Abstract: One common cause of structural failures is inadequate soil analysis resulting in poor foundation design. The effectiveness and economies of time and resources of using the Vertical Electrical Sounding (VES) technique in predicting the soil type and depth of competent soil for construction was compared with a field geotechnical investigation involving soil logging and laboratory analyses on a reclaimed land sold as a virgin land intended for the development of a couple of duplex residential buildings. The plot was located using Geographic Positioning System (GPS). The geotechnical analysis showed that the site has very low load bearing capacity of a mean value of 2 kN m-2 and very poor shear resistance. The geophysical analysis also showed that the depth to competent soil was 17.4-33.5 m. The results were used in proposing the appropriate pile foundation type, which was contrary to the raft foundation proposed by the Architect to the client. The duration of fieldwork for the geophysical survey was just about 20% that of the soil logging. Most importantly, the economic loss in terms of resources and time that would have resulted from using the wrong type of foundation was prevented.