It is one of the most common questions we get asked, and almost always there is a good answer – even when the two properties look, on paper, identical.

Start with the floor. A second-floor flat with a south-facing aspect and tree views will sell for more than the same layout on the ground floor facing a wall, even in the same building, even with the same square footage. Buyers are not just buying space. They are buying light, outlook and quiet – and those three things vary enormously within a single building.

Then there is the garden square. Two flats on the same street, one with access to a private communal garden and one without, are not the same property. They might look the same in every photograph. They are not the same to a buyer who has spent the last six months imagining their mornings there.

Timing matters more than most sellers want to admit. The flat that sold eighteen months ago sold into a different market – different buyer confidence, different interest rates, different supply. A flat that would have achieved one price in early 2024 might achieve something quite different now, and neither figure says anything about whether either seller did well. They simply sold at different moments.

And then there is presentation, which still surprises people with how much it matters. Two identical flats, one staged and photographed properly, one left as the owner was living in it – these do not perform the same. Buyers are imagining their life in a space, and it is far easier to imagine a life in a room that has been dressed for exactly that purpose.

The honest answer to “why did theirs sell for more” is almost never “because the agent sold more in that area” or “because the buyer was foolish.” It is usually some combination of floor, light, access, timing, presentation and candid advice from their agent at the outset – all of which are invisible on a floor plan, all of which a good agent will advise on, to increase both the likelihood of a sale and the price it achieves.

If you are wondering what any of this means for your own home, that is precisely the conversation worth having before you list it, not after.

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