The Wonder of ‘The Hamlet’ in Champion Hill SE5
The Hamlet, if you’ve never heard of it is an architecturally designed Mid Century Town House in an idyllic close which is blissfully quiet and known by residents as ‘a calm oasis’, which is situated just off Champion Hill, near to Grove Park in Camberwell.
It’s a perfectly picturesque Cul-de-sac with beautifully maintained grounds and front green and sandwiched between East Dulwich and Camberwell and close to both stations, being a short walk from Denmark Hill Overground and Kings College Hospital.
I know from owners, they regularly receive letters through their door from desperate buyers keen to settle at the Hamlet with their small family.
My client called me as I’d sold her mother’s house and a neighbours house in The Hamlet some 7 years ago. She too had received a few letters from buyers over the last year expressing their interest in her property which she showed me.
My clients were deciding to go in their own directions and my brief was to find a ‘motivated buyer’ however it was important to the due to their circumstances to take advantage of the announcement of the SDLT holiday and push for a good result.
Their house was a corner plot and one of two houses that enjoyed a much larger garden and this offered the potential to extend the property at the rear with a double storey extension and a large ‘wrap around’ single storey rear extension in a ‘grand designs’ fashion. The architecture of the houses and the location of the close really does warrant it.
The last sale in the Close was £850,000 in December 2015 for 14 The Hamlet. Looking at various different algorithms, and Land Registry price increases using their index, property prices had nudged up marginally since then giving this a value of £925,000 to £950,000 although looking at images of the property from its original listing it looked to been refurbished quite spectacularly.
However, it didn’t have the garden of my client’s house, nor the potential to expand so readily, and although difficult to put an exact value on this, somebody was definitely going to put a value on that potential.
Due to the rarity of houses being sold at The Hamlet and the obvious benefits of this particular property I decided to list for sale with an asking price of offers in excess of 1m.
It was listed on the 27th August and by the 4th, one week later, it had received 15 viewing requests, and several offers.
Ironically the first viewer through the door who had called within an hour of the listing going live, had already posted a letter through my clients door. She had recognised the name when the viewing was booked and showed me the letter when I arrived just before the viewers to prepare the property.
Most viewers couldn’t justify the asking price, or felt it was too high given the roads sale price history, and the viewer who had written directly to the owner had tried to grab a conversation with the owner. They really did want the house and tried to convince me their offer was reasonable, however the benefit of an agent working for you who actually does influence and take charge of the negotiations is that you DON’T undersell your property by becoming too attached to buyers.
In the end I had two buyers offering significantly over the 1m asking price, who could see the potential and had plans, if not immediate to eventually extend the property and I’m happy we chose the right buyer, who has now completed on their dream home.
I’m absolutely sure like other residents, they’ll have very many happy years and create wonderful memories at The Hamlet with their children.
‘Very knowledgeable about area and gave realistic and accurate advice on marketing and price. Actively vetted potential buyers so that only the very serious viewed the property. After acceptance of offer the progression service was very effective at liaising with other agents and solicitors and pushing the sale to exchange and completion. Service is highly recommended’.
Unlike most agents, we offer a distinctly bespoke service to our clients, and we don’t just sell properties, we help our clients find properties too and negotiate for them to help them secure a better price when purchasing. If you’d like more information, please do call James on 020 8432 1505 | 07855 828 736 or email me at james@fishneedwater.com

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