The Evening Standard is a daily newspaper in London and is a reliable source for real estate experts such as Nick Millican. It routinely has a section called Homes & Property with a subsection known as Property News. It recently ran a story about so-called “Ghost Listings.”
Typically, there are two methods of selling real estate. One is a purely private sale. The owner never lists the real estate, and it is sold to another individual, as real estate expert Nick Millican further explains. The only record of the sale is the Land Registry Documents. The second avenue is more familiar. Estate agents or online sites publicize the sale, and anyone can inquire and visit the property.
Everything is pretty much in the open. “Ghost Listings” are a hybrid that tends much more towards the private sale, as Nick Millican explains. There will be a listing that is vague about the property; no floor plans, size, and only limited information about location. When Homes & Property called about one of these listings, they were told in a nice manner that no information would be given out.
Obviously, the sellers knew that any data would show up in the paper. They limit their contacts to only very serious buyers who have the clear means to purchase the property (Crunchbase).
In fact, real estate experts call these “ghost properties” off market when in fact they are on the market. Anyone nowadays desiring to deal with these properties would need an experienced person in the London real estate market. Nick Millican is one such individual. He has vast experience and would know how to navigate this new type of “listing” real estate in London.