A&L "instant" property valuation - Halifax house price calculator

2

Comments

  • 1978 wrote: »
    what a load of rubbish.

    we bought our place for £150k in the summer of 2007. a house has gone up for sale on our street (identical house, less our conservatory) at a price of £155k in the last fortnight. granted it hasn't sold yet, but it's good to get a feeling of valuation.

    this valuation tool has the value of our place at less than £120k. :confused: :rolleyes:

    I think the key thing here is it hasn't sold yet. You have no idea how close this figure is to the estate agent's valuation or if anyone has viewed it. Therefore you have no idea whether £155k is an accurate valuation. I would suggest that it probably isn't and if they want to sell the house right now they are going to have to knock money of that price.

    I'd say less than £120k may well be correct.
  • blued
    blued Posts: 698 Forumite
    I'm a little surprised to find that calculator quite accurate! I had my house valued in April 2008 at £170k and the calculator said it would £175795 in Q4 2008.
  • clairehi
    clairehi Posts: 1,352 Forumite
    Well no-one's been able to answer my original q but I spoke to L&C today who tell me that most lenders use either the Nationwide or Halifax hp calculator. I just tried the Nationwide and that is giving me a compeltely different figure. However these are all based on regional statistics so are almost meaningless, as take no account of local variations and the type of property.

    I am waiting for L&C to ring back but I just dont know whether its worth paying for a valuation.
  • The figures given by the HBOS online calculator (while a good general guide) are not really to be relied upon IMHO as they are based on widespread Regional data

    eg I come under Yorkshire & The Humber but that covers everything from my 'desireable' East Riding Village to the unoccupied financial suicide flats in Leeds city centre.

    The figures this calculator gives are also different to the Nationwide (depending on area)

    http://www.nationwide.co.uk/hpi/calculator.asp

    They are different again to the Land Registry.

    The problem with trying to compare them to the figures lenders use is that many lenders will use more 'sophisticated' models that look at smaller areas and value based on parameters set by the lender.

    My personal opinion is that most lenders are currently building in an extra cushion in their automated valuations to account for concerns they may have over the level of previous valuations and the fact that they can only be, at best, a general indication.

    In my experience the only way to currently challenge an automated valuation is to ask that they instruct a physical valuation by a surveyor.

    The issue is that it will cost you money with no guarantee it will come out any higher especially if the surveyor is a cautious one.

    It is also a bit of a one chance option as they will be unlikely to accept any challenges to the surveyor's valuation.

    This means that it is important to be as sure as possible of your figures and you can only do this by getting as many different guides as possible - from the 3 above, to using recent sold price information in your street from the likes of Rightmove and using specialist tools like those available to brokers (and AFAIK the public) at a cost such as UK Valuation, Hometrack etc etc

    That way, armed with a good idea you can decide whether it is worth risking the money on getting a physical valuation done. Otherwise you will need to accept that the house is not worth what you hoped or that you will need to look at different deals/lenders.

    I currently have 3 clients having physical valuations done to challenge an automated one and, based on our research, we (and the customers) expect one to come in much higher than the automated; the second to slightly higher (but enough); and the third to be a long shot (but one the customer feels it worth spending £75 on).

    Your odds may be no better than 50/50.

    Good Luck
    I am an IFA (and boss o' t'swings idst)
    You should note that this site doesn't check my status as an IFA, so you need to take my word for it. This signature is here as I follow MSE's Mortgage Adviser Code of Conduct. Any posts on here are for information and discussion purposes only and shouldn't be seen as financial advice.
  • jayremoh
    jayremoh Posts: 187 Forumite
    i tried with 2 values, the price when built in 2002 Q3 and the price when i bought in 2006 Q4

    HALIFAX
    An average house, in the North West region valued at £190000 in 2006 Q4 would be worth £162404 in 2008 Q4.
    A change of -14.5 percent.

    NATIONWIDE
    A property located in North West which was valued at £190000 in Q4 of 2006, would be worth approximately £168186 in Q4 of 2008.
    This is equivalent to a change of -11.48%.

    OR

    HALIFAX
    An average house, in the North West region valued at £115000 in 2002 Q3 would be worth £182655 in 2008 Q4.
    A change of 58.8 percent.

    NATIONWIDE
    A property located in North West which was valued at £115000 in Q3 of 2002, would be worth approximately £177457 in Q4 of 2008.
    This is equivalent to a change of 54.31%.


    ITS THE SAME BLEEDING HOUSE!

    so my house which i paid 190k is worth anywhere between 162k and 182k, lovely.

    utter rubbish!
  • clairehi
    clairehi Posts: 1,352 Forumite
    wish you could give more than one "thanks" for an extra helpful post!

    lenders' valuation fees seem to differ wildly - I would be happy to risk £75 for a valuation though.

    we live in a small town and there are very few comparables (1 detached house sold in Q4 2008), so the valuation is anyone's guess. If no houses are selling do they value the house at £0?

    both the publicly available calculators (Halifax and Nwide) and the LR as well tell me that our LTV is lower than 75% but the A&L say differently.

    stop press - L&C have suggested that we apply for a mortgage with a lender that offers free (physical) valuations. they have advised me that the product fee of £995 can be added to the loan. in the event the property is downvalued, and they offer us a less sttractive rate, we could cancel the application without having to pay the product fee. this sounds a bit too good to be true to me...?
  • clairehi wrote: »
    wish you could give more than one "thanks" for an extra helpful post!

    :o thanks :o
    clairehi wrote: »
    lenders' valuation fees seem to differ wildly - I would be happy to risk £75 for a valuation though.

    Often when it is a challenge to an automated one on the likes of a product transfer (taking a new deal with your current lender) they will only charge £75-99.

    If it is a full scale remortgage it could range from nothing on a deal with a free valuation to the full fee which can be in the £00s.
    clairehi wrote: »
    we live in a small town and there are very few comparables (1 detached house sold in Q4 2008), so the valuation is anyone's guess. If no houses are selling do they value the house at £0?

    probably one of the reasons you have some issues as most automated valuation models rely quite heavily on sold information to value a property.
    clairehi wrote: »
    both the publicly available calculators (Halifax and Nwide) and the LR as well tell me that our LTV is lower than 75% but the A&L say differently.

    Unfortunately the publically available calculators are too general to be anything but a guide.
    clairehi wrote: »
    stop press - L&C have suggested that we apply for a mortgage with a lender that offers free (physical) valuations. they have advised me that the product fee of £995 can be added to the loan. in the event the property is downvalued, and they offer us a less sttractive rate, we could cancel the application without having to pay the product fee. this sounds a bit too good to be true to me...?

    An option but I would also ask them whether A&L will agree to a physical valuation and what the cost would be. If quite low and you are sure it could be worth trying
    I am an IFA (and boss o' t'swings idst)
    You should note that this site doesn't check my status as an IFA, so you need to take my word for it. This signature is here as I follow MSE's Mortgage Adviser Code of Conduct. Any posts on here are for information and discussion purposes only and shouldn't be seen as financial advice.
  • usignuolo
    usignuolo Posts: 1,923 Forumite
    I am astonished by the calculator supplied above because it assigns one overall value to all property in Greater London. So a house in areas like say Barking (east London) or Haringey (north east London), where house prices are relatively low for all sorts of reasons, is assigned the same LTV value over a comparable period as one in Hampstead or Kensington. For example I entered my friend's house in Twickenham (south west London) which she purchased for £40,000 in 1983. True it was pretty run down and she has had done a lot to it - but it sold recently for £620,000. The Halifax calculator has it increasing to £266,000 in that period. Bonkers.
  • 1978
    1978 Posts: 80 Forumite
    pixiepie99 wrote: »
    I think the key thing here is it hasn't sold yet. You have no idea how close this figure is to the estate agent's valuation or if anyone has viewed it. Therefore you have no idea whether £155k is an accurate valuation. I would suggest that it probably isn't and if they want to sell the house right now they are going to have to knock money of that price.

    I'd say less than £120k may well be correct.

    whilst i agree it hasn't sold yet, it's only been on the market 2 weeks.

    that last part - why do you think it may well be correct without knowing the street and recent trends on that estate? to say i have no idea is a bit flippant.

    not that it matters, mind.
  • An option but I would also ask them whether A&L will agree to a physical valuation and what the cost would be. If quite low and you are sure it could be worth trying

    I have had the same issue in the last week. It puts me at 90% which just doesn't make it worth me remortgaging with A&L. I tried to get them to value the house, even if I had to pay for it, but they wouldn't budge :(
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