The city before the listing

Most overseas property mistakes begin with a photograph. A kitchen, a view, a pool. Those things are real. They are also the last layer. Underneath them is a city that either produces enough work, services and law to support that building, or does not.

GRIP starts with the city because the city is the part that cannot be renovated. A sofa can be changed. A planning culture, a flood plain, or a two-hour commute to the jobs cannot.

Three questions before tenure

• Who already lives here, and why? Payroll, universities, ports and family networks explain occupancy better than a billboard.
• What would make a household leave? Heat, schooling, healthcare, safety, politics. If the friction cannot be named, it has not been looked at.
• How would a sale work? Thin markets are a liquidity fact, and they are priced as such.

Only then does the building matter: construction quality, service charges, who manages the common parts, and whether the title is the title it appears to be. A confused legal structure turns a good-looking unit into a later dispute.

The listing is a product. The city is the market. The product does not define the market.