orbit. That matters.Informal settlement mapping and growth monitoring
Spectral texture, roof-material signatures and morphological analysis of very-high-resolution imagery can detect and delineate informal settlements, track their lateral growth over time, and flag where planning records diverge from reality.
Maxar WorldView-3Planet SuperDoveSentinel-2 MSI
The boundary on the register and the boundary on the ground have diverged.Land parcel change detection for cadastral update
Cadastral records drift from reality through subdivision, encroachment and informal construction. Sub-30 cm satellite imagery, overlaid against legal vector boundaries, can flag discrepancies before they become disputes.
Maxar WorldView-3Airbus Pléiades NeoPlanet SkySat
Rank a hundred sites before a single boot touches the ground.Greenfield site screening for development suitability
Satellite-derived slope, land-cover, flood exposure and access metrics let developers cut a long-list of greenfield parcels to a short-list before committing survey budgets. The approach is fast and repeatable, but it cannot see what lies beneath the soil.
Copernicus DEM GLO-30Sentinel-2 MSISentinel-1 SAR
Water ignores property boundaries. Valuations should not ignore water.Flood exposure assessment for property asset valuation
Sentinel-1 SAR and Copernicus DEM hydraulic modelling can map flood inundation at the individual parcel level, quantifying 1-in-100-year and 1-in-200-year exposure for property asset registers. This page explains the physics, the method, and the honest limits.
Sentinel-1 SAR (C-band, 5.4 GHz)Copernicus DEM GLO-30Landsat 8/9 OLI
The sea moves. Cadastral maps do not.Coastal erosion monitoring for shoreline property risk
Satellite time-series can quantify shoreline retreat rates to sub-metre precision per year, giving property owners, insurers and planners a defensible, multi-decadal record of coastal land loss before a single survey boat is hired.
Sentinel-2 MSILandsat 8/9 OLIPlanet SuperDove
Cities glow brighter as they grow richer. Physics keeps the ledger.Night-light luminosity as a property market economic proxy
VIIRS Day/Night Band radiance time-series can proxy sub-national economic activity where GDP statistics are absent or delayed, giving property analysts a monthly signal tied to real human behaviour on the ground.
VIIRS Day/Night Band (Suomi NPP)VIIRS Day/Night Band (NOAA-20)DMSP-OLS archive
Official road maps lie. Satellites read the ground instead.Road access and proximity analysis for land valuation
Satellite imagery enables road network extraction and travel-time modelling for parcels where official datasets are absent or years out of date, turning accessibility into a quantifiable input for land valuation.
Maxar WorldView-3Airbus Pléiades NeoPlanet SuperDove
Tenants say occupancy is fine. Car parks tell a different story.REIT portfolio site verification by satellite
Independent satellite verification of physical asset condition and operational activity gives REIT analysts a data source that does not pass through asset managers. Car-park counts, loading-dock traffic and rooftop equipment condition are observable proxies for tenant health.
Planet SkySatMaxar WorldView-3Airbus Pléiades Neo
Panels absorb the light that roofing felt reflects. Physics does the counting.Rooftop solar panel penetration mapping for property intelligence
Very-high-resolution optical imagery reveals rooftop photovoltaic installations through their distinctive spectral signature, letting valuers and grid planners quantify solar penetration across entire property portfolios without a single site visit.
Maxar WorldView-3Airbus Pléiades NeoPlanet SkySat
Fields go quiet before bulldozers arrive. Satellites notice first.Land cover transition detection on the urban fringe
Multi-temporal Sentinel-2 and Landsat imagery, combined with phenologically filtered NDVI time-series, can distinguish genuine agricultural-to-urban transitions from seasonal crop cycles, giving planners and land-banking analysts an early read on fringe development pressure.
Sentinel-2 MSILandsat 8/9 OLIPlanet SuperDove
Cities grow upward. Satellites can measure exactly how much.Building height and density estimation from satellite data
Stereo photogrammetry, SAR tomography and shadow analysis let analysts derive building heights and urban density from satellite data, without a single site visit. Accuracy varies by sensor, urban geometry and cloud cover, and the honest figures matter for planning and property decisions.
Airbus Pléiades NeoMaxar WorldView-3TanDEM-X
The ground moves millimetres. The liability moves millions.Ground subsidence monitoring for property structural risk
Satellite radar interferometry measures ground deformation to sub-centimetre precision over cities, clay belts and former landfill sites, giving property owners and lenders an objective record of structural risk before cracks appear in the walls.
Sentinel-1A/B (ESA)COSMO-SkyMed (ASI)TerraSAR-X / TanDEM-X (DLR / Airbus)
The street you can afford may cost you in heat.Urban heat island mapping as a property amenity indicator
Land surface temperature retrieved from Landsat and ECOSTRESS thermal bands reveals intra-urban heat variation at block level, giving property analysts a quantitative habitability input that listing data never captures.
Landsat 8/9 TIRSECOSTRESS (ISS-mounted)Sentinel-3 SLSTR
Valuers price the view. Satellites can now measure what creates it.Tree canopy cover mapping for green-premium property valuation
Urban tree canopy cover is a quantifiable amenity with documented effects on residential property prices. Very-high-resolution multispectral imagery and LiDAR-calibrated stereo height models let analysts map canopy extent, density, and species class at the parcel level.
Airbus Pléiades NeoMaxar WorldView-3Planet SkySat
Valuers disagree. Feature vectors do not.Comparable site identification by spectral and morphological matching
Satellite-derived spectral signatures, building-footprint density and road-network proximity can be combined into reproducible feature vectors that identify objectively comparable development sites across large geographies, replacing subjective valuer judgement with nearest-neighbour search.
Sentinel-2 MSICopernicus DEM GLO-30Maxar WorldView-3
Urban land sits idle. Satellites notice before planners do.Vacant land and derelict site detection within built areas
Spectral indices, SAR coherence and multi-year inactivity signatures identify vacant and derelict parcels inside built-up areas, supporting brownfield registers and compulsory purchase intelligence with honest caveats about parks and gardens.
Sentinel-2 MSISentinel-1 SAR (C-band)Planet SuperDove
Tenants control their sales data. They cannot control their car parks.Parking lot occupancy analysis for retail land valuation
Sub-metre commercial satellites count vehicles in surface car parks, producing a footfall proxy that bypasses tenant-reported figures. Temporal stacking across seasons reveals peak-load patterns that ground-truth retail land valuations.
Planet SkySatMaxar WorldView-3Airbus Pléiades Neo
A roof looks flat. Physics disagrees.Industrial rooftop condition assessment from thermal and optical data
Membrane failures, ponding water and insulation loss leave distinct thermal and spectral fingerprints detectable from orbit. Combining Landsat TIRS, ECOSTRESS and WorldView-3 SWIR turns roof condition into a quantified underwriting input.
Landsat 8/9 TIRSNASA ECOSTRESSMaxar WorldView-3 SWIR
Drawdown certificates say the aggregate arrived. Stereo imagery says otherwise.Construction material stockpile volume tracking on active sites
Photogrammetric digital surface models derived from satellite stereo pairs let lenders and project monitors measure stockpile volumes independently, catching discrepancies between materials on site and certified drawdowns before funds are released.
Airbus Pléiades (tri-stereo)Planet SkySat (video-derived DSM)Maxar WorldView stereo (WorldView-2/3)
Containers move. The yard tells you what the manifest does not.Port and logistics zone land-use intensity monitoring
Very-high-resolution optical and SAR imagery turns port yards into quantified utilisation metrics, informing site-value assessments and feasibility studies for adjacent industrial land without a single site visit.
Sentinel-1 SAR (C-band, ESA)Maxar WorldView-3Planet SkySat
Sellers declare yield. Satellites record what the soil actually did.Agricultural land productivity scoring for rural valuation
Multi-year NDVI and EVI time series from Sentinel-2 and Landsat reveal the structural productive capacity of agricultural parcels, separating genuine fertility from a single good season and flagging drainage, compaction or salinity before a transaction closes.
Sentinel-2 MSILandsat 8/9 OLIPlanet SuperDove
Rehabilitation bonds expire. The land's spectral record does not.Mine and quarry rehabilitation progress monitoring for land reuse
Multispectral change detection and vegetation indices applied to Sentinel-2, Landsat and commercial imagery give regulators and developers an independent, time-stamped account of whether a former extractive site is actually recovering, or just appears to be.
Sentinel-2 MSILandsat archive (Landsat 1–9)Planet SuperDove
The planning officer visits once. The satellite visits monthly.Heritage building facade change detection for conservation compliance
Very-high-resolution optical satellites can detect facade alterations on listed buildings, from replaced sash windows to rear extensions, without a site visit. The method supports enforcement, insurance revaluation and heritage audit at portfolio scale.
Maxar WorldView-3Airbus Pléiades NeoPlanet SkySat
The fire does not read the property boundary. The fuel load does.Wildfire fuel-load mapping for property exposure assessment
Spaceborne lidar, SWIR reflectance and multispectral vegetation indices combine to estimate where combustible material accumulates at the wildland-urban interface, scoring properties by proximity to high-load corridors before underwriters or planners ever visit the site.
GEDI (Global Ecosystem Dynamics Investigation)Sentinel-2 MSI (ESA Copernicus)Landsat 8/9 OLI
The ground looks solid. Interferometry disagrees.Permafrost thaw detection for northern property and infrastructure risk
Permafrost degradation causes millimetre-scale surface deformation years before visible structural damage appears. Sentinel-1 InSAR and thermal satellite products let asset owners quantify that risk before it becomes a liability.
Sentinel-1 (C-band SAR)TerraSAR-X / TanDEM-X (X-band SAR)MODIS Land Surface Temperature (Terra/Aqua)
The sun's bankable output is already in the archive. You just need to read it.Solar irradiance mapping for development site energy-yield potential
Satellite-derived solar irradiance climatologies, combined with topographic shadow modelling, let developers estimate annual PV yield potential before a single ground measurement is taken. The method turns energy physics into residual land-value arithmetic.
Meteosat SEVIRI (Spinning Enhanced Visible and Infrared Imager)Himawari AHI (Advanced Himawari Imager)CAMS McClear / CAMS Solar Radiation Service
The river moves. The cadastral boundary, legally, does not.Riverbank erosion monitoring for riparian property boundary change
Lateral channel migration can erase metres of riparian land in a single flood season, yet property boundaries defined by the watercourse create legal ambiguity the moment the bank shifts. Multitemporal satellite imagery quantifies that shift with sub-metre precision.
Planet SuperDoveSentinel-2 MSILandsat archive (5, 7, 8, 9)
Snow doesn't announce itself. Physics records every kilogram.Snow accumulation mapping for roof structural risk in property portfolios
Passive microwave and optical satellite products can estimate snow water equivalent and flag rooftops approaching structural load limits, giving insurers and property managers a triage layer after major snowfall events.
AMSR2 (GCOM-W1)MODIS MOD10 / MYD10 snow-cover productsVIIRS snow cover (VNP10 / VJ110)
Published noise contours age. Flight schedules do not stand still.Airport flight-path noise contour mapping for residential land valuation
Satellite-derived ADS-B trajectory data, combined with published noise propagation models, produces property-level noise exposure scores that track real operational change rather than the static contours airports publish every few years.
Spire Global ADS-B (LEMUR-2 constellation)Aireon ADS-B (hosted on Iridium NEXT)Sentinel-2 MSI
Landfills close. The gas they produce does not.Landfill methane emission mapping for adjacent property risk
Methane migrating through soil from active and closed landfill sites is a material planning and mortgage risk. Hyperspectral and thermal satellites can now map plume sources and concentrations at scales relevant to individual property valuations.
GHGSatMethaneSATSentinel-5P TROPOMI
Councils approve drawings. Builders sometimes ignore them.Building permit compliance verification against approved footprints
Very-high-resolution satellite imagery lets planners and valuers compare what was built against what was permitted, catching unauthorised extensions, extra storeys and boundary encroachments before they become legal liabilities.
Maxar WorldView-3Airbus Pléiades NeoPlanet SkySat
The aquifer is shrinking. The land price has not caught up yet.Groundwater depletion monitoring for agricultural and rural land value
GRACE-FO gravity anomalies, downscaled with GLDAS hydrology, reveal aquifer systems under sustained depletion stress years before that stress appears in a soil survey or a water-rights register. Irrigated agricultural land dependent on a declining aquifer carries a forward-looking discount that conventional valuation ignores.
GRACE-FO (Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment Follow-On)GLDAS (Global Land Data Assimilation System)Sentinel-1 (C-band SAR, InSAR mode)
Planning registers lag reality. Cranes visible from orbit do not.Construction crane census as a development pipeline indicator
Tower-crane counts derived from very-high-resolution satellite imagery give property economists a contemporaneous supply-pipeline signal that planning registers alone cannot provide, identifying active development volume and flagging unregistered construction activity across entire cities in a single pass.
Planet SkySatMaxar WorldView-3Airbus Pléiades Neo
Structures grow taller. Their shadows cannot lie.Shadow-length building height change detection for planning compliance
Cast shadows in very-high-resolution optical imagery encode building height with surprising precision. Comparing shadow lengths across survey epochs reveals storey-count changes without stereo imagery or LiDAR, flagging unpermitted vertical additions before enforcement teams arrive.
Maxar WorldView-3Airbus Pléiades NeoPlanet SkySat
The dead occupy land permanently. That boundary shift is measurable.Cemetery and burial ground expansion as urban land-pressure indicator
Cemetery perimeters expand only when a city is running out of somewhere else to put pressure. Multitemporal satellite imagery turns that slow, legally encumbered boundary shift into a quantified land-consumption signal.
Sentinel-2 MSIPlanet SuperDoveAirbus Pléiades
Planners file paperwork. Utilities pour concrete first.Electricity transmission line and substation extension as development signal
New power-line corridors and transformer pads appear in satellite imagery months before planning registers catch up. Detecting grid extensions gives property investors and developers an early read on where capital is already committed.
Maxar WorldView-2Planet SkySatSentinel-2 MSI
Amenity supply shapes land prices. Counting it by satellite is cheaper than walking it.Sports and leisure facility mapping for residential catchment valuation
High-resolution optical imagery classifies outdoor sports surfaces and recreational green space by spectral signature and texture, then models proximity buffers to quantify amenity uplift across large property portfolios where ground survey is impractical.
Airbus Pléiades NeoMaxar WorldView-3Planet SuperDove
Boarded windows cannot hide from sub-metre optics.Retail unit vacancy detection from street-frontage facade change
Very-high-resolution optical satellites resolve individual shopfronts at 0.3–0.5 m, allowing change-detection algorithms to flag boarded, papered or darkened facades as vacancy signals weeks before a ground survey would catch them.
Maxar WorldView-3Airbus Pléiades NeoPlanet SkySat
Cadastral maps freeze the shoreline. Water does not.Inland water body shoreline change for lakeside property boundary risk
Lake and reservoir shorelines shift with drought, drawdown and sediment, yet property boundaries in land registries rarely follow. Multitemporal SAR and optical water-body extraction makes that gap visible, quantifiable and defensible.
Sentinel-1 SAR (C-band)Sentinel-2 MSIPlanet SuperDove
A road register says a track exists. Physics says whether it works.Unpaved road surface condition mapping for rural access and land value
SAR backscatter and optical albedo distinguish compacted gravel from rutted or washed-out unpaved roads, quantifying access degradation that suppresses rural land values even where no road register exists.
Sentinel-1 C-band SAR (ESA)ALOS-2 PALSAR-2 L-band SAR (JAXA)Planet SuperDove (optical)
Planning records say fields. Satellites see glass.Greenhouse and polytunnel coverage mapping for horticultural land valuation
Greenhouse and polytunnel coverage is a direct productivity signal for horticultural land, yet planning registers routinely lag physical expansion by years. Multispectral and thermal satellite data can map covered-structure extent, density and change at scales useful for valuation, lending and investment decisions.
Sentinel-2 MSIPlanet SuperDoveMaxar WorldView-3
Gazetted buffer zones move slowly. Construction does not.Military exclusion zone boundary encroachment detection for adjacent land risk
Civilian development creeping toward gazetted military land is a material valuation risk that standard due diligence rarely quantifies. Multitemporal satellite change detection flags encroaching parcels before compulsory acquisition or restriction orders crystallise.
Sentinel-2 MSIPlanet SuperDoveAirbus Pléiades
Planning registers miss infill plots. Sub-metre imagery does not.Urban infill plot detection for densification pipeline analysis
Very-high-resolution optical satellites can identify sub-threshold vacant gaps, rear-garden subdivisions and demolished footprints that never appear in official pipeline data, giving planners and investors an earlier, more granular read of densification pressure in land-constrained cities.
Maxar WorldView-3Airbus Pléiades NeoPlanet SkySat