Zoopla

superfran_uk

Really depends on where though. When we first started looking we were almost excited about the prospect of a cheap place, until looking into it further we realised that the South East (Kent in particular) appears to be almost recession proof and the only houses staying on the market for any length of time are the crappy mid-terrace no parking type places that always take forever to shift.

Blacksheep1979

superfran_uk wrote: »

Good to know what houses in the area went for, but don't touch the estimates! They're often miles off - for instance the property I am trying to purchase comes up about 20grand under what it is worth, as it takes no home improvements or extensions into account unless it is specifically told.

Bit of a stupid statement I have to say, obviously it takes the house as comparable to what it was originally purchased - you could say the opposite that the house could be worth far less if it's been gutted by fire...

Skippy4u

HOMEcycle wrote: »

According to the latest results from Nielsen and comScore - zoolpa.co.uk is rank number 5 in the UK property portal market. - not bad for a 1 year old company!

Rightmove 2,923 2,677 9.19%
Digital Property Group** 2,363 2,143 10.24%
Propertyfinder Group** 1,373 1,370 0.22%
Nestoria 644 562 14.59%
Zoopla 568 450 26.22%
Trovit Homes 388 396 -2.02%
Globrix 410 345 18.84%
Trinity Mirror Network** 325 289 12.46%
Fish4Homes** 289 266 8.65%
Home.co.uk 194 155 25.16%
Total for Top 10 9477 8653 9.52%
And the others are above.:cool:

Tinker_Bell_4

superfran_uk wrote: »

Really depends on where though. When we first started looking we were almost excited about the prospect of a cheap place, until looking into it further we realised that the South East (Kent in particular) appears to be almost recession proof and the only houses staying on the market for any length of time are the crappy mid-terrace no parking type places that always take forever to shift.

I think same too,I'm surprised how many people bought in last year or 2 and now selling up and at more than double what they paid,I've seen some trying make £100K extra than they paid on house about £170K.

superfran_uk

Blacksheep1979 wrote: »

Bit of a stupid statement I have to say, obviously it takes the house as comparable to what it was originally purchased - you could say the opposite that the house could be worth far less if it's been gutted by fire...

Ok. So take this example. Two houses in one street, exactly the same, both sold in the same year (lets say 2003). One sold for say 175 and one for 185. Who knows why, maybe one buyer haggled and one didn't. Now, x number of years on and that £10k difference is now massive and shows the two houses as worth 250 and 320k even though they're exactly the same.

So I stick by my statement that zoopla estimates = rubbish.

superfran_uk

fatpig wrote: »

Zoopla may be dumb but it's not that dumb.

It works it out based on what was actually paid, it doesn't know the two houses are identical.

SGE1

So there's not a lot of consensus I take it...

superfran_uk

fatpig wrote: »

Actually it doesn't. Visit their website and see how their estimates are arrived at.

OK I admit I don't know exactly how they are worked out, I would assume however that they would apply the same algorithm to two houses in the same street.

I have seen a real-life example of the above whilst searching for a house recently. Two almost identical properties (I visited both), in the same price range, wildly different estimates. Presumably based on the fact that one sold for a slight premium. Believe it if you will but I take it with a pinch of salt.

LittleMissAspie

It says the mid-terrace here is worth 10k more than the end-of-terraces on either side of it (row of 3), I presume because the middle one sold at the peak, the others were bought in 04 and 06. Yet the mid-terrace is in a lower council tax band.

It seems to me that the more recently the house sold, the higher the estimate.

Cozworth806

I figured that they simply applied an percentage change to find an estimate to prices that were sold, much like the Halifax or Nationwide index.
I.E. House A sold for £100,000 in Q4 2003 and over that period prices have increased by 50% so price is now £150k? House B sold for £180k in Q3 2006, prices have dropped 10% so is now worth £162k?
Nothing more amazing than that?