One of Britain's most outspoken buying agents has taken Chesterton Humberts estate agency to task for setting the asking price of a central London flat at £1.95m - even though the same property was last sold only three months ago with an asking price of £895,000.
Henry Pryor, who describes himself as "a buying agent, sourcing homes for the rich and famous and for the plain hard working", spotted a Zoopla listing for the two bedroom property on the Cromwell Road at the higher price.
Chesterton Humberts' details describe the property as a "development opportunity" and as "benefitting from the stunning views over the Natural History Museum and with unusually high ceilings throughout."
Pryor saw red, posting on Twitter a link to the listing and telling his 11,300 followers: "You've got to be joking! This flat sold last October for £895,000. Nothing's charged and look at it now!"
He followed that up with tweets claiming: "That's 235 per cent house price inflation" and "Seriously @ChestertonHumb you need to dilute your G & T. You want how much"
The war of words continued with Chesterton Humberts tweeting back: "The price reflects the fact that the flat will have permission to double its floorspace and has an ultimate GDV of £2.4m."
Now Pryor has used Twitter to set the agency a challenge. "If you sell it for that by Easter I'll buy you lunch. If not. it's on you, OK' adding that it's "French or Italian for me"
Chesterton Humberts insists it will not be taking up the offer, even at the risk of missing out on a free lunch, saying it does not bet on its clients properties.
EAT will be keeping a watch on the wager and the war of words.
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Comments
I'm not 'disgracing' him... I'm simply questioning HIS MATHEMATICS.
Who knows - now that he doesn't have to work out the sum of 10 + 4 to post, maybe we will 'see' a little more of him... ;o)
that is the BBC's property expert you are disparaging
Mr Pryor's figures are, once again, suspect.
1950000 is actually 2.18x 895000, NOT 2.35x.
1950000 is actually 118% increase on 895000 - not "235% inflation", as Mr Pryor suggests.
Apart from that - it will be interesting to see how this develops (no pun intended...).
If the property sells for anything like the figure Chestertons are asking, the former seller should take the previous selling agent to the cleaners for undervaluing the property and not advising on planning potential. We all know undervaluing for a quick and easy sale is as prevalent as overvaluing to gain an instruction and both are actionable undesirable practices.
Agreed with Lance. Agents are always gambling...
By offering a no sale no fee service they are gambling on their clients' properties.