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Buyer gazumped on £5m property

26 January 2009
Written by Rosalind Renshaw

Reports of the death of the prime central London property market have been greatly exaggerated, says one Belgravia estate agent who has a recent tale of gazumping to report.

The week before last, Michael Curness of Egerton Roche found himself with a £5m property on his books – and two fiercely competitive buyers.

“At the last moment, one gazumped and the matter went to a nail-biting finish on the Friday, with the seller taking the higher offer and securing an attended exchange of contracts,” said Curness.

An attended sale of contracts – where the buyer’s solicitor personally goes to the seller’s solicitor’s office to look at the legal papers and agree a contract – tends to be rare even at the best of times.

But Curness does not believe it will be a one-off this year, largely thanks to the current weakness of sterling which is attracting the dollar-rich. “We are seeing good numbers of top quality buyers who are actively looking for property,” he says. “Prime central London remains a safe refuge, even in these uncertain times.”

Comments

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    Keep dreaming guys. Prime London is awash with accidental landlords. To let signs litter Kensington and Chelsea. And when these vendors realise that all this stuff cannot be let its all going to come back onto the sales market. City unemployment has barely started to rise yet. But it will.

    • 27 January 2009 08:39 AM
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    With not enough property on the market in the best streets, even now there is often competition for decent properties so is this very surprising? Maybe it is for Egerton Roche. Though they describe themselves as a Belgravia agent, they are not known in prime London. I thought I recognised their name, and I remembered an article I saw in the Evening Standard a few months ago about their activities. They are really Kennington, South London people. Egerton Roche were exposed for advertising smart properties that they had not been instructed on, and properties that they had just invented, to look grand! Dodgy!

    • 26 January 2009 23:21 PM
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    Sales are comin back I reckon....
    Let the good taams roll!!!

    • 26 January 2009 11:58 AM
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    I am going to call Mr Curness and see if he will do a 1/2 comm with me with his 2nd buyer as I have a nice 3 bed semi greatly reduced which they may want instead...and cheap at £4.7m less than what he has offered!!!!!!

    • 26 January 2009 11:55 AM
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    It s a good job HIP's came in because they stop gazumping.
    Best Wishes

    M Beckitt
    (minister for wrecking the housing market)

    • 26 January 2009 10:46 AM
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