Olympic slowdown - Bargain time?

17th Aug 2012

The summer Prime London market is traditionally quiet and that is without the Olympics. This summer has been no different, but did the hype and focus of the Olmpics enable the motivated buyer to pick up a good deal from a motivated seller? The reality is no.  The market has remained competitive and vendors, despite listing their properties over the summer months, have had time on their hands to be patient waiting for an acceptable bid. We have tracked all of the better properties we have viewed and we agreed three purchases for our clients over the Olympic period, up against competition on every account. In each instance the timing of our information enabled our clients to be that much more prepared and the credibility of our representation has given the vendors confidence in our ability to proceed. The most recent purchase we viewed a week before it was due to be launched to the open market.  We agreed a price with the vendor and exchanged within 6 hours of receiving draft contract and paperwork. For the very best opportunities, this is how organised and efficient you have to be to avoid prices increasing even further amongst intense competion. The off market information that we access for our clients is hugely valuable. We were in negotiations on an off market flat in Chelsea at £3.75m before we located a more suitable property for that client. That same property has since come to the market two months later and has now exchanged at £4.3m. If our client had bought this, would we have saved them £550,000?  Such is the potential value of early information.  It was competition that delivered what is certainly a strong price for the vendor here, with the eventual buyer being prepared to pay way over the odds for a rare and premium flat.

The forced seller in Prime London remains virtually non existant and we suspect the Prime market to continue to tick upwards for the rest of the year.

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