Acting for international clients since 1998

The UK property partner for investors based abroad.

For twenty-seven years we have sourced, acquired and structured UK property on behalf of high net worth individuals and family offices outside the United Kingdom. We do the looking, the diligence, the legal and the management. You sleep through the time difference.

Schedule a private call Our services

A British firm. Acting for overseas clients in eighteen locations to date.

London, the heart of our operating territory

"The British firm of choice for our family office's UK acquisitions."

— FAMILY OFFICE PRINCIPAL · ABU DHABI · CLIENT SINCE 2019

The firm

A British firm, acting for overseas clients in eighteen locations.

UK property remains one of the most considered stores of value for international wealth. The friction is local. The opportunity is in finding a British partner who closes it.

Whitfield Property Partners was founded in 1998 by Edward Whitfield, formerly of Knight Frank's international team, to do for individual private clients what an institutional desk does for funds. Find the right asset. Negotiate the right price. Structure for the right tax outcome. Hold it well.

Our work begins where most overseas buyers come unstuck. Sourcing UK property from a distance. Verifying it without flying. Underwriting it against local comparables. Navigating SDLT, ATED and the structuring options for non-resident owners. Instructing the right counsel, the right brokers and the right managing agents. And remaining, throughout, the single point of contact across the time zone of your choice.

The firm operates from London with permanent representative offices in Dubai and Singapore. We act through introduction, professional counsel and the relationships built over twenty-seven years. We do not advertise. We do not need to.

What we do not do. We do not list inventory. We do not act for vendors. We do not advise on properties we have not personally inspected. We do not source for retail buy-to-let speculation. We work exclusively for the client who has instructed us, for the duration of each engagement, and we close the door behind us when the mandate completes.

"We took our first international mandate in November 1998. We've spent every year since closing the distance between a private client abroad and the right asset in Britain." — EDWARD WHITFIELD, FRICS · FOUNDER

Our services

Three structures for private clients abroad.

Every engagement begins with the same private call, the same diligence standards and the same direct involvement of a senior partner. The structures below differ in commitment scale and the breadth of work undertaken on the client's behalf.

Service I

Single acquisition

For the client purchasing one UK property. We source, view, underwrite and acquire on your written instruction. Suited to individual purchases, second homes or single trophy assets from £750,000 upwards.

Sourcing and physical viewing
Independent valuation and surveys
Structuring for non-resident ownership
SDLT and ATED counsel
Single transaction fee, no retainer

Enquire about this service

Service II

Portfolio building

For the client building a UK property position from abroad. A three-year structured mandate of three to seven acquisitions deployed across a defined buy box. Quarterly performance reporting throughout.

Defined buy box and pace
Three to seven acquisitions per mandate
Quarterly performance reporting
Single point of contact through completion
Retainer plus success-aligned components

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Service III

Ongoing advisory

For family offices and private clients with established UK property positions. Long-term advisory partnership covering acquisition, asset management, refinance, succession structuring. Direct partner access.

Multi-generational engagement
Acquisition and disposal advisory
Asset management oversight
Succession and trust structuring counsel
Annual fee, by introduction only

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Closed · Q4 2025

A Manchester townhouse acquired remotely for a Singapore-based investor

Recent acquisition

A Manchester townhouse, acquired remotely in six weeks.

A four-bedroom Victorian townhouse in south Manchester, sourced off-market through a long-standing North West estate agent relationship. Viewed on the client's behalf by the senior partner. Acquired below RICS valuation and structured for non-resident ownership.

Client base

Singapore

Acquisition

£450,000

vs RICS valuation

−8%

Time to completion

6 wks

Client visits required

SDLT structuring saving

£14k

"My first international mandate completed three weeks after the firm was founded. The work has not changed in twenty-seven years."

Edward Whitfield FRICS · Founder

The principal

Founded in 1998. One discipline. Still the same hands.

Edward Whitfield founded Whitfield Property Partners in November 1998 after eleven years on Knight Frank's international desk. The first mandate, completed three weeks later, was a Belgravia mews house for a Saudi private client introduced through a London solicitor he had worked with at his previous firm. The fee paid the practice's first year of rent. The model has remained unchanged ever since.

"A firm built to do one thing well, for a small list of clients, in three time zones. The discipline has remained the protection."

The firm now operates from a head office in St James's, London, with permanent representative presences in Dubai International Financial Centre and Singapore's Marina Bay. Edward and the three senior partners remain personally involved on every transaction the firm undertakes. There are no associates presenting to clients. There is no marketing team. The reputation of the firm rests on the work it produces and the introductions that follow.

Edward is a Fellow of the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors and an affiliate member of the Society of Trust and Estate Practitioners. He sits on the investment committee of two London-listed property vehicles and contributes a quarterly letter on UK property to the firm's client base, which is not published more widely.

Based St James's, London

Founded November 1998

Memberships FRICS · STEP affiliate

Languages English · French · Arabic

Where our clients are based

Acting on instruction from eighteen locations to date.

UAE

Dubai · Abu Dhabi

Saudi Arabia

Riyadh · Jeddah

Singapore

Marina Bay

Hong Kong

Central

Switzerland

Geneva · Zürich

Monaco

Monte Carlo

United States

New York · Miami

Australia

Sydney · Melbourne

South Africa

Cape Town · Johannesburg

Canada

Toronto · Vancouver

Kuwait

Kuwait City

India

Mumbai · Bangalore

In the words of our clients

Discretion as standard. Direct partner involvement, always.

Edward and his partners have acted for our family office on six acquisitions across central London and Surrey since 2019. Each transaction completed without us boarding a single flight. The structuring work alone has saved us materially against the cost of equivalent advisers in Dubai.

Mr A.K.R.

Family office principal

Abu Dhabi · Client since 2019

I instructed Whitfield in 2014 to assemble a UK BTL position around our London property holdings. Nineteen acquisitions later, the relationship is the most considered I keep in Britain. Edward remains the only person I instruct on UK matters.

Mrs L.P.

Private investor

Singapore · Client since 2014

The standard

Four principles the firm will not move on.

The principles below apply to every engagement, regardless of jurisdiction, ticket size or vehicle structure. They have not changed since the firm was founded and they will not change.

i.
Every property viewed in person
No acquisition is presented to a client until a senior partner has stood inside it. We do not act on agent particulars alone. We do not commission off-the-shelf survey reports. We do not skip steps because the asset is small.
ii.
Direct partner involvement throughout
Every engagement is conducted by Edward or one of the three senior partners. Clients do not move down to associates. The same hands that source the deal close the deal and remain available for the years that follow.
iii.
Structured for the client's tax position
SDLT, ATED, non-resident landlord rules, capital gains exposure, succession planning. Every acquisition is structured around the client's specific position with input from our long-standing relationships in UK tax counsel and trust practitioners.
iv.
By introduction only
The firm takes on new client relationships only through existing clients, professional counsel and the personal introductions Edward maintains across our three offices. We do not accept cold approaches and we have never advertised.

Considering an introduction

An introduction precedes every engagement.

If you are considering a UK property acquisition from abroad, the first step is a private call with one of the senior partners. The call is scheduled to your time zone and conducted at your discretion. There is no presentation, no follow-up sequence and no fee until and unless an engagement letter is signed.

Schedule a private call Email the firm directly

Currently considering three new mandate relationships before Q3 2026.