Income capitalisation is a widely used in commercial property for valuation, development appraisal
or for project feasibility analysis. As a decision-making tool, its technical and philosophical
limitations are manifest but often overlooked. If bungled, capitalisation, can lead to ‘white elephant’
projects, investment losses or even corporate collapse. To help avoid such waste, the research
reviews some technical issues and philosophical conundrums around capitalisation of property
investments. Sound capitalisation practice scopes projects, considers capital market, geographic and
institutional context and clarifies valuation base(s). Judicious market comparison, risk diagnostics
and analytics filter out noise and render complex data to estimate yields or an appropriate discount
rate. For a project feasibility analysis, supplementary salient concerns include wider strategic
imperatives, indigenous land rights, stakeholder management, administrative probity and the
inclusion of environmental or social spillovers