Amongst urban myths, perhaps one of the most prevalent and enduring is that buying from a developer is the easy option – a way of avoiding the urban nightmare of the 'Great British Builder'. Asian buyers certainly believe it as they have been by far and away the biggest purchasers of new developments over the past ten years – over 40% of the market. So important is this market that London developers now launch their new products in Hong Kong, Singapore and Kuala Lumpur before'; almost as an after-thought '; throwing some crumbs to the impoverished Britons. A weekend visit to a developer's exhibition in the Hyatt in Hong Kong is the Asian equivalent of a family shopping trip to Bluewater.

This is in many ways a retail branding exercise; if everyone is wearing/buying it, it must be good/valuable. There is no better comfort than knowing that your friends are in the same boat and, as a sophistication on this, that the directors of the company that has carried out the development have carved out the best units for themselves. It would be fun to imagine the regulatory howl that would rise up from the financial watchdogs if this was a company flotation.

The unwritten but explicit assumption behind this is that the product you are buying is going to be a simple buy, with no sitting tenants, dry-rot, botched plumbing behind a century's worth of masonry or a roof that is timed to deliver the contents of a thunderstorm on to your newly delivered furniture the day you move in. If you are buying as an investment, what could be more comforting than a 'guaranteed yield' for the first year and a rental office on site to shoehorn a jetlagged American investment banker into your new purchase?

While every now and then this does happen, it is not our experience that this is the norm. The main problem is the gap between the sales pitch with its glossy brochures and slick show-flats, and the cold day of practical completion when you take delivery of a bare shell with all the charm of a dentist's waiting-room. Even the most sophisticated buyers can be beguiled by some of the tricks of the trade. There are the shortened beds and slightly reduced furniture to make the thinnest of broom-cupboards into a double bedroom. One development we know of hit the front pages with pictures of queues of overnight campers desperate to place their deposits on launch day – students and unemployed paid for by the developers.

No sensibly sceptical buyer would expect the metaphorical girl to wake up with her make-up in place but they certainly do expect the shower to work, the wooden floors to be smooth and the windows to open; this is, after all, why they are paying showroom prices. Unfortunately, the nature of a new building is working in another direction; new timber moves, plaster opens up as it dries, dishwashers show off their resident gremlins the first time they are used and windows seize up – it is called snagging and it is where buyers and developers end up falling out because at this point they are looking in different directions. The buyer is, of course, focused on his leak or malfunctioning burglar alarm; the developer has physically; and more importantly mentally and financially- moved on to the next deal; getting him to focus on issues that can only be additional cost and hassle is a real problem. What can you do to make sure at that moment that you have his attention?

An obvious insurance policy is a retention, a sum kept aside, in escrow, to deal with all but the most disastrous problems. This is fine in theory but developers hate retentions which they recognise, rightly, as being sticks with which they will surely be beaten. Given the feeding frenzy that attends many of the launches of their products most developers successfully dig their heels in and worthy attempts by solicitors to get even the most nominal protection for their clients often ends up getting the same response as trying to haggle the price of a watch in Cartier. It is straightforward market forces at work and the toughest of buyers in just about every other aspect of their lives have parted with huge sums on the basis of a 'brand' reputation or a retention that is so small that when push came to shove, the developer preferred to push off.

Much can be done at the negotiation stage in addition to retentions. The buyer's surveyor should have the right to monitor the specification as it is being implemented at prearranged stages – checking items such as pipework that have disappeared into the fabric of the building by the time completion takes place. Rights of assignment are often forgotten or resisted by developers who hate the idea of a secondary market developing in their building before they have got the rump end away. If you have to sell for whatever reason, it is comforting to know that you do at least have the option to do so. Deposits tend to be seen as a form of 'option price' by speculators but they often forget the very real risk, in a congenitally highly leveraged business, of developers going bust. Guarantees on these deposits should be sought. It is also sensible, at the earliest stages, to take some independent advice on timing and be realistic about likely completion dates – if it can go wrong, it usually does and, while this may not be a disaster for an investor, it can be if you need somewhere to live.

This may all sound as if we have a jaundiced view of the promises held between the covers of the glossy development brochure. This is not the case – always. Some developers consistently and admirably produce buildings of exceptional quality and design excellence for which they deservedly get a huge premium over the going market rate. They have their down days every now and then but the ones we rate know their market and see their reputation as their 'edge'. We have more of a problem with the more commoditised product where the sausage machine analogy comes to mind. These are the developments that arrive in Hong Kong before they appear in London and one has to ask 'why?'.

Location is one answer. London is an old city where the best areas are already built on and subject to draconian planning restrictions. Most substantial developments, of any size, therefore tend to be, by definition, in secondary areas. While the PR machine is keen to stress the urban joys of various 'villages', the reality is that most are in areas that were given special attention by the Luftwaffe fifty years ago. River views are a huge selling point but, for the most part the view also includes four lanes of traffic on the north bank and, with a few notable exceptions, a pretty charmless hinterland of industrial detritus with a twenty-minute walk to the nearest pint of milk, let alone a cappuccino, on the south bank.

In order to attract investors, a favourite teaser is to offer a 'guaranteed yield'. This gives investors a 'return' on their money; usually for the first year; but it would not be being too cynical to look at this as the recycling of capital into income; you will simply pay more in order to create 'yield'. Of more practical use is the on-site letting office through which most, if not all, rental enquiries are routed; tenants wanting to be in that development have the perfect one-stop-shop. The problem is not generally in the shop but in the product which, when all is said and done, can have all the characteristics of a commodity – the only real differentiation being price. If the development is a large one with hundreds of units, and they are all hitting the rental market at the same time, then finding a tenant is going to be difficult. This factor is one of many which are contributing to the current implosion of the 'buy-to-let' market.

So, back to the urban myth; does buying a new development get you out of the perceived horrors of buying property in London? In our experience, the answer is 'no' as going down this route has a habit of throwing up more problems and aggravation than it solves. This is not just our observation but one shared by many solicitors. To be fair, this is often not the fault of the developer but more in the very nature of building materials; older buildings tend to have settled down and the person; or persons; one, or twenty, before you has had the frustration of dealing with the snagging which, in our experience is as inevitable as rain at Wimbledon. There are plenty of good reasons to buy from a developer, particularly if you want to be at the cutting edge of the new without getting involved in a major building project but choose your developer carefully and don't expect a hassle-free experience. As the Arab proverb goes, 'Trust in Allah, but tie up your camel'.

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