By Cathy Hawker
Once the preserve of the wealthiest, these specialists are now being sought out across the property spectrum.
First-time buyers with a budget of £850,000 looking to buy in north London, Richard and Sunita Thorpe followed the usual patterns. They signed up to local estate agents and obsessively scrolled the internet for properties. Six months later, they still hadn’t found a home. A chance conversation with an American colleague at his King’s Cross consultancy firm presented Richard with a new approach. “‘Speak to a buying agent,’ he said,” recalls Richard. “It’s the only way when buying property in the US.”
The couple signed up with First In The Door, a property adviser platform set up by Claire Whisker in 2023 that matches people looking for properties with buying agents — a real estate agent retained under contract to work solely for the property buyer. While working in Los Angeles, Whisker had seen the popularity of buying agents across a wide range of budgets in the US first-hand. “Traditionally, in the UK, buying agents were the preserve of the very wealthy with a budget of £3mn-plus,” says Whisker. “But awareness of the sector has risen; in the past three months, we’ve seen a 12 per cent increase in searches from buyers with sub-£1.1mn budgets. In July, we registered buyers in Brighton with budgets of £650,000 and £1mn and one in Oxfordshire for £750,000.”
Buying agent charges in the UK typically involve a one-off registration fee of around £3,000+VAT for a detailed brief with a final fee of between 1.5 and 3 per cent of the purchase price on completion. “I was sure I could find a house myself, everything’s on the portals so I thought it would be just a matter of sending a message via the listing, viewing and making an offer,” says Alex Turner, who was also house hunting for a property in London last year. But, he says, “You need time and a way of screening out the rubbish. I also wanted to consider other areas but I had to pretty much rule that out straight away. I just didn’t have time to make contact with a whole new set of agents, let alone start travelling to yet more viewings.” Nina Harrison of Haringtons UK specialises in finding her clients properties within a £750,000-£2mn bracket. “She found us a four-bedroom house in West Hampstead,” says Turner. “Not only did I have access to properties prior to them coming to the market, but there were properties where I was the only person through the door.”
Mark Peters, who found a property near Moreton-in-Marsh after signing up to The Buying Solution, agrees: “As Cotswolds locals, we had enormous preconceptions about using a buying agent. I understood why one might work for those who don’t know an area, but for us it felt counterintuitive. However, it became immediately apparent that doors were going to open for us to homes that hadn’t even reached the sales agents’ desks.” Access to the hidden market is compelling motivation for using a buying agent.
The Buying Solution UK reports that 80 per cent of its deals are done on “off-market” properties.
Stacks Property Search, established in 1984, claims to be the first UK buying agent and its data puts the number working today at more than 700, representing around 2-3 per cent of UK buyers. Camilla Dell, managing partner and founder of Black Brick Property Solutions, estimates there are more than 300 agents in the capital alone — and their starting price point for properties has noticeably fallen. “Over the past two years, half of my clients, appointing a buying agent for the first time, have a budget below £3mn. Using one is much more understood now. Off-market properties are more prevalent and transaction costs much steeper. The stakes for getting it wrong are so much higher. Going into the London market without a buying agent is a bit like going to court without a lawyer.”
Liam Monaghan, managing director of LCP Private Office, has seen a 90 per cent rise in sub-£1mn searches by his clients in the past year, including a growing number of UK first-time buyers joining his once predominantly international clientele.
And Harrison says that over her 30-year career, while London property prices have risen “stratospherically”, her clients have changed, and broadened, significantly. “Back then it might have been a smart flat in South Kensington they wanted,” she says. “Now it’s a flat in Hammersmith or Clapham or a pied-à-terre in Maida Vale.”
But a client’s brief can often be more relevant than the price point, says Fred Cook, director of buying agents Prime Purchase. “We might decide against working with a client with a budget of £3mn, a tight timeframe and very specific requirements that are hard to meet — and take on one at £1.5mn that we know we can service,” he says. He also points out: “We usually save more than our fee off the guide price; we think with our heads while clients go with their hearts. We can help clients avoid mistakes.”
Knowing when to walk away from a purchase is crucial, agrees Ashley Wilsdon from Middleton Advisors. “We carry out due diligence and have a detailed understanding of local value,” he says. Sean O’Brien searched for a year for a waterside property with fishing rights before appointing Middleton Advisors. “I was the first person to view Denford Mill House near Hungerford. Since purchasing it two years ago, I’ve watched the market and nothing else suitable has emerged,” says O’Brien. He recommends an agent “if you’re looking for something niche or rare”.
After witnessing the increase in UK buying agents, estate agent Barbara Wood set up The Property Finders in 2003 to take the concept to Spain. Today, her clients are typically in their early forties, time-poor and based outside Spain. She has no set minimum spend but this summer found a property in Madrid for a client with a budget of €750,000. Londoners Bronwyn Fyfe and her husband Jonathan Coltman, had looked for a plot in Andalusia for two years before enlisting Wood. She refocused their search and found Finca Avedin for them, a nine-bedroom house in Gaucin inside their £1mn-£1.5mn price range that the family use both as a holiday home and offer for rentals.
“The entire process, from initial conversations to completion, took two years,” says Fyfe, 51. “Barbara supported us, anticipating pitfalls. She improved our search by honing our criteria, giving technical and legal advice, and passing on local knowledge.”
