What we check before a project reaches this website

We are shown far more than we list. This is the filter, written down, so you can hold us to it.

Every broker says they are selective. Very few will tell you what the selection consists of, which makes the claim impossible to check. Here is ours.

Stage one, the developer

Before the building, the builder. We look at:

• Delivery record. How many projects completed and how late. A developer with a consistent six-month slippage is a known quantity. A developer with one catastrophic delay in an otherwise clean record needs explaining.
• Financial standing. Whether the pipeline is plausibly funded, or whether each launch is paying for the last one.
• Escrow compliance. Registered account, milestone-linked releases, regulator in good standing.
• What they build when nobody is watching. The specification delivered on the last project, compared with the specification sold on it.

A developer that fails this stage ends the conversation, regardless of how the project itself looks or what commission is on offer.

Stage two, the structure of the deal

Then the terms. The payment schedule and what triggers each instalment. Whether delay pushes the schedule or leaves you paying into a stalled site. The default clause, in both directions. Registration and transfer costs, in full, not the ones that are convenient to mention. The service charge estimate and how it compares with comparable buildings rather than with the developer's own optimism.

Stage three, the exit

The question we are asked least and consider most. Can the unit be assigned before handover, at what stage and with what fee? What is the depth of the secondary market in that district, how many comparable units traded in the last twelve months and at what discount to launch? What is scheduled to complete around the same time, competing for the same buyer?

An asset you cannot leave is not an investment, whatever the projected return says.

Stage four, the honest numbers

We rebuild the yield ourselves, from the bottom: realistic rent for the actual unit type, minus service charges, minus a vacancy assumption we would defend in front of you, minus management, minus furnishing amortisation on short-let stock. If the result is materially below what is being marketed, we either list it with our own figure or we do not list it.

What we do not claim

This process reduces risk. It does not remove it. Developers with excellent records still deliver late. Markets that have run for five years can pause. Currency moves in both directions and a decent local return can be an unpleasant one once converted.

What we can tell you is what we looked at, what we found and what we could not verify. That last category is the one worth paying attention to, on any project, we will name the things we were unable to confirm rather than leave them out.

If a project on this site turns out to have failed one of these tests, we want to hear about it. It is the only way the filter stays worth anything.