Six or seven years ago, this family first came to know SJW UK Properties. At the time, their child was still very young. Like many Chinese families, they had always been fond of the UK and hoped that, if their child came to study here in the future, they could have a real home of their own in London. They therefore began seriously exploring the UK property market and wanted to find a property company they could work with for the long term.
Their first meeting with the SJW team took place in China. The conversation lasted a long time and covered everything from the UK property market and their child’s future education plans to overseas asset allocation. For the family, buying a property was not an impulsive decision, but a family decision that needed to take many years into consideration. For SJW, it was not simply a matter of recommending a development either; it was the beginning of helping the client plan for the future.
After the property was completed and handed over in 2022, the client continued to entrust the property to SJW for lettings and day-to-day management. During the first few years, everything went smoothly: the tenancy was stable, the property was properly maintained, and the team carried out scheduled inspections, communicated with the tenant and arranged repairs. Everything worked as a mature rental property should.
Then the pandemic changed many people’s lives. It was also the first time since SJW was established that the team had encountered a genuine case involving a tenant who stopped paying rent and refused to leave.
When the tenant moved in, all procedures complied with the prevailing industry requirements at the time. Before the pandemic, if a tenant was able to pay six months or even a full year’s rent upfront, many companies in the industry would simplify the corresponding credit-checking process. After the pandemic, however, the tenant’s life changed dramatically. His marriage broke down, his business failed, and his financial position deteriorated rapidly. Eventually, he stopped paying rent and refused to vacate the property.
For any overseas landlord, this is almost the situation they least want to face. The real difficulty is often not the property itself, but the distance. The landlord was in China while the property was in London. When the problem arose, they could not immediately attend the property or follow the case in person every day. They could only place their trust in the property management team. Faced with this situation, SJW did not simply wait, nor did the team consider its work finished once the matter had been handed to solicitors. Instead, SJW remained involved throughout the entire process.
Our team progressed the case strictly in accordance with UK legal procedures, maintained ongoing communication with the solicitors, prepared court documents and coordinated the relevant parties and resources. When the case reached a critical stage, the landlord and SJW jointly decided to instruct a professional barrister to represent the landlord in court in order to protect the landlord’s interests as fully as possible. SJW founder Sally Wang and partner John Murphy also took part in case discussions on multiple occasions and personally visited the property to communicate with the tenant in the hope of moving the matter towards a resolution.
The process lasted a long time. Eventually, possession of the property was successfully recovered. The SJW team immediately arranged cleaning, repairs and reinstatement, and quickly returned the property to the rental market so that normal operations could resume. From an investment-return perspective, it was not an easy year. The landlord lost more than a year of rental income and had to bear legal fees. They also had to bear the costs of litigation. It was an experience no landlord would ever want to go through.
Yet what the SJW team still remembers most clearly is not the financial loss. It is what the landlord said after the case was over. He said, “If this had never happened, perhaps we would always have remained simply a client and a property company.” He paused, then smiled and continued: “Although we lost some rent during that year and incurred some costs, we truly got to know Sally and John. More importantly, we came to understand how SJW handles things.” “Looking at it another way, we lost some rental income, but we found a group of people we can trust for the long term.”
For SJW, those words were more valuable than any expression of thanks. Because what overseas landlords truly worry about is not simply the property itself, but whether, when something happens thousands of miles away, there is someone willing to genuinely stand by their side.
A few years later, that trust faced a second test. In 2025, the family came to London for the first time. They finally saw the first property they had purchased with their own eyes and visited the SJW office to meet the whole team in person. They also travelled to several other European countries, gaining a much more tangible understanding of life in the UK and Europe.
After returning to China, they began seriously considering the next stage of their family plans. As their child grew older, they wanted to acquire another high-end home that would genuinely suit the family for long-term living. This time, they carefully compared two locations — the United States and London. They were well aware that property prices in parts of the US had risen significantly over the previous few years. By comparison, London’s property market had remained relatively steady overall since the UK’s 2016 Brexit referendum, with some periods of price adjustment. Looking only at recent market performance, the US might appear to have offered higher returns. Yet they ultimately chose London.
Later, during a conversation with the SJW team, they explained their thinking. In their view, an asset that is genuinely suitable for long-term ownership should not be judged only by how much it has risen in value over the past few years. What matters is whether the city in which it is located possesses enduring, irreplaceable value. London is one of the world’s most established international cities, and land in its core areas is extremely scarce; many locations are inherently impossible to replicate. Markets may fluctuate in the short term, but the scarcity of land does not change, nor does a city’s position within the global financial, educational, legal and cultural systems disappear simply because of one market cycle. Rather than chasing whichever market happens to be rising faster at a particular moment, they preferred to place an important part of their family’s long-term asset allocation in a city whose underlying value they considered more stable.
Of course, that was not the only reason. They told the SJW team candidly that, if they chose the United States in the future, they would need to get to know a new team, understand a new company and build trust all over again. That would involve not only a cost in time, but also the need to learn how to work and communicate with one another whenever future problems arose. In London, none of that needed to start again from the beginning.
They said: “Over the years, we have already been through the most difficult period together. We know how SJW handles problems, and we know the attitude you take when facing difficulties. Real trust is not built through a few meetings; it accumulates gradually through solving problems together, time after time. Now that we have found people worth working with for the long term, we would rather continue to entrust our future to you.” Ultimately, in 2026, they once again purchased a high-end residence near St James’s Park through SJW UK Properties.
Many people might say that SJW helped this client complete two property purchases. But for SJW, the real significance of this story is not the two transactions. The first property marked the beginning of a working relationship. The second was the natural choice that followed after trust had been tested and strengthened through time, difficulty and shared experience. At SJW UK Properties, we have always believed that what truly sustains a long-term relationship is not a single successful transaction. It is the confidence that, at the most difficult moment, no matter what happens, SJW will stand by the client’s side.