How accurate is Zoopla?

mramra

Anyone have experience of comparing Zoopla prices (www.zoopla.co.uk) with actual sale prices?

I am planning to sell later this year to move up the ladder a little in order to provide more space for the family. Trying to get a handle on the value of our property. Zoopla values it at 10% more than we paid in April 2004 which contradicts most reports stating that prices are at 2004 levels.

If anyone has any idea of the accuracy of Zoopla I'd be very grateful to hear about it.

Thanks in advance, mramra

mizzbiz

mramra wrote: »

Anyone have experience of comparing Zoopla prices (www.zoopla.co.uk) with actual sale prices?

I am planning to sell later this year to move up the ladder a little in order to provide more space for the family. Trying to get a handle on the value of our property. Zoopla values it at 10% more than we paid in April 2004 which contradicts most reports stating that prices are at 2004 levels.

If anyone has any idea of the accuracy of Zoopla I'd be very grateful to hear about it.

Thanks in advance, mramra

Zoopla is rubbish. We have live in a block of flats, and when i've checked the so-called values, there is absolutely no method in it's madness. Ours is identical to the five around us, except ours is modernised, and yet ours, according to Zoopla, is worth £20k less than, for example, the ground floor one which has been owned by the same old lady since 1964 and has never been bought or sold.

I'm afraid they seem to base their values on statistics from previous sales, and where there aren't any since 2000, their figures are completely awry.

PasturesNew

Zoopla is a toy. Nothing more. It takes the last price a property was sold at and multiplies it by the current month's rise/fall in house prices. It has no idea if a property is the same as another or not. It works purely on the last known sales date, or guesstimates based on postcode.

e.g. this flat currently shows on Zoopla as being worth £60k (bought for £70k in 2006); yet the last two to sell here were at £55k and £30k. The next one to go for sale would have to be valued between £30k and £55k.

So, Zoopla is interesting, but just a toy. A complete generalisation. A bit of fun. It's a tool, like a workman might have some nail scissors in with his big hammer and monkey wrench - occasionally might work, but mostly not.

lil'H

useless, bases itself on the last sale price and adds or takes of the change in value since then. Not locally specific value changes, doesn't take into account changes the property may have ahd etc. The house next door to me according to zoopla is worth 230k it is on the market at 195 expecting to have to sell nearer 175.

mramra

Thanks everyone for your replies. :T

Zoopla seems to be farily worthless then, thought I was lucky to have a 10% rise in value over 5 years!

Any better tools out there for estimating property values?

mizzbiz

mramra wrote: »

Thanks everyone for your replies. :T

Zoopla seems to be farily worthless then, thought I was lucky to have a 10% rise in value over 5 years!

Any better tools out there for estimating property values?

Probably the only likely way is to look at recent sale prices and expect still less. Unless you get an independent valuer in, there is no website out there that can accurately value.

Properties seem to be priced at around 2005/6 levels, so maybe look at Nethouseprices.co.uk and see what the going rate was then, although different areas are seeing different falls.

bubblesmoney

mizzbiz wrote: »

Probably the only likely way is to look at recent sale prices and expect still less. Unless you get an independent valuer in, there is no website out there that can accurately value.

Properties seem to be priced at around 2005/6 levels, so maybe look at Nethouseprices.co.uk and see what the going rate was then, although different areas are seeing different falls.

many times the houses sold for less might be bought by companies dealing with repocessions and removals business (like cartus). these sales wont show up on sites like nethouse prices etc or most of the other websites. i know about sales that have gone for a lot less than these websites show for other properties in the area. this business of not showing sales made to companies is a sure way of hiding things officially. i dont know what the advantage of showing them on a separate register not available to the public. sales are sales there should be a common register accessible to the public. a good example of disadvantaging the individual buyers by hiding purchases made by companies for lesser amounts on a separate register not easily accessible to the public.

a property i was somewhat interested in got sold but is not on the register. i know about the sale as i know the friend of the seller. even the property i bought from a relocation company (cartus as shown in some of the the paperwork i got from the lawyer but not on the title deed. the title deed has the one previous owner to cartus. the EA had told me the relocation company was the owner. the same was told to me by the neighbours who knew the previous owner occupants before the sold to the relocation company) had only the purchase made by the owner occupants on the official register but not the one made by the relocation company.

so official sale prices found on nethouse prices etc might not reveal the true picture of the market as they wont show the (lower) sale prices made to companies.

SouthCoast

mizzbiz wrote: »

Zoopla is rubbish. We have live in a block of flats, and when i've checked the so-called values, there is absolutely no method in it's madness. Ours is identical to the five around us, except ours is modernised, and yet ours, according to Zoopla, is worth £20k less than, for example, the ground floor one which has been owned by the same old lady since 1964 and has never been bought or sold.

I'm afraid they seem to base their values on statistics from previous sales, and where there aren't any since 2000, their figures are completely awry.

Agreed. Identical flats valued at between £216,813 and £266,392.

Realistic current sales price is around £175k.

P.S. I do like Property-Bee.

mramra

SouthCoast wrote: »

Agreed. Identical flats valued at between £216,813 and £266,392.

Realistic current sales price is around £175k.

P.S. I do like Property-Bee.

Am I right in thinking that Property Bee can't run in Internet Explorer?

mizzbiz

mramra wrote: »

Am I right in thinking that Property Bee can't run in Internet Explorer?

You are correct, you need Mozilla Firefox, which is a much better, secure browser anyway.

olly300

mizzbiz wrote: »

Zoopla is rubbish. We have live in a block of flats, and when i've checked the so-called values, there is absolutely no method in it's madness. Ours is identical to the five around us, except ours is modernised, and yet ours, according to Zoopla, is worth £20k less than, for example, the ground floor one which has been owned by the same old lady since 1964 and has never been bought or sold.

I'm afraid they seem to base their values on statistics from previous sales, and where there aren't any since 2000, their figures are completely awry.

That's exactly the same thing I found about Zoopla. Also in my block some of the flats are 3 bedroom rather than 2 bedroom - you only know which ones they are if you live in the block- and they have estimated the prices of some of the 2 bedroom ones much higher even though all the flats that have been sold except mine have been modernised.