Location, location, location: Phil Spencer's top tips on what you need to know before you put in an offer — and the tool that will help

When buying your new home in London, there are a few key things you need to know first, and there's often more to think about than the property itself.

As the old adage goes, finding your dream home is all about location, location, location.

And nobody knows that better than property buying expert and television presenter Phil Spencer.

“When I was buying in London, I found the street I wanted to live on and even which side of the street and then I didn’t mind what the house was like, because you can change that,” he says.

Ideally, buyers should be confident in their choice of that street before they spend significant sums on solicitors’ fees and other buying expenses.

Spencer’s secret weapon to help buyers feel confident in making an offer on a property is a property report, available to order through his home buying advice website, MoveiQ.

“The property report is a game changer for buyers and renters because it gives you all the information you need, as well as tips to help people understand the data, at the click of a button,” he says.

“The information is all publicly available, but you need to know what you’re looking for, where to find it and how to interpret it, which is a lengthy and time-consuming process.”

Here are Phil's essentials to find out before putting an offer in on a flat, all of which are provided in the report:

This will tell you who currently owns the property, when they bought it and how much they paid for it. This can help confirm what you’ve been told by the estate agent or raise any anomalies. It’s also useful to know what the current owners paid and how long ago to get a sense of how receptive they might be to an offer below the asking price.

Data on how much others have paid for similar homes nearby will give you a sense of a fair price for the property, which can give you supporting evidence to haggle with the seller. “In negotiations, information is power and the more you have the better you’ll be able to negotiate,” says Spencer. The property report includes a 12-month overview of how much other buyers on the street you’re looking to buy in and in the wider neighbourhood have paid, as well as area averages for different types of property.

If you’re new to an area, it’s good to get a sense of who lives there and of any businesses registered in the property you’ve got your eye on. If the report shows there are tenants or lodgers at the property you may want to check the terms of their tenancy including notice periods.

These will be included in your solicitor’s search but by the time you get to that point, you will have invested quite a bit of money, not least in solicitors’ fees. To avoid any nasty surprises, you can see all registered planning applications within a half-mile radius of your chosen property. This will give you a picture of the type of development coming up in an area, as well as the type of application that is likely to get approval – for example, if loft extensions are routinely granted.

It’s not worth freaking yourself out about, but if the particular street you’ve selected seems to have a higher instance of certain types of crime than others, it could be worth some further investigation. If nothing else, it could affect the cost of your home insurance.

Does the property pass the pint of milk test? If you’ll want to be able to satisfy the midnight munchies, work out near home or return those Asos packages, it’s worth finding out how handy a house is for a corner shop, gym or post office.

Given how stagnant the London property market is at the moment, if there’s even a twinkle in your eye, you’ll want to consider the local schooling scene. “The property report doesn’t just look at Ofsted reports and catchment areas; it drills down into class sizes and the closest and furthest address a child got a place at the school in the last year,” says Spencer.

Phil Spencer’s Property Report, powered by 192.com is available from £17.99 for a basic report from MoveIQ.com.