The product
A real folio, redacted.
Ten sections, one address.
Below is the actual structure of a delivered folio, walked section by section against a real anonymised example — a two-bed leasehold conversion in south-east London, asking £475,000. Every figure shown is the figure that was delivered — but this is an excerpted walkthrough of each section, not the complete report.
This is an actual delivered folio, redacted only where it would identify the buyer or the exact address. Every figure below is the figure this buyer used to open, and hold, their negotiation — nothing here is illustrative.
- Original asking price
- £475,000
- SettleIQ aim
- £468,872
- Final agreed price
- £468,872
- Net savings
- £6,128
One buyer's outcome on one address. Not a typical result, and not a forecast of yours.
What should I offer, and why that number?
Open at £461,839. Aim at £468,872. Walk away past £498,750.
The folio opens with its conclusion, because a report that buries the number is asking to be skimmed. Every figure in the bracket is registered evidence or observed achieved price. None of them is the asking price, and none of them is a guess.
- Open
- £461,839
- cohort lower quartile
- Aim
- £468,872
- achieved-price panel
- Asking
- £475,000
- the listing
- Anchor
- £480,579
- registered centre
- Walk away
- £498,750
- cohort ceiling
The asking already sits £5,579 below the registered centre. You are negotiating inside a discount the listing has already offered — most buyers open above it.
Dataset intersectionHMLREPCUKHPI
How much room does this listing give me, and what do I actually say?
Leverage: 6.2 of 10 — mildly seller-firm. One offer email, ready to send.
One price signal names the Aim — what buyers in this district actually achieve against asking, from 223 completions. Four directional signals then set how far under the Aim to open, each shown on its own. The section ends with the opening offer letter itself, the registered evidence cited inline.
mildly seller-firm
- Market velocity1.0 / 2
Stable
- Price momentum0.0 / 2
Strongly decelerating
- Listing traction2.0 / 2
16 days on market vs a 29-day sector median
- Reduction history2.0 / 2
Not yet reduced, vs a 6.7% sector reduction frequency
The price signal is separate from all four: registered completions across this district settle at 0.9871 × asking — £468,872 — from 223 recent cases. That sets the Aim. The four signals above only govern how far under the Aim the opening offer sits.
Subject: Offer — Folio Ref. SIQ-0429, SE23 2 — [Your name], chain-free
“Dear [Agent's name], thank you for showing me around the flat. I'd like to put forward a formal offer of £461,839. I'm chain-free with a mortgage agreed in principle. The figure is built from the registered record rather than picked against the asking price: registered completions across this district settle a little over 1% under the final asking, across 223 recent Land Registry cases — my figure applies that observed rate to your asking, with a measured step for current conditions.”
The letter never cites the £480,579 anchor directly, because the asking already sits below it — naming a number the seller has already beaten would weaken the position, not strengthen it. This is the actual reasoning shown inline, not a summary of it.
Dataset intersectionHMLRUKHPIListing history
Which sales were allowed to count?
3,040 flats in the sector become the 27 sales that anchor the recommendation.
The agent selects which comparables to cite. The identity lock does the opposite — it accepts every qualifying transaction and omits none. The funnel below is the actual cascade for this address, and it halted at Stage 1: the sector itself already held enough evidence, so the search never widened to the district.
Roughly 0.9% of the sector's flats anchor the recommendation. The sufficiency threshold is ten transactions; this cohort cleared it at the tightest geography available, so the search never widened.
Dataset intersectionHMLREPCVOANSPL
What have identical flats actually sold for?
Six of the twenty-seven — named, dated and priced, plotted against this flat.
The cohort median price per square foot, applied to this flat’s verified floor area, produces the £480,579 anchor — above the £475,000 asking. Every transaction behind that median is listed below, not just the average of them, so the number can be checked rather than taken on trust.
| Comparable | Sold | Price | Floor area | £/sq ft | EPC |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Comp 1 | Nov 2024 | £441,000 | 690 sq ft | £639 | D |
| Comp 2 | Jan 2025 | £468,500 | 715 sq ft | £655 | C |
| Comp 3 | Mar 2025 | £452,000 | 705 sq ft | £641 | D |
| Comp 4 | Jun 2025 | £472,000 | 730 sq ft | £647 | C |
| Comp 5 | Aug 2025 | £455,000 | 720 sq ft | £632 | D |
| Comp 6 | Feb 2026 | £458,000 | 710 sq ft | £645 | D |
| This flat | Asking | £475,000 | 743 sq ft | £639 | D |
Six of the twenty-seven transactions behind the median, named by sale order rather than address — client addresses are never disclosed, even in an anonymised sample. Verified floor area is cross-checked three ways before it is allowed to carry a number: a 5% measurement error at £647/sq ft moves the anchor by roughly £24,000, several times the width of the entire offer bracket.
Dataset intersectionHMLREPCUKHPI
Is this a fast market or a slow one?
Sector £/sq ft is down 17.4% since its Q1 2025 peak, and the sector is the weakest of four geographies on index.
A single "the market" number hides real divergence. The sector traded at £697/sq ft in Q1 2025 on 19 sales, and £576/sq ft by Q1 2026 on 4 — a real decline the wider district only partly shares. Zoomed out, the story inverts: the borough is the one geography here that is genuinely up.
Median £/sq ft by quarter · sector vs district · dot size ∝ sale count
The peak
£697/sf
Q1'25, on 19 registered sales — the strongest quarter in this window.
Since the peak
-17.4%
Sector £/sf has fallen from £697 to £576. The final quarter carries only 4 sales — read as directional, not a confirmed floor.
Momentum now
Decel.
Price, £/sf, and transaction volume are all decelerating together — three independent signals agreeing, not one indicator among mixed others.
Zoom out and the story inverts UKHPI, 8-quarter change
- England-0.4%
- London (region)-4.5%
- Lewisham (borough)+1.2%
- SE23 2 (sector)-7.9%
England is roughly flat over the same 8 quarters; London the region is down further; but Lewisham, the borough, is the one geography here that is genuinely up — outperforming England by 1.6 points. The sector is the outlier at the other end: the single weakest of the four, and 9.1 points behind its own borough. That gap matters for how you read the local softness — it isn't systemic, but it also means you can't borrow confidence from the borough headline.
Dataset intersectionHMLRUKHPI
Why is the seller actually selling?
No prior sale exists on the register for this address — so the seller situation is classified unknown, not guessed.
The methodology scores seven possible seller situations — forced sale, motivated, rapid resale, life event and others — each against what the register would need to show and what it would move the opening offer by. Where the evidence to support a specific classification isn’t there, the folio says so rather than inventing a story.
- Forced salePrior sale required−£6,197
- MotivatedPrior sale required−£4,131
- Rapid resalePrior sale required−£2,066
- Life eventPrior sale required£0
- DeveloperPrior sale required£0
- PatientPrior sale required+£4,131
- Unknown — this sellerRegister silent£0
HMLR's 1995-onward record carries no prior sale for this address, so the construction applies exactly £0 of seller shift — it refuses to manufacture a story in either direction. The £461,839 opening is built entirely from the market and cohort evidence, not from a guess about why this seller is selling.
Dataset intersectionHMLR
What is actually around this address?
London Bridge in roughly 15 minutes by train. Full-fibre broadband confirmed at the premises.
Researched per address rather than pulled from a generic area guide: journey times, school ratings, broadband actually available at the premises, and deprivation domains — each distance-ranked, checked against what is actually registered rather than what a listing implies.
Getting around
London Bridge
A direct rail line puts London Bridge about fifteen minutes away — the connection this suburb was built around, and still its spine.
Schools
5 within 600m
Primary places are in genuine demand — local state primaries typically run heavily oversubscribed at this distance band.
Broadband
910 Mbps
Checked at the address itself against Ofcom’s coverage data, not inferred from the postcode — full-fibre is live on this street, not merely "planned".
Deprivation
Decile 6 of 10
Mid-table nationally and typical for the surrounding sector — no domain in the index flags this address as an outlier in either direction.
Researched per address rather than pulled from a generic area guide — journey times, school ratings, broadband actually available at the premises, and deprivation domains, each checked against what is actually registered rather than what a listing implies.
Dataset intersectionNaPTANGIAS/OfstedOfcomIMDOSM
What sits on this address that the listing does not mention?
Insurance-risk severity: 2 of 9 — standard category.
Five independently sourced signals summed on a nine-point scale, plus the planning designation checked separately. This reading is unusually clean: both scored points are era-derived — statements about when the building was built, not about this specific flat.
- +1 of 1
Asbestos
Pre-1990 era — a monitor loading for possible period materials, not a finding about this flat.
EPC construction fields
- +1 of 1
Age
Pre-1930 construction band — a maintenance-expectation loading on period fabric, no observed defect behind it.
EPC construction fields
- 0 of 3
Flood
Zone 1, surface water "very low", nearest mapped water 81m away.
EA flood + surface-water mapping
- 0 of 2
Radon
Class 1 — the lowest banding, not elevated.
National radon mapping
- 0 of 2
Cladding
Solid brick, pre-1990 — not a risky wall system.
EPC wall construction
Separately, planning data flags an Article 4 direction on this address — permitted-development rights are withdrawn, so external changes need full planning consent. That is checked and disclosed alongside this ledger, not folded into the 9-point score.
Dataset intersectionNaFRABGS/UKHSAPlanning DataEPC
What does this actually cost, beyond the price?
EPC D at 68 — one point below the C threshold. £11,378 of transaction costs at the Aim price.
The folio does not get to skip its own finding when the topic changes: the transaction record already settled the price question in Section 4, and the certificate adds one plain fact rather than a fresh argument. Council tax, service charge, ground rent, and the transaction costs that precede all of it are itemised below, not folded into one round number.
The certificate scores 68 — the top of band D, exactly one point below the C threshold at 69. Lodged 6 February 2026, so the reading is current. No upgrade-works list was returned for this property, because Section 4 already settled the price question on the transaction record.
Running costs
- Council tax band
- D
- £2,187/yr at the current Lewisham rate
- Service charge
- £1,850/yr
- Per the last confirmed sale’s conveyancing pack
- Ground rent
- £150/yr
- Fixed, not escalating — confirmed on the lease
- Energy cost (EPC-implied)
- £1,240/yr
- Modelled from the certificate, band D
Transaction costs, at the Aim price
- Stamp Duty Land Tax
- £9,379
- At the £468,872 aim price, standard residential rate
- Legal fees (est.)
- £1,450
- Conveyancing, search fees, disbursements
- Survey (Level 2)
- £550
- RICS HomeBuyer Report, recommended for this era
- Mortgage arrangement fee
- £999
- Typical for this LTV band — lender-specific
- Total, before the price itself
- £12,378
- Itemised in full in Section 9 of the delivered folio.
Dataset intersectionEPCVOAHMRC SDLT
How exactly was this folio built, and which registers did it use?
Fourteen public registers, in consumption order. Every step named and sourced.
The method behind every section of this folio is documented in full on the SettleIQ methodology page — the Identity Lock, the Glass Box Anchor, the Leverage Matrix, the Risk Register, and the datasets each one draws from. No steps are proprietary; every decision is explained and checkable.
The full methodology — every register named, every transformation documented — is on the SettleIQ methodology page.
Read the full methodology- 01Identity Lock — property type, tenure, age and floor band
- 02Glass Box Anchor — median £/sq ft from the cohort
- 03Leverage Matrix — four directional signals, 0–10 scale
- 04Risk Register — ten property-level checks across five registers
Dataset intersectionHMLREPCONSNaFRABGSVOAPlanning DataOSM
End of excerpts
The delivered folio carries all ten sections in full, with every transaction, source and caveat written out.
Read the whole thing
See the exact evidence a buyer used to negotiate £6,128 off asking.
One buyer's outcome on one address. Not a typical result, and not a forecast of yours.
Enter your email and we'll send you a fully redacted, real-world SettleIQ Folio. See the 14 datasets and the exact tactical bracket we generated.
The complete report
All ten sections, delivered in detail.
- §01 · Recommendation
- Open, aim and walk-away prices, stated on page one.
- §02 · Negotiation intelligence
- Four leverage signals, a live simulator, and a ready-to-send offer email.
- §03 · Evidence
- The identity-lock funnel, from whole sector down to your exact cohort.
- §04 · Comparables
- Every cohort transaction — named, dated, priced and ranked against yours.
- §05 · Market trajectory
- Local liquidity and momentum, and how firmly they let you push.
- §06 · Negotiation environment
- Seller situation, read from the register — never from speculation.
- §07 · Location intelligence
- Schools, transport, real broadband and deprivation — distance-ranked.
- §08 · Risk register
- A nine-point insurance-risk score, every component sourced.
- §09 · Cost & energy
- Council tax, service charge, ground rent, EPC energy cost.
- §10 · Methodology
- How the anchor was calibrated — including where evidence ran thin.
Before you commission
Questions worth asking first.
What is a Buyer Folio?
A Buyer Folio is a commissioned research report on one specific English property, written for the buyer. It runs to ten sections and establishes what identical properties have actually sold for, how much negotiating leverage the listing carries, what liabilities sit on the address in the public record, and a tactical offer bracket — open, aim and walk-away. It costs £400 and is delivered within 48 hours.
How is this different from a Zoopla or Rightmove estimate?
Portal estimates are automated valuation models built to capture seller leads, and they will not show you their working. A Buyer Folio names every comparable transaction it used, states the matching rules it applied, and discloses where its evidence was thin. It also refuses to say what a property is worth — it reports only what identical properties have achieved, which is a claim that can be defended in front of an estate agent.
What do I actually receive?
A single self-contained document you can read on a phone, print, or forward to a solicitor or mortgage broker. It includes the Glass Box Anchor, the full named comparables ledger, the Leverage Matrix score, the risk register, the cost-of-ownership picture, the tactical offer bracket, and the email scripts for putting each offer to the selling agent.
What is the Identity Lock?
The Identity Lock is the rule that decides which sales are allowed to inform your number. Properties are matched on type, tenure, age band, floor band and — for houses — plot size. A two-bed leasehold flat is compared only to other two-bed leasehold flats in the same age and floor band. The lock is what stops a three-bed freehold terrace on the same street from contaminating the evidence.
What is the Glass Box Anchor?
The Glass Box Anchor is the cohort’s median price per square foot applied to your property’s verified floor area. It is called a Glass Box because the working is shown: the cohort is named, the matching dimensions are stated, the time-adjustment is disclosed, and the trim is declared. It is the baseline the entire offer bracket is built around.
Get the detailed evidence for your target property.
Request your folio