I need an Easter break. It has been a frenetic start to the year… and I have just been reviewing reams of rather boring data on the prime London property market.

What has this got to do with Mount Everest, I hear you ask? Well I am not going there on holiday, but the history of the world’s tallest mountain is vital to understand if you want to appreciate London property statistics and human psychology.

Now if you are a mountaineer, you may know that the exact height of Mount Everest is 29,033 feet. If you are really switched on you will also know that in 1856 using just a theodolite, the height was calculated to be 29,002 feet (to be only 31 feet out compared to today’s GPS measurements is absolutely extraordinary).

But this is the interesting fact. In 1856, the actual measurement taken was 29,000 feet exactly. You can imagine the poor bloke who had made the perilous and slow journey across continents to take the measurements.

“29,000 feet exactly! Who on earth is going to believe that?” he’ll have thought, “Everyone will assume that I have been hiding in a pub for the last 9 months and just made it up. I’ll be laughed out of town or beaten to a pulp for being a liar and a cad! I didn’t travel all this way for that.”

So he reported the height to be two feet taller (ironically highlighting the fact he could have stayed in the pub).

This is something that you must keep in mind when reading reports about the London property market. Any statistic that is accurate to within a decimal point is wrong. I guarantee it. How can you be that accurate when there is no standard? No two properties are the same.

This is why the stats are based on averages but the averages are also hugely misleading. There is no qualitative distinction so pretty much all you read is useless. At best it can show you the general mood in the market, but if you are buying a property that is all. The research you need to do has to be much more forensic:

1. What have similar properties sold for recently in the immediate area?

2. How does this property compare to those? Is there a reason for this to trade at a premium/discount?

3. How many other buyers are there in the market for this type of property?

4. How many other properties like this are there in the market?

5. Why is the owner selling?

6. How long has it been on the market?

7. What can I offer other than money that would be of value to the seller but is of little value to me?

These are just a few of the questions your clients need answered if you want to give yourself the highest probability of achieving the lowest price possible.

Staring at websites and reading the newspapers isn’t even the tip of the iceberg. If your clients want to make an astute acquisition they need to undertake your own due diligence rather than relying on spurious data and journalists who are overworked and who only have a passing understanding of how the property market works.