Looking to buy property in London from overseas?
If you are looking to buy property in London from overseas you are in good company. Much of the current interest in the London property market is coming from overseas buyers whether from Hong Kong, Singapore, New York, Sydney, Tokyo, Dubai or Shanghai to name a few… A weak pound coupled with London being a relatively safe haven makes some great London properties look attractive as an overseas or expat investor, whether or not you think prices will continue to come under pressure.
Rather than try and process all the London market information yourself, there are so many ways that a property finder or search agent can make your investment a sensible, realistic and relatively painless way of investing in the UK property market.
Chelsea Property Finder can do nearly all of the work for you. Your remit is likely to be different to other clients, every search is unique, even if you think that you are looking for the same property as everyone else. That really isn’t the case. What you are signing up for is a comprehensive, informed, ‘on the ground’ service that will save you an immense amount of time and worry. The London market is sophisticated and needs to be approached in much the same way as any investment. You need to know that what you are looking for in a particular area is both a sound investment over the medium to long term as well as a good place to live. Somewhere that you feel works for you for whatever reason you have for buying and by that I mean in terms of traffic, local noise, access to amenities, rentable value, layout, lease, local plans in the pipeline and all the nuances that come together to make your purchase a successful one for you, the buyer.
Chelsea Property Finder is used to speaking to clients in different time-zones so is very flexible in terms of hours. We arrange chauffeured viewing days in London with accommodation and restaurant recommendations if required and if language is a barrier, we have fluent speakers on hand to help.
Once your criteria have been discussed and a realistic search underway, we can send immediate video feedback of possible flats or houses, advise on design and build companies, possible funding routes, solicitors, interior decorators and garden designers and any other details that your search entails. We are not motivated to recommend any of these services.
Property finders have access off-market properties if their clients have finances that are effectively ‘ready to go’. Increasingly, many properties are not coming onto the open market, therefore by using a search agent you are making sure that you have access to these without constricting yourself to only one agent. By using only one agent’s internal search office they will only be showing you off-market properties that they have on their ‘book’ i.e. only one agent’s properties, thereby restricting your search. Independent search agents can look over the whole market as well as other sources to hand. There are other properties that are sold privately too that vendors come through to us directly with after having had a number of valuations. Some 20% of properties in the UK are now sold off-market, a growing figure.
As with any client relationship, the property world is undoubtedly full of noise and much of it isn’t constructive or helpful to the buyer. The London market is particularly ‘savvy’ and the service you receive from estate agents as a buyer very much depends on the state of the market at the time you are buying.
In the end, you have to understand that an estate agent is only working for the seller. This needs to be remembered and is easily forgotten (even by property finders at times). Using a property finder means that we are working solely for you, the buyer. And only for a very small number of buyers, you have our full attention. Not only that reputable search agents will only have clients that are looking for different property, they must not have similar remits. We’re on call and can do all the leg work for you coupled with our knowledge of the market as well as an informed feel for what you are looking for from your search.
At this point in time, pricing is especially key. Articles everywhere show how asking prices are coming under huge pressure. Prices are very transient at the moment and it definitely helps to have someone who has the time and knowledge to come to a sensible idea of what a property might be worth at your point of purchase. It doesn’t involve predicting the market, just taking account of what is out there and what is it worth at that point in time to you, the buyer. The search agent’s fee can quite often be saved in the process of bidding for a property, particularly in a market such as the one we find ourselves in at the end of 2017.
The search is really only the beginning of the process, the transaction is key and a property search agent will be make sure that this proceeds in the way that you hope. Buying property is not easy, there are many hurdles, changes of heart, technical glitches and many other reasons that a transaction doesn’t go to exchange of contracts. We can take the stress away from this process.
If you would like to chat through what you are looking for and any further questions on how Chelsea Property Finder could help you achieve what you are looking for, then please do get in contact:
Louise Streets +44 (0) 7771 723 807
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