Oliver Marshall
A few years ago when the Central London Property market was not suffering from Brexit blues we were approached through a Private Bank to advise a client of theirs who had acquired a house in Knightsbridge and now wanted to sell it. When I asked why the response was “they don’t like”. Picking up on my surprised silence the private banker explained further they had acquired the house without seeing it. The price they paid was a little shy of £14m.
To say I was somewhat taken aback is an understatement what shocked me further is they had been advised by a well known high street firm. The stamp duty on this at the time would have amounted to somewhere in the region of £1,500,000, an expensive mistake.
As it happens the house had one dramatic flaw (not floor!) the ceilings heights at ground floor level were a little over 7ft, a height that would have made even Tyrion Lannister crouch walking through the door. The story took an even more interesting twist when we were asked to sell the house and received an offer from an international buyer before they had viewed it! Such were the heady days of 2012! Nonetheless we forwarded the offer which was accepted on one condition – the buyer must view the house prior to exchanging contracts! As the conveyancing process reached a conclusion a viewing was booked in with the buyer and we all waited with baited breath.
On the day of the viewing we waited outside feeling certain the viewing would not go as planned. The car pulled up and outstepped perhaps the shortest lady I have ever met, so much so she even commented on how high the ceilings were. We all breathed a sigh of relief and the deal completed.
I thought how wonderful would it be to introduce high ceiling requirements to a property search platform something that could easily now be achievable with A.I www.pipa.ai
