KAIROS acts for buyers of off-market property in Madrid — the houses, apartments and buildings that are quietly available but never advertised. We are engaged by the purchaser, we are paid by the purchaser, and our work is judged on one thing: whether the right asset was bought at the right price, with nothing unpleasant discovered after signature.
What off-market really means, and what it does not
Off-market is not a marketing label for a property that failed to sell. It describes an owner who will consider an offer but will not accept a public listing — usually because a sale would signal something about the family, the company or the timing. That reticence is the whole point. It also means there is no portal to browse, no asking price to anchor against and no third party guaranteeing that what you are shown is accurate.
So the value of an adviser here is not access alone. Anyone can promise an introduction. The value lies in what happens after it: establishing why the owner is selling, whether the title and planning position stand up, what the asset is genuinely worth in a market with no comparable transactions on record, and how far the seller will move.
What KAIROS brings to a private purchase
- Qualified private sourcing. Owners, family offices, private banks and lawyers approached directly against a written brief, rather than a list of properties circulated to everyone.
- Technical and legal verification. Title, charges, planning consents, structural condition, tenancies and community obligations checked before an offer is tabled, not after.
- A negotiating position, not a bid. We set the opening offer, the sequence of concessions and the price above which we recommend withdrawing — and we put that ceiling in writing before talks begin.
- Coordination with your advisers. Your lawyers and tax advisers keep their remit; we make sure their work lands on time and in the right order.
- Control of the timetable. One accountable lead holds the calendar from first viewing to the notarial appointment, and chases every party who is late.
The assets and mandates we take on
We work on prime residential property, one-off buildings with a strong location and corporate holdings tied to a wider wealth or capital position. Our clients are rarely buying to trade. They are buying somewhere to live, somewhere to house a business, or somewhere to hold value across a generation — which changes what matters. Yield takes second place to protection on the downside, quality of building and the ease of selling again in a market that may be far less kind.
We do not take on volume mandates or search briefs with no defined objective. If the requirement is simply to see what is available this month, an estate agent will serve you better and we will say so.
How an acquisition runs, phase by phase
Every mandate follows the same five phases. The pace varies with the asset and the seller; the sequence does not. Timings below are indicative and run from the moment the brief is agreed.
| Phase | What happens | Indicative timing | What you receive |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 · Brief | Objective, budget, intended use, timetable and the risks you are prepared to carry. | Reply in under 24 hours | A written view on whether we are the right fit. |
| 2 · Sourcing | Owners, advisers and private intermediaries approached discreetly against the brief. | Weeks 1–4 | Shortlist with the provenance of each introduction. |
| 3 · Verification | Title, planning, structure, tenancies, charges and the seller's actual position. | 2–3 weeks per asset | Risk note setting out what would stop the deal. |
| 4 · Negotiation | Offer structure, conditions, deposit terms and the order in which we concede. | Variable | Negotiating plan and an agreed walk-away price. |
| 5 · Completion | Timetable held, advisers coordinated, notarial appointment arranged. | Through to signature | Decision log and a complete closing file. |
What you receive in writing
A mandate produces documents, not impressions. Each one has a date and an author, and all of them remain yours when the mandate ends.
- Fit note. An honest reading of whether your brief can be met in Madrid at the budget you have in mind. Sent within 24 hours of your enquiry.
- Sourcing shortlist. Each asset with its provenance, the owner's motivation as we understand it, and what we have not yet been able to confirm.
- Risk note. The findings that would change the price, delay the completion or end the negotiation, ranked by how likely and how costly they are.
- Closing file. Every document, valuation reference and piece of correspondence that supported the decision, assembled in one place for your records and your advisers.
What we deliberately do not do
- We do not act for sellers. No listing fees, no introducer commissions from the other side. Our only incentive is your outcome.
- We do not give legal or tax advice. We work alongside your advisers and hold the execution, never their remit.
- We do not forecast returns. We will show you the evidence behind a valuation and the assumptions we distrust; the investment call remains yours.
- We do not promise access we cannot evidence. Where a building, a street or a seller is beyond our reach, we say so at the first reply rather than three months in.
How we take friction out of the decision
Private transactions rarely fail because the buyer chose wrongly. They fail because information arrived late, in pieces, and from people with something to gain. We answer that by running the process in fixed layers — hypothesis, verification, negotiation, execution — and by putting a single person between you and everyone else involved. You are asked to decide four or five times, each time with a written note in front of you, rather than twenty times over the telephone.
When a purchase requires you to be in Madrid at short notice, we sequence the travel around the transaction rather than the other way round. That coordination sits inside our private office mandate in Madrid and can draw on private aviation from Madrid when a viewing window will not wait.
Beyond Madrid
Madrid is where our network runs deepest and where we take responsibility for the whole transaction. Clients who also hold property in London, Lisbon, Marbella or the Gulf frequently ask us to coordinate there too. We do so case by case, alongside partners we have worked with before, and we are explicit about which parts of the process we control and which we are merely watching. Read our current view of the private market in the off-market analysis in the KAIROS Journal.