Robert Fourt

Robert is a Partner in the Gerald Eve Planning & Development team, specialising in the fields of development viability, valuation and risk analysis. This includes project co-ordination, strategic planning, financial analysis, feasibility studies and the funding of a wide range of schemes on behalf of public, private and corporate clients. He has provided advice on a variety of commercial and residential property throughout England and mainland Europe, previously managing the firm’s central European operations. Robert is an experienced expert witness having given evidence in the High Court, arbitrations and CPO and Planning Inquiries.

Robert is a Chartered Surveyor and Fellow of the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS).  He holds an honours degree in Land Administration and Master’s degree in Property Investment, with distinction. He is a member of the Advisory Board for MSc in Sustainable Urban Development, University of Oxford. Robert is an Honorary Visiting Fellow in the Faculty of Finance, Cass Business School, City University.

Robert’s experience has a strong transactional base. He has devised practical solutions to complex property issues and the subsequent structuring and negotiation of associated documentation. He has dealt with major acquisitions and disposals of real estate, joint ventures, land assembly and provided viability advice upon large mixed-use development schemes.

Robert’s focus is upon the risk associated with the investment in, and funding of, development projects and how this can be quantified and managed through the application of various modelling techniques and interpreting the results. Robert is a contributing author to Applied Risk Analysis (2003); Real Options Analysis (2005, 2nd Ed. 2012, 3rd Ed. 2016); and Modelling Risk (2006, 2nd Ed. 2010, 3rd Ed. 2015) published by Wiley. He has presented papers on Investment Holding Periods at the 2005 IPD/IPF conference; UK real estate volatility and real options at the 2006 and 2007 European Real Estate Society conferences. Robert oversaw the firm’s quarterly Investment Brief publication for over 15 years. Robert is a regular speaker at Cass Business School, Reading University (Henley Business School), the Amsterdam School of Real Estate as well as the RICS CPD Foundation and industry conferences.

Robert also sits on the RICS Working Party into Financial Viability in Planning and was the technical author of the May 2019 Professional Statement on Conduct and Reporting and previous Guidance Note 94/2012; chairs the revisions into the RICS Valuation of Development Property Guidance (new edition October 2019); and advises London First on financial viability matters in respect of the draft New London Plan, Crossrail and London-wide development issues.