Nationwide House Price Calculator

tiernsee

I just wondered how accurate the Nationwide House Price Calculator is and whether anyone has used it as part of their negotiations for a house purchase?

I put my own house details in there and the valuation given matched that of the estate agents, but this could just be coincidence! There is a house that has just come on the market, I thought it was overpriced (it is on at £480k) and based on when and for how much it last sold the house price calculator is coming up with a value of £338k. Looking at the pictures it does look like they have redecorated and put in a new kitchen but I don't think it could account for that much difference in price.

bingobob777

tiernsee wrote: »

I just wondered how accurate the Nationwide House Price Calculator is and whether anyone has used it as part of their negotiations for a house purchase?

I put my own house details in there and the valuation given matched that of the estate agents, but this could just be coincidence! There is a house that has just come on the market, I thought it was overpriced (it is on at £480k) and based on when and for how much it last sold the house price calculator is coming up with a value of £338k. Looking at the pictures it does look like they have redecorated and put in a new kitchen but I don't think it could account for that much difference in price.

it's not accurate. I take it you think your house should be worth more?

martinbuckley

The house I made an offer on recently was last sold in April 2002 for £97,000. Nationwide had it somewhere between £149K and £163K. I say "somewhere" because I reckon the sale price was agreed in 2002 Q1, but the transaction took place in Q2. The Land Registry data also values it at around £159K

The property hasnt had any extensions or additions since then and is currently up for sale at £175K - it has been with another agent for £225K however unsurprisingly it didnt sell! My offer of £160K was rejected out of hand. I dont plan to offer any more.

I considered this a very generous offer, bearing in mind the data suggesting that my offer was at the very high end of the various valuations, however I think the vendors are still thinking of the £225K "it was worth" when it first went on sale 5 months ago!

hazyjo

It's £100k-200k out on the house we're buying. Lots of people ask about these 'calculators' (and on sites such as zoopla). There's no mathematical way of correctly establishing the price of a house. Actually, I think I might change my signature to say ignore the valuation calculators...!

Jx

AnnaV

bingobob777 wrote: »

it's not accurate. I take it you think your house should be worth more?

I think the OP is curious about a house they are looking at rather than their own house (that's what I got from the post anyway).

Although when people are selling they very rarely think that if there is a discrepancy their house is overvalued

tiernsee

Thanks for the comments. Actually wasn't commenting on my own house at all. The properties either side of us have sold within the last 6-8 months and I think both the estate agent and the house calculator are pretty spot-on.

I was more surprised about the big difference in this other property and not having anything else to go on but mine where it was accurate (and as I said could have been coincidence) wanted to understand how other people had found this calculator.

Catatonia

I agree with Hazy. For one thing, the way the calculator works means that you can't necessarily just add on the cost of the work done to the price at the end.

E.g. house bought for £100k. Calculator reckons prices have risen by 100%, so house now worth £200k. Owners have done £40k of work, so you add this on and come up with a figure of £240k.

But, if the house had originally been sold with the work done, at £140k, calculator would think it was now worth £280k - a £40k difference for the same house, just according to when the work was done.

mufi

Unless I've missed something, the problem is that it calculates price changes based on region and not county - in my case that incorporates Cambridgeshire and the Norfolk Broads (still doing pretty well), and Wisbech and Great Yarmouth (neither of them star performers).

Take that, together with the fact that within counties there tend to be hotspots, and it's a very rough tool.

cardsharps

tiernsee wrote: »

I just wondered how accurate the Nationwide House Price Calculator is and whether anyone has used it as part of their negotiations for a house purchase?

.

2 problems with this index. Firstly it doesn't differentiate between different types of property, e.g. detached, flats, etc. The percentage change is going to be markedly different for each property type. Secondly its geographical area is too large. e.g. South-East or London. There's going to be massive variation within such a large area.

The generally accepted method is to check the sale prices of recently sold and comparable properties in the same or neighbouring streets to the one you're looking to buy in.

lincroft1710

I found HPCs to be as much as 25% out on 80s/90s built 1 bed houses.