City Property Developer 101: Partner with a RICS surveyor

You’re developing a property or fixing something that’s gone wrong. A good party wall surveyor will make sure the party wall element of your project is legal, you follow the regulations and everything is done safely. A valuation expert will help you achieve a fair price for the property’s location and condition. An experienced RICS Surveyor makes an excellent informal business partner, a go-to resource you can trust for a wide range of development support services, and can easily save you a fortune in money and time.

Valuations for properties within the M25

Being London-based, we have a wide reach. If the place you’d like to have valued is within the M25, we can help you. It’s important because as a property developer in London you’re in a different position from developers elsewhere.

In a smaller town, it can be easier to get a good helicopter view of local price variations. In our capital, things change fast as areas come into and go out of fashion and transport links are improved. The Olympic Park area, developed for the 2012 Games, is a great example.

Prices in Mitcham, Morden and Wimbledon shot up almost 10% in 2017, according to the Office for National Statistics, when important transport upgrades were announced in Merton, and Transport for London promised £70 million to extend the Croydon tram network, building a new branch from South Wimbledon, through Morden to Sutton. Even everyday shifts in demand and supply can make a huge difference to your eventual profit margins.

Leasehold Extensions and Freehold Purchases

Leasehold extensions and freehold purchases can be complicated, long-winded and stressful. As the London property and real estate barristers Tanfield Chambers says:

The need for the reform of landlord and tenant law is now a hot topic. The practise of selling houses on leases or imposing escalating ground rents has fuelled outrage from all quarters and put the spotlight on other areas of residential leasehold law which are long overdue for reform. While the lobbyists are unlikely to achieve their ultimate goal of the abolition of leasehold altogether, it is looking increasingly likely that the law on leasehold enfranchisement will be significantly overhauled.

As part of its 13th Programme of Law Reform, the Law Commission has produced a 546 page Consultation Paper entitled Leasehold Home Ownership: Buying Your Freehold or Extending Your Lease. The paper includes many sensible and interesting proposals for making the process of collective enfranchisement or acquiring a lease extension “simpler, quicker and cheaper”. The paper is broken down into four main topics on which consultees were invited to express their views by 7 January 2019. These are:

What should the enfranchisement rights be?
Who should be entitled to exercise enfranchisement rights?
How should enfranchisement rights be exercised?
What should it cost to enfranchise?

Having a surveyor you know and trust on hand, someone who understands the processes and procedures, helps things go smoothly.

Fair, fact-based commercial advice for landlords and tenants

As a landlord in London, you want to maximise your profits as well as provide a good home for rent. As a tenant, you’re happy to pay a fair, evidence-based rent that compares with other rentals in the area. Tensions can arise, expectations have to be managed, and a fact-led approach is the best way to make sure both parties are satisfied.

Take a look at the Government’s London Rents Map and see how much rent varies in the capital from area to area. It is surprising how much they change from inner to outer London, and the same can happen from street to street. No wonder a surveyor is such a valuable business partner in this context.

Building Consultancy helps to keeps development costs under control

Wherever you’re developing, budgets can get out of control and costs can spiral. When you have paid capital prices for a property, you want to maximise your profits as well as keep your budget under tight control. We can provide everything from Dilapidation Reports requiring expert insight to Party Wall Agreements needing an experienced party wall surveyor in London, building work specifications to the supervision of small works. With support from a local RICS surveyor, you’re less likely to go off-track.

Commercial property surveys for developers

Property development and surveys are inseparable. They can be relatively straightforward or incredibly detailed, depending on your specific needs. The information they reveal is important in many ways, from making a good buying decision in the first place to costing the project and sourcing specialist contractors well in advance.

If you are a property developer wanting regular ongoing support for projects in London, we’ll be pleased to help in every way we can.