Landlords · Property DNA
Our management fee is 10% of the rent, including VAT, all in. It is not cheap for the sake of being cheap. It is priced for one kind of home, the modern London new-build, and this page sets out exactly what that means.
Why 10% works
A management fee pays for time. How much time a home takes depends far more on the building than on the rent.
A Victorian or Edwardian house split into flats, an ex-local-authority flat on an estate, a 1990s block still running its original hot-water immersion cylinders, a house shared by five tenants: homes like these produce a steady stream of reactive work. Damp patches, roof leaks, ageing electrics, boilers and cylinders that fail in January, keys to chase and contractors to let in. Managed properly, many of them justify a fee of 15 to 20 per cent. The work is real.
A modern new-build behaves differently. In a typical new-build block, heat and hot water come from a communal network through a heat interface unit in each flat, the building is professionally managed, and a concierge can let a contractor in. There is less to go wrong, and when something does, the route to fixing it is shorter.
So we made a common-sense decision. Rather than charge a high-street 16 to 20 per cent for a low-maintenance modern apartment, we charge 10% including VAT, and the time we save comes back to you as the difference.
| What differs | The traditional high-street model | The Harvey W James DNA model |
|---|---|---|
| Management fee | 16.8% to 20.4% including VAT: the typical range other agents in our survey publish for full management | 10% including VAT, all in. Full Management is our only service |
| Built for | Every kind of home on the books, including period conversions, ex-local-authority flats and multi-sharer houses | Modern apartments and townhouses built in roughly the last ten years |
| Heating and hot water | Often an individual gas boiler or a hot-water immersion cylinder, some of them decades old | Heat interface units, underfloor heating, MVHR ventilation, comfort cooling |
| The building around the flat | Roofs, gutters and party walls that may have no managing agent at all | A professionally managed block or estate, usually with a 24-hour concierge |
| Getting a contractor in | Keys collected from the tenant, or held across town | The concierge holds keys and lets the contractor in |
| Reactive repairs | Frequent: damp, leaks, heating and hot-water failures | Fewer, and a shorter route to fixing them |
Our 10% including VAT is charged only in the months a tenant is paying rent: nothing during a void, nothing to re-let, no letting fee, no renewal fee and no mark-up on your repairs. Anything outside the 10% is itemised on the landlords page and quoted before work starts. The field’s figures come from each agency’s own published fee card, set out on How We Compare.
The five pillars
Five things we look for before we take a home on. Most of them describe the building rather than the flat, because the building decides most of the work.
Built in roughly the last ten years, from about 2016 onwards. EPC band B or better, which means an energy-efficiency rating of 81 or more: on the A to G scale, band B runs from 81 to 91, and anything higher is band A. Modern insulation and double or triple glazing. The government has decided that privately rented homes in England should reach the equivalent of EPC C by 1 October 2030; it is policy, not yet law, and a band-B home is already past it.
Studios, one-, two- and three-bedroom modern apartments are the core of what we manage. Modern new-build family townhouses with three or four bedrooms we take case by case, judged against a Berkeley Homes townhouse we already manage on Townsend Road in Kidbrooke Village, SE3. Houses let room by room to several sharers sit outside the profile.
Communal district heating with a heat interface unit (HIU) in each home, underfloor heating, mechanical ventilation with heat recovery (MVHR) and comfort cooling. Not an ageing gas boiler, and not a hot-water immersion cylinder from the 1990s. Modern systems still need servicing; what they rarely need is an emergency plumber every winter.
Hotel-style bathrooms finished in porcelain or stone, and integrated kitchens from makers such as Siemens, Miele, Bosch and Smeg. It is the specification corporate and professional tenants look for, and the one our Marketing Engine names appliance by appliance in every listing.
A concierge who holds keys, lets a contractor in and takes in parcels, and an estate team that looks after the building around the flat. Residents’ gyms, pools, lounges and co-working spaces are a sign of the same thing: a building run by professionals every day, not only when something breaks.
Where the DNA lives
As at 27 October 2026, 80% of the 120 homes we manage sit in the postcode districts below. These are London developments where we manage homes. Developer names identify each scheme: we work for landlords, not for developers.
E1W · E1 · EC2A
14 homes we manage in these districts
E14
16 homes we manage in this district
E3 · E15 · E20
18 homes we manage in these districts
E16
9 homes we manage in this district
N4 · N8 · WC1X · WC2A
9 homes we manage in these districts
W12 · W5 · HA0 · W3 · NW9
21 homes we manage in these districts
SW8 · SW11 · SW6 · SW10 · SE3 · KT1
9 homes we manage in these districts
Homes by postcode district · Street CRM · as at 27 October 2026 · stats.json
Why we sometimes say no
Some landlords hear from us before we have seen their home: “Unfortunately, this isn’t our type of property.” We know how that can read, so here is what it means and what it does not.
It does not mean your home is a bad home, a bad investment, or that we are being picky. A Victorian conversion can be a beautiful place to live. An ex-local-authority flat can be well kept and a sound let.
It means the building needs a different kind of management from the one we have built. An older home is best served by an agent organised around reactive repairs: a deep bench of contractors, someone on call for the leak on a Sunday, and a fee that pays for all of it. That agent will look after your home better than we could at 10%, because our whole model, from the fee to the team to the systems, is set up for buildings that need less of that work.
Usually the building tells us enough: the year it was built, its EPC, how it is heated, whether there is a concierge, a few photos. When a home is clearly outside the profile, a visit would cost you a morning and delay you finding the right agent. We would rather say so now than disappoint you later.
We take on homes anywhere in London. The postcode does not decide it. The building does.
We won’t take on a home that needs a 20% service and give it a 10% one. That would be unfair to you, to your tenant, and to every landlord whose fee depends on us keeping the model honest.
Common questions
Because our fee is relative to the work. We manage modern new-build homes, built in roughly the last ten years with EPC band B or better, modern heating and a professionally managed building, and they need far less reactive management than older stock. Most other agents in our survey publish 16.8% to 20.4% including VAT; ours is 10% including VAT, all in.
Modern London new-builds. Studios and one-, two- and three-bedroom apartments in developments built in roughly the last ten years, and modern three- and four-bedroom new-build townhouses case by case. We look for EPC band B or better, modern heating such as a heat interface unit, a contemporary specification, and a concierge or professional estate team.
Usually not. Period conversions, ex-local-authority flats, older blocks with ageing boilers or immersion cylinders, and houses shared by several tenants need heavy reactive management, and many justify a fee of 15 to 20 per cent. Our 10% model is built for buildings that need less of that work, so we will tell you honestly when another agent would serve your home better.
Because the building usually tells us whether it fits: the year it was built, its EPC, how it is heated and whether it has a concierge or estate team. If a home is clearly outside our Property DNA we say so in our first reply, so you can instruct an agent set up for older homes sooner. It is never a judgement on your home.
No. Since September 2026 Full Management has been our only service. Finding the tenant is included in the 10% including VAT, which we charge only in months a tenant is paying rent: nothing during a void and nothing to re-let. If let-only is what you need, plenty of local agents offer it.
No. We take on homes anywhere in London that fit the Property DNA. Most of the homes we manage today are in East London, Docklands and the large new-build masterplans across the city, but the building decides it, not the postcode.
Own a modern London home?
If your apartment or townhouse was built in roughly the last ten years, we would like to see it. We will price it from our own letting data and show you the working.
Kept on this device — no account needed. Want to hear the moment a similar home comes up?
