In the world of (super) prime property, deals often come down to who knows what – and when. The market runs on relationships and conversations and on matching the right buyer to the right house at exactly the right moment. For HNW individuals, working with a buying agent is often less about convenience and more about access.
The best prime property buying agents begin by understanding a client’s specific objectives, whether that means securing a trophy home, a discreet off-market gem or a strategic investment.
After this initial meeting, the search begins – and a strong network becomes essential. The top buying agents spend their days speaking to brokers, developers, family offices and private clients, often tracking down houses that may never be formally put on the general market. Some have even been known to knock on the doors of homes in London’s most sought-after postcodes.
[See also: London home sales worth £5 million]
Related
But their role doesn’t end at sourcing properties. Our top buying agents firmly sit on the buyer’s side of the table, advising on negotiation strategy and protecting their client’s position through the deal. Whether it is how much to pay, when to move or when to hold back, agents advise their clients throughout the entire buying process.
Top Recommended buying agent Toby Downes, tells Spear’s that his role ‘doesn’t just cover the search and acquisition’, and inherently involves ‘making sure the correct team is in place so that [clients] have access to the best tax advisers, the best lawyers – the whole package’.
Explore the other rankings within the 2026 Spear’s Property Indices:
Content from our partners
- Best property brokers
- Best country specialists
- Best property lawyers
- Best relocation and shipping specialists
- Best property investment, finance & management services
- Best lettings specialists
Our 2026 research found that many leading agents believe a good buyer’s agent shouldn’t represent both buyers and sellers to avoid creating unavoidable conflicts of interest. This is also why some firms have responded by separating functions. Savills, for example, operates Prime Purchase as a distinct buying arm, designed to avoid any blurring of loyalties.
Sophie Rogerson, the managing director at RFR, winner of the 2025 Spear’s Buying Agent of the Year award, tells Spear’s the firm ‘will only act for buyers’, and will ‘never accept fees from any third parties’. For her, it is this unwavering focus that acts as a foundation for the relationship she builds with her clients. ‘We are advisers to our clients and hugely value the trust they place in us,’ she says.
There is also the question of scale. Buying agencies, which were once a relatively small corner of the industry, have expanded rapidly. Ed Tryon of Lichfields notes that when he started out over two decades ago, there were only ‘a couple of dozen’ dedicated buying agents. Now, he said, there are thousands, which brings not only competition but also notable variations in the quality of services provided.
‘If you want to do deals at the very top of the market and provide a very good quality of service,’ Tryon explains, ‘you need the intellect, you need the access and you need patience.’
Click the links below to jump to a section of this article:
- Methodology
- The best buying agents: some names to know
- The best buying agents: the complete list
- Contact us
Methodology
Each year, the Spear’s Research Unit reassesses and refreshes its rankings of the leading providers in each sector by gathering data from and about the advisers and firms themselves, assessing submission forms, collating nominations, carrying out peer reviews, reviewing data from third-party sources, gathering references and recommendations, canvassing experts and conducting hundreds of interviews.
Advisers are evaluated using a proprietary scoring system that assigns different weightings to certain attributes. These scores feed directly into each new set of rankings in the Spear’s Indices. Each of these indices are published first online (according to the research calendar) and then in print. Print publication takes the form of the annual Spear’s 500 directory, which includes the top advisers in every index.
[See also: A guide to The Spear’s 500: Everything you need to know]
Each featured adviser is profiled on spears500.com. The site allows users to search the Spear’s database of more than 4,000 entities to find one (or more) to meet their specific requirements by filtering for specific attributes such as an adviser’s location, their specialist expertise and information about their client base.
The best buying agents: some names to know
Camilla Dell
- Focus: Off-market transactions in London
- Ranking: Top Flight
- Firm: Black Brick Property Solutions
‘I just don’t believe you can be a buying agent if you work for an estate agency,’ says Camilla Dell, founder and managing partner of Black Brick Property Solutions.
Dell set up the firm in 2007 to ‘level up the playing field and ensure that buyers get a fair deal’. Off-market transactions make up more than two-fifths of the properties Dell’s firm sources for clients, and while London’s super-prime postcodes continue to perform ‘very strongly’, Black Brick also serves buyers in the home counties and west country.
Read Camilla Dell’s full profile on Spears500.com
Jo Eccles
- Focus: Property search and acquisition
- Ranking: Top Flight
- Firm: Eccord
Jo Eccles has spent 20 years building her business, Eccord, into one of prime central London’s most prominent buying agencies and management firms.
Consistently ranked as a Top Flight buying agent, Eccles has earned a gleaming reputation and has ‘a proven track record of securing exceptional results for clients’. The firm has acquired in excess of 400 properties ranging in price from £2 million to £60 million, and is one of the few whose brokerage focuses exclusively on buyer-side representation.
The 2021 Spear’s Award winner says: ‘No client or requirement is the same; we may be acquiring a trophy family home, investing divorce proceeds or purchasing and managing a London base for a global HNW client.’
Read Jo Eccles’ full profile on Spears500.com
Jason Corbett
- Focus: Super-discreet search
- Ranking: Recommended
- Firm: Rowallan Buying Agents
Jason Corbett began his career in property at the age of 15, and honed his skills at Strutt & Parker, Savills, Carter Jonas and Sotheby’s International Realty before founding his own search agency, Rowallan Buying Agents, in 2022.
Corbett sources prime homes in Surrey, Sussex and south-west London for prominent CEOs, sporting legends, celebrities and entrepreneurs. He says he only takes on five clients at a time in order to provide attentive service, and draws on his enviable professional network and personal connections to access off-market opportunities.
Read Jason Corbett’s full profile on Spears500.com
Sophie Rogerson
- Focus: Search and acquisitions
- Ranking: Top Flight
- Firm: RFR
Over the last decade of her career, RFR managing director Sophie Rogerson has advised on some of London’s most sought-after properties with an amiability and flair that has drawn praise from her peers in the industry. One observer says that she is ‘super bright and combines this with market knowledge as well as emotional intelligence’ while another senior lawyer notes that ‘clients love her’.
Rogerson is a Macfarlanes alum, just like her husband and business partner, Richard, and believes this experience has helped to differentiate their firm. ‘Most buying agents are ex-sales agents, whereas we have always come at this from a protection, advisory [and] professional services capacity,’ she explains. ‘That’s why we’ve been able to quite quickly sit at the top end of the table, because that’s what the market wanted.’
Read Sophie Rogerson’s full profile on Spears500.com
Natasha Bateman
- Focus: Off-market London and Cotswolds
- Ranking: Recommended
- Firm: Independent
‘I work at the top end of the market,’ says property buying agent Natasha Bateman. Transactions typically average around £10 million, she explains, and her key area of focus is the Cotswolds, with occasional projects in West London and Mayfair.
She frequently works with American clients and those in the entertainment business – actors, musicians and film directors. She is no stranger to celebrity, both personally and professionally: Bateman, Spear’s discovers, is half-sister to model Sienna Miller, a connection she keeps carefully under wraps.
The emphasis on privacy naturally extends to her work. Her client list is strictly confidential, marketing is subtle, and transactions are predominantly off-market. ‘I’ve looked after everyone, but I don’t talk about it. I don’t have Instagram; my website is minimal.’
Read Natasha Bateman’s full profile on Spears500.com
The best buying agents: the complete list
Click on the individual names to be directed to more detailed profiles of each adviser on The Spear’s 500 website. The table is ordered by ranking and then alphabetically by surname.
Contact us
- To apply for inclusion in The Spear’s 500, complete our submission form.
- For further information about rankings, please email research@spearswms.com; we aim to respond to all queries within two working days.
- For commercial enquiries and questions relating to enhanced profiles, please contact Commercial Director Shady Elkholy: shady.elkholy@spearswms.com
- To keep up to date with the Spear’s 500, subscribe to our magazine, newsletter and follow Spear’s on Linkedin and Instagram.
- If you have missed calendar deadlines for our research cycles in 2025, you can still register your interest for updates about upcoming research and rankings.
- Click here to order a print copy of The Spear’s 500.
With additional reporting by Livia Giannotti.
