I frequently see many a prospective home buyers making price the focal point of their conversation about property.

Quite often, it’s the first or second points they want to know about a flat. This is fine with univariate things like commodities where there aren’t too many other attributes to bother about. A gold brick or a copper wire is just that with few other variables to consider.
This isn’t the case with property. Property has a bewildering array of attributes – location, finishes, car parks, handover status..etc to process. You can’t determine the value of a house till you know each one of them. Some attributes may even be subjective – such as you would value a property near a school more if you have a school-going kid than a retired couple would.

How can we make any judgment about the price of a flat without knowing it’s value to us?
My 2 cents – First ask everything about a property other than price, and then, ask for it’s price.