London Development Specification – 1. An Introduction

We have recently received a significant amount of enquiries regarding the specification levels of new projects in London.

What to offer, why, what is the competition doing. We wanted to be able to give some clarity on what is happening in the marketplace so that developers can understand what their potential buyers will expect.

Initially, we looked to group the categories by price point, however, our research has shown this is not so relevant as location plays a far more prominent role on this than specification.

We then looked to group specification into the categories: Entry-Level, Mid-Market and High-End.

Entry-Level for the sake of our discussion is just that, the entry level for properties in London, the no-frills basic standard of housing.

Mid-Market is where we start seeing properties being distinguished by higher quality design, more brand names and more features that go beyond the basic living needs of a home.

High-End is where the properties are focused on delivering exemplary design, top end branded products, and its focused on premium appeal and exclusivity, both in the materials used and the number of properties offer within a project.

To place this in context, I will use the analogy of the automotive industry:

Entry-Level: Skoda, Dacia, Toyota. All brands that work and they get the job done, definitely will get you from A to B. However, rarely is there any flair to them and they are not for show.

Mid-Market: Volvo, Lexus, Audi. Brands that offer a step up from just getting you from A to B, they offer brand appeal and some luxury features.

High-End: Rolls Royce, Bentley, Mercedes Benz. These are all cars that offer more than what you need to get from A to B; they offer a lot of luxury features, handmade or handcrafted features. Significant brand appeal and a price tag to reflect that.

This introduction provides the context in which we analysed the properties being offered in London to understand at what points we looked at the variations in the specification and then explain what the significant differences are.

In the following posts of this series, we will go into detail on each of the groups and then conclude with a summary of all our information.

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This post was written by Rian Strauss of Strauss Realty, a London based Real Estate firm providing clients with consultancy, marketing and property finding services.

About Paul Heming

Paul was a Quantity Surveyor who gained 10 years experience of managing £200 million worth of flagship UK projects, including 20 Fenchurch Street and Battersea Power Station. In 2015, Paul founded C-Link with the intention of sharing his expertise of managing major projects with the SME market.