Revolutionising real estate legal due diligence with satellite imagery

The Orbital Witness project aims at demonstrating the commercial and technical feasibility of providing archives of high-resolution satellite imagery, augmented by property datasets, to real estate lawyers and other property professionals. The project demonstrates the ability for users to be more informed at the outset of a property transaction and be able to use satellite imagery to “look back in time” to understand legal issues affecting the use and development of property. Initially, target market users are commercial real estate lawyers, with expansion routes into residential conveyancing solicitors and legal indemnity (title) insurance providers to be validated in this project. The service uses archives of high-resolution optical satellite imagery to provide enough clarity for real estate professionals to be able to spot important detail such as a change of use at a site, a structural change to a property, or a boundary movement.