Over the last five years the London property market has become increasingly renowned worldwide as the destination of choice for investors seeking a safe place to store and grow their wealth, and this trend is set to continue with seemingly worsening economic and political conditions within Europe.
“Since 2008 the number of foreign buyers investing in London property has doubled. Sales of property worth over £5m have increased by 98% in the first quarter of 2012, compared with the equivalent period last year.”
Savills Market Insight
This avid demand for prime property has created an extremely competitive market with an abundance of potential buyers vying over a consistently poor level of stock. As a consequence, according to the Financial Times, the price of London prime properties soared 51% from 2009 driven by overseas investors who have poured billions of pounds into the luxury properties of the most affluent London neighbourhoods, such as Mayfair, Knightsbridge, Kensington and Chelsea.
A growing number of overseas property buyers knows that hiring a qualified buying agent is one of the best ways they can seek some form of competitive advantage. According to Henry Sherwood, co-founding member of the APFBA (the association of Property Finders and Buying Agents), buying agents’ services have grown 10% per annum in recent years. While property finding services were once considered the privilege of the super rich, in recent years they have expanded to cover a larger spectrum of property prices starting from the mid-upper range.
Photo Credit: Adelto
If a buyer is looking to buy in Central London, finding a property finder is not going to be hard as most buying agents cover all the exclusive neighbourhoods from the northern ones like Hampstead, Saint John’s Wood, Maida Vale and Primrose Hill - to the southern ones like Fulham, Chelsea and South Kensington, passing from Notting Hill and Belgravia.
Some of the main benefits of using a Property Finder include:
- Local knowledge of the property market with the ability to offer advice and support through every stage of the purchasing process
- Access to an extensive list of properties that may be off market or difficult to come by
- Saving the purchaser time by previewing and shortlisting all potential properties and presenting only the most suitable for viewings
- The ability to negotiate the best terms on behalf of the client using in depth market research as the main tool
- Providing the client with impartial advice which cannot be easily provided by the selling agent who is paid by the seller
While buying agents’ cost cannot be overlooked (it is generally made of a retainer varying between GBP 1,000 and 3,000 plus a success fee between 1% and 2,5% of the purchase price), many of them claim that on average the reduction from the asking price is more significant, so the service more than repays itself in the end.
Choosing the right agent is critical though as barriers to entry are relatively low and in recent years the market has seen a proliferation of agents, not all very qualified. According to Sherwood, there are 160 buying agents in Kensington and Chelsea alone, many of which act as “one man bands”. Another grey area is represented by the fact that some of the buying agents operators are affiliated with larger organizations that are owned by, or part of, an estate agent. Independency may be another aspect to consider when hiring a buying agent.
It is advisable that luxury property buyers carefully consider both the opportunities and the challenges of hiring a buying agent in London; nonetheless we are confident that hiring a professional buying agent could prove to be a very smart move provided that the chosen agent has the expertise , the network and the ability to listen to his buyers’ demands. For this reason, via our Property Scouting Service Te Atrium can put its users in touch with some of the best buying agents in London.
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