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testimonials
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The Property
A Victorian duplex conversion, in great condition, very close to Bellenden Road and Lordship Lane.
Area:
Peckham, South East London
Date:
February 2021
Price:
£561,689
The Brief
A two bedroom flat
Period conversion ideally, but open to other styles
Garden
Both bedrooms must be doubles
Peckham, Camberwell or Brixton
Close proximity to independent shops and cafes
Budget of £500,000 – £550,000
The Story
After the first Lockdown, caused by Covid-19, our client was certain she needed a garden. Through our first two property tours, we showed her that it wasn’t possible to buy a period flat with outside space, in the ideal location, within budget. We did that by showing her what she could have, which was one of three close alternatives:
A period flat, with no garden, in the perfect location
A modern or ex-local authority flat, with private garden, in the perfect location
A period flat, with private garden, in a less ideal location
Presenting the options clearly like this allowed the client to better understand her choices, and what she would need to compromise on to find the right home. After showing her various options that fell into one of the three categories, she decided that the most important thing was to be in a characterful, period property in the right location, particularly if she could be close to a park.
We found just the flat – only minutes’ walk from the green open space of Peckham Rye and the independent shops of Bellenden Road and Lordship Lane. Now we had to secure it for her. Our research and analysis showed it was under-valued at the asking price of £550,000. Similar properties had sold on neighbouring streets for over £600,000. It was therefore inevitably popular, and we had to compete in a ‘best and final’ bidding scenario. Having a huge amount of experience in these, we knew what to do. We won, despite not even being the highest bidder. We were able to achieve this for our client because the seller could see how strong we were as buyers. We made sure that, alongside our formal offer letter, we included a copy of the mortgage-in-principle, proof of deposit and we had already formally engaged a solicitor.
After our offer was accepted, we advised our clients that it would be beneficial to have rights over the loft, in case she wanted to add value and extend into it in the future. We suggested obtaining the rights during the conveyancing process so that she wouldn’t have to incur any potential future costs to make it happen. Knowing the potential for adding value that ownership of the loft creates, the sellers (and the other freeholder in the building) tried to charge us £8,000. We managed the renegotiation attempt and secured the rights at no extra cost to our client.
What the client said
“A huge thanks to Lewis for holding us firm to buying the right property, when we were prepared to perhaps go for something less amazing. As first-time buyers, they guided us seamlessly through the whole process and their expertise was invaluable in negotiating when challenges came up following the survey. They took all the stress away. I believe in buying agents.”