Our subject is not the property; it is the decision.
A property is viewed; a decision is documented. We act upstream, while the room for judgement is still open — before the preliminary contract, before the levers close.
The method was born of acquisition, which remains its core. It carries over, with the adjustments each case demands, to a disposal or an investment decision: the object of the reading changes, not its principle.
A background in architecture and a master’s in built-asset management inform this reading. They are instruments in the service of the decision — not a specialism we would put forward for its own sake.
The method
Five stages, one purpose: to produce a documented decision, not to accelerate a transaction.
01
01
Framing the project
Before any search, we define your objectives, constraints and decision criteria with you — budget, use, horizon, risk tolerance. Without this frame, the analysis has no benchmark.
02
02
Identification
Properties are identified on the market and within our network. We favour relevance over volume: a case is examined only if it meets the criteria set at framing.
03
03
Documented reading
Each property retained undergoes a technical, legal and financial reading: build quality, co-ownership standing, price coherence, transformation potential. We examine what a viewing does not reveal. This is where the background in architecture comes in — as one lens on the building fabric, among others.
04
04
Verdict
The reading concludes with an explicit recommendation: GO, CAUTION or NO GO. No decision is left implicit.
05
05
Support through to the final decision
The advice does not stop at the verdict. As you move towards acquisition, we remain at your side through to signature — reviewing terms, defending your interests in the negotiation, coordinating those involved. This support holds even when the transaction is run by a third party: our role is to defend your decision, not to hold the mandate.
Where you wish, we can also conduct the search and negotiation on your behalf, under a dedicated mandate.
This same reading applies, with the adjustments each case demands, to a disposal or an investment decision.
The object changes; the method remains.
The verdict, unfolded
Three positions, one rule: none is left to interpretation. Here is what each one commits to.
GO
Acquisition recommended
The property supports the decision and the conditions for a sound acquisition are met. Never a mere approval: a GO sets out the defensible price, the timing and the terms of the offer — a GO with a frame, the one within which execution can begin without reservation.
CAUTION
Acquisition subject to conditions
Neither yes nor no: “not as it stands”. The property can be acquired, but named reservations must be cleared before any offer — a price to renegotiate, works to cost, a legal situation to clarify. The most demanding of the three positions, because it requires work before a decision can be reached. As long as the reservations hold, execution stays suspended.
NO GO
Reasoned withdrawal
A result, not a failure. The property should not be acquired, and the report says why — a structural reason that neither price nor works can remedy. Withdrawing on the basis of a documented reading has value in itself: a decision spared. The reasons are recorded and remain useful in guiding the cases that follow.
These three positions carry the same weight, and the same cost. Our advice is paid for the reading it produces, regardless of its conclusion: we are paid to tell you no with the same rigour as to tell you yes.
One approach, a depth that adjusts
The method is single; its depth adjusts to your situation. For a property you have already identified, a focused reading is enough — analysis, verdict, and the decision is yours. For international buyers and larger projects — relocating to France, restructuring a portfolio, several decisions to conduct — the approach extends into a single point of contact: one interlocutor who coordinates a network of specialists and carries the file from end to end, across the fragmented French system.
Between these two intensities, the principle does not change. The same rigour of reading, the same GO / CAUTION / NO GO framework, the same independence. What varies is the scope of what we coordinate around your decision — never the way we document it.
The framework
This method operates within a named framework: Prime Advisory, our global advisory engagement, whose independence is set out contractually. It draws on RICS standards — the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors — as a methodological reference for reading and assessing the building fabric.
The framework rests on a background in architecture, a master’s in built-asset management, and an enrolment in the RICS Building Surveying pathway, currently underway. It operates under a professional transaction licence and professional indemnity insurance.
