Buying
Buying With a Project in Mind: What to Check First
If your offer assumes you can extend, convert or combine, it is worth testing that assumption before you exchange — not after.
4 min read
The price often assumes the project
Buyers in prime London frequently pay for potential as much as for the property itself — the loft that can be converted, the rear that can be extended, the two flats that can become one. But that potential is an assumption until it is tested, and some assumptions run straight into a conservation control, a lease restriction or a borough basement policy that quietly rules them out. Discovering this after exchange is an expensive way to learn it.
What is worth checking before you commit
A short pre-purchase review can confirm the things that most affect what a property can become: whether it is listed or in a conservation area, whether an Article 4 direction applies, its planning history and any conditions, and — for flats — what the lease allows and whether freeholder consent will be needed. None of this guarantees an outcome, but it replaces optimism with a realistic view of the route and the risks.
A small spend that de-risks a large one
Against the size of a London purchase, a feasibility review is a modest cost, and it is one of the few that can change a decision before it is irreversible. For some buyers it confirms the plan; for others it reveals that the project they were paying for is harder, or different, than they assumed. Either way, it is better known beforehand.
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