Luxury property Knightsbridge |
Knightsbridge is one of the most famous areas in London and is synonymous with luxury property. As usual, this has a lot to do with its location because, from an historical perspective, it is close to Buckingham Palace and Hyde Park as well as Belgravia and Mayfair, so has long been at the epicentre of high society.
Consequently, the area has developed to provide all the amenities that one would expect with excellent shops and restaurants. The most famous is Harrods, closely followed by Harvey Nichols and the boutiques on Sloane Street which connects Knightsbridge and Sloane Square.
The Best Luxury Properties in Knightsbridge
Knightsbridge is a bustling and active part of London, so it hard for many to believe that it was once a sleepy village. This is reflected in the wide range of properties that you can buy. There are classic Grade I and Grade II listed townhouses, pretty little mews, garden squares and then more modern houses and apartment buildings.
Three of the most sought after garden squares are Hans Place which is directly behind Harrods, Lowndes Square which is next to Harvey Nichols and Ennismore Gardens which is a beautiful, quiet oasis hidden away from the main thoroughfares. The architecture is very different in the garden squares with Lowndes Square being the better option if you wish to acquire lateral apartments.
However, there has been a new twist on luxury properties in Knightsbridge over the last two decades with some significant apartment developments. It is hard to believe now but in 2000 there weren’t any buildings in Knightsbridge that offered the “complete package”, i.e. underground parking, concierge, gym and swimming pool.
This changed with the construction of The Knightsbridge Apartments which is now more commonly known simply as The Knightsbridge. This was soon followed by One Hyde Park which replaced the exceptionally ugly commercial building, Bowater House.
Lancelot Place is a somewhat inferior building to these two and more developments are springing up at the time of writing.
Knightsbridge Estate Agents
Knightsbridge is one of the most international property markets in the world. Consequently, many of the estate agencies have people who can speak various middle eastern languages, Russian and Chinese too.
While this is undoubtedly helpful for international buyers, you must remember that the estate agent does not work for you. As a buyer, you are referred to as an “applicant” by the agents , so you are not their client. The estate agents in Knightsbridge are legally obliged to achieve the highest price possible for their clients who are the sellers.
How can you find the best property in Knightsbridge?
As a buyer you have two goals:
- to find the best property in Knightsbridge your money can buy
- To acquire it for the lowest price and best terms possible.
Most people will start looking for properties by contacting Knightsbridge Estate agents. In reality, most people will neither call nor visit the agents but log onto their websites or one of the many property portals. Unfortunately, while this is a quick way of finding some properties, there are issues.
Firstly, there isn’t one website which lists all the properties in Knightsbridge that are on the market. Secondly, the estate agents openly admit that a large percentage of the properties they sell are off-market and never reach the websites anyways.
For example, two of the larger estate agencies in London openly admit that upwards of 25% of the properties they sell are off-market, while the highest figure I have seen quoted is 75%. I think 75% is an exaggeration, but between 25% and 33% of the properties we acquire for our clients never reach the open market.
Unfortunately, if you want to find the best property your money can buy, then you need to have complete market coverage. So, you need to speak to all the estate agents in Knightsbridge. And not just the ones that are physically located in the area but also all those that cover Knightsbridge but may be based elsewhere, e.g. Mayfair, Belgravia, Chelsea and South Kensington.
It is essential that you call the agents at least once a week so that you are the first person they call when a great opportunity becomes available. If you simply rely on emails or the websites you are putting yourself at a huge disadvantage.
Consider this – if you set up an email alert from the websites or the agents themselves, you will be doing exactly the same thing as hundreds if not thousands of other buyers. What competitive advantage does that give you?
What you need is to have first refusal on the best houses, apartments and investment opportunities in Knightsbridge. By relying on email alerts, you are simply joining a queue even if it is a virtual rather than physical one.
And you also need to speak to all the estate agents, because the agents can only show you properties on which they are directly instructed. There is not a Multiple Listing System like in the U.S. and although there are some properties that agents will share with other agents, these tend to be the ones that they have trouble selling, i.e. they are compromised in some way or are simply overvalued. Do those sound like the sort of properties you want to buy?
In addition to speaking to all the agents, you will also need to source genuine off-market properties. The simple fact is that the higher the value of the property you want to buy, the higher percentage of the properties will be sold off-market.
This is why I have developed a list of over 500 off-market contacts which includes family offices, solicitors, trust companies, tax advisers, property consultants and various other professions.
There is also a very clear process we follow to ensure that our clients have first refusal on the best opportunities as well as negotiating prices they didn’t think possible.
Contact Mercury Homesearch for Luxury Property in Knightsbridge
If you would like to discover more about the strategies you need to use to find your ideal home or investment property in Knightsbridge, you can email dee@mercuryhomesearch.com or call 02034578855 (+442034578855 from outside the UK).
