Our Blog
Unlocking Potential: Buying and Renovating Homes with Property Potential
Buying a house that needs work can be a dream come true—or a daunting challenge. At Property Potential, we understand that finding a house in need of work is only one piece of a much larger, more complex puzzle. That’s why we chose our name—to reflect our commitment to uncovering the hidden potential in every […]
House hunting is evolving – do you have the right tools and services on your side?
Last week, Paris was host to a meeting between some of the world’s biggest tech giants along with world leaders and key policymakers for the AI Action Summit 2025. The attendance of some of the world’s key influencers and decision-makers was a testament to the increasing weight given to AI as it steadily creeps into […]
Perfect Villages For Downsizing in Surrey
The Best Places for Downsizing in Surrey Our guide to the perfect places for those looking to downsize in Surrey. If you think about property buying agents, you probably expect them to be commissioned by busy working families, those relocating from abroad or the wealthy wanting access to off-market, high-end properties. While this can certainly […]
Selling Your Property in 2025? Here’s Our Advice As Property Buyers Agents in Surrey
If you are thinking of moving in 2025, unless you are a first-time buyer, relocating from abroad or renting, then you’re likely to be selling your current home too. This is a life-changing decision and often a very exciting one. It is tempting to throw all your energy into finding your next home, but taking […]
Tuition to Transactions: How VAT on School Fees is Changing Surrey’s Property Market
Introduction: Why the VAT on School Fees Matters The introduction of VAT on private school fees has been a hot topic in the UK, sparking debate about its potential effects on families and their financial decisions. The impact could extend beyond education costs in areas like Surrey, where families frequently relocate to access high-quality schools […]
New beginnings and moving house after divorce
It’s commonly acknowledged that, along with grieving the loss of a loved one, going through a divorce or separation is one of the most challenging things that life can throw at you. The emotional weight can be overwhelming, and on top of that, having to manage the practical aspects like selling your home and moving, […]
Celebrating 10 Years of Property Potential – Trusted Surrey Buyers Agents
How We Began If you know us, you probably know our story. We set up Property Potential at the end of 2013, and by early 2014, we had already started house hunting for three clients—and we haven’t looked back since. As expert property buyers agents in Surrey, we’ve spent the past decade securing dream homes, […]
Starting Fresh in Surrey: Launching a New Venture in the Countryside
In the third of a series of catch ups with previous clients, we get the lowdown on how their new life in the country is going and, now that they are settled, what words of wisdom they can pass on to others who are about to embark on a similar journey. This time, we chat […]
Dream Home Creation: Our Renovation Adventure
In the second of a series of catch ups with previous clients, we get the lowdown on how their new life in the country is going and, now that they are settled, what words of wisdom they can pass on to others who are about to embark on a similar journey. This time, we chat […]
From Bermuda to Surrey: A Relocation Journey
In the first of a series of catch ups with previous clients, we get the low down on how their new life in the country is going and, now they are settled, what words of wisdom they can pass on to others who are about to embark on a similar journey. This time, we talk […]
Top Schools with the Best Outdoor Spaces
For many of our clients one of the key factors driving their move to the country is the desire for their children to have more outside space, both at home and at school. Surrey, West Sussex and North Hampshire offer a wide selection of independent schools with incredible outdoor space and outstanding facilities which they […]
When to plan your Independent School Visits in 2025
As professional property search and acquisition agents, we source the very best homes across Surrey, Hampshire and West Sussex. We have lived and worked in the heart of our search area for 20 years. We have an extensive local network that allows us exclusive access to prime, off market properties. Whether upsizing, downsizing or relocating […]
Is Downsizing Right for You?
Our guide to the perfect places for those wanting a new start…… If you think about property buying agents, you probably expect them to be commissioned by busy working families, those relocating from abroad or the wealthy wanting access to the off-market, high-end properties. While this can certainly be the case, there is also […]
Five biggest concerns buyers have about relocating to the countryside
Putting aside the worry about your mortgage and whether you are going to find the right house, we know it is the wider concerns of our movers that can sometimes cause a move to be postponed or at least take a lot longer to come to fruition whilst they procrastinate. For some of our buyers […]
Best Schools in Surrey & Where to Live Nearby
If your children’s schooling is driving your move, then you may have read with interest The Sunday Times annual Parent Power supplement, a definitive guide to the UK’s top schools. Surrey is home to some of the best schools in the UK, making it a highly desirable location for families looking to relocate. Whether you’re […]
Stress-Free Relocation from Abroad
If you are relocating or buying from abroad, then trying to house hunt adds a whole new level of stress. Here’s how we can help you with that….. Getting Started In an ideal world, two years before you make the actual move, you should be making some key decisions. These include schooling, commute, lifestyle factors […]
Finding the Perfect WFH Balance
When the rat race paused momentarily in 2020, a huge number of families took the time to assess their lifestyle and acknowledged that if working from home, even if only part time, was a real long-term possibility, they could use the opportunity to move further afield. The spike in demand for a better home/life balance resulted in unprecedented demand […]
The Brexit blues and what to do about them
I don’t think there is a professional around who could look you in the eye and tell you exactly what is going to happen after Brexit. There are just too many ifs and buts. If we crash out, that is a whole new level of ambiguity. Is it a totally crazy time to be thinking […]
Insider’s tips on how to move house, the best way possible
2018 has been a tough year for house hunters. A slow moving London market has seen clients being forced to take a lower offer on their properties than they’d like. Then, when they’ve headed down the A3 ready to buy their family home, there seems to be a scarcity of ‘good’ properties to buy. We’d […]
What do you do if your life plan is off kilter with the housing market?
Sometimes you just know when the time is right for you and your family to make the big move, some of you will have been pondering a move for years. Crunch time for me came when my three children reached toddler stage. They really needed to run and play games outside so hauling them to […]
Which Guildford school is going to suit your child?
We know for families that moving house is complicated enough, but throw in choosing the right school for your child and the whole process can feel overwhelming. When out and about on our orientation tour with clients the subject of schools ends up being a hot topic. We have clients with toddlers who haven’t even […]
Is 2018 when you up sticks and relocate to the country?
The press and social media are awash with stories focusing on lifestyle and body changes, what you should or should not be eating or what exercise you ought to taking. Back on the diet? Check. Back to the gym? Tick. Could now be the time for the ultimate transformation, where you live? Is 2018 when you […]
Forget Black Friday, there’s an Autumn sale going on in the housing market
Get your coat on, it maybe getting chilly outside but you’re off house hunting. Sorry to be pushy about this, as you sit inside all warm and cosy maybe having parked your house hunt until the New Year. After all what’s the rush? The papers are full of doom and gloom about the housing market ‘crisis’ […]
What to choose first, school or house?
When moving out to the countryside there are normally two driving factors – wanting your children to grow up out of a city with more space, and schooling. Surrey ticks many boxes for families when choosing where to live as the commute isn’t too arduous, the countryside is beautiful and the county is peppered with […]
Our ‘big five’ Surrey’s best commuting towns
We’ve chosen our top five Surrey commuting towns and given you our low down on what we think of as our ‘big five’. We hope that it helps you if you’ve never heard of any of them and are trying to decide where to start your house hunt. Our ‘big five’ offer fantastic schooling options […]
Reasons to not let this property market make you glum
I was on the phone with a potential client yesterday who said she was thoroughly fed up with house hunting. The houses they liked were being snapped up before they had a chance to get a foot in the door, and they were beginning to think the other houses on the market were just the […]
Our guide to taking the stress out of buying
We all know that what starts off as an exciting exercise of looking online at a property portal, maybe glass in hand following the ‘lets do it’ chat, can sadly turn from fun to stress in a matter of months due to a whole variety of factors. We’ve had a think about how best to […]
How not to be lonely when you move to the country
You’ve decided that you’d like to move out and although the allure of the country house and the bigger garden is what you really want for your family, there is a little voice inside that is telling you that if move to the countryside your social life is doomed! How do we know this? Well, […]
Thinking of setting up your own business like we did?
We come across the same story all the time from Surrey mums: mothers, who have had a successful career, had their children and moved out to the countryside. The juggle begins, balancing the commute, the demands of very young children, exorbitant childcare costs and of course not wanting to miss the early years, means there […]
Are you ready to start househunting?
The country housing market always comes alive in the Spring, and for us it is a very busy season as more properties come to market and more buyers come out of hibernation. In some ways this is the best time to buy as those who have been holding off give their agents the ‘nod’ and […]
Why is it so hard to find the ‘perfect’ country home?
We all have our own idea of what the ‘perfect’ country home looks like. Most of us, however, find that on the sale of our London property, the reality of finding that ‘perfect house’ is actually frustratingly elusive. This is either because although most pretty English villages do contain picturesque homes, they aren’t necessarily for sale when you are ready to buy. Or that […]
Buying off market
More often than not when you are being shown around a friend’s fabulous new London pad, they will gleefully tell you that the reason they ‘got lucky’ was that they were ‘in’ with the local estate agent, so were shown the property first and made their offer before the house went on the open market. Unfortunately […]
Busting the myth about who uses home search
Phil and Kirsty’s ‘Location, location, location’ got many of us got hooked on property voyeurism. We watch them helping couples who have been unsuccessfully searching alone for years to find the ‘one’, who as a last resort apply to a TV show, in the hope that they will find what they’ve been unable to alone. […]
Time spent in reconnaissance is seldom wasted (General Montgomery)
You’ve decided to move out of London, you know where you think you want to live, you may even be moving back to where you grew up, so you put an obligatory weekend aside, and with map in hand you do a ‘drive around’. Trouble is by the time you get home, not helped by […]
Life after London: Our move to Surrey
We knew it was time to move out when we started to dread the evening drive back into London after visiting friends or family, which we had begun to do with more regularity, as our babies turned into toddlers. We had always known that we wanted to bring our family up outside London but job […]
Move over dogs, sheep are a buyers best friend
Since the Chancellor’s Stamp Duty changes came into effect in early December, many potential homebuyers at the top end of the market are feeling the sting of significantly higher rates. Houses bought for over £1.5 million will now be subject to 12% Stamp Duty compared to the previous rate of around 5% – a huge […]
Building a new life in the countryside
It was January 2008 when we decided to make the move out of London. We loved our life in Barnes, had a great network of friends around us and were in walking distance of fabulous pubs, restaurants and shops, but nonetheless, the draw of the country was just too strong. I’d always felt that I’d […]
Deciphering Estate Agent Speak
Today sees the launch of On The Market, the new property portal run by Agents’ Mutual, which is made up of a membership of over 2,000 estate agency firms. What this means for sellers is that they will have to decide which of the main portals they want their estate agent to have presence on […]
