zoopla, how accurate is their housing estimate?

mozza78

It rather amazes me that someone hasn't yet developed a better valuation tool than zoopla's rather basic approach. I know every house is unique and all that but still could get a lot more scientific than the finger in air job and a look at a few properties in the area have sold for that zoopla seems to employ.

Dr_Gonzo_95

I wouldn't trust it.

In my experience everytime I try to update mine on Zoopla it ends up reducing it by an increasing amount.
I never agree to the changes though.

My house is listed at £210,000. 3 EAs gave us that value, and it is smack bang in the middle of the values of similar houses being sold in the area.
Zoopla say ours is worth £196,000, which has slipped by £4 k in the last 2 months and when I try and update it they want to reduce it to £192,000.

The range they show is between £192k & £202k which is no where near what we want from the property.

danslenoir

Dr_Gonzo_95 wrote: »

I wouldn't trust it.

In my experience everytime I try to update mine on Zoopla it ends up reducing it by an increasing amount.
I never agree to the changes though.

My house is listed at £210,000. 3 EAs gave us that value, and it is smack bang in the middle of the values of similar houses being sold in the area.
Zoopla say ours is worth £196,000, which has slipped by £4 k in the last 2 months and when I try and update it they want to reduce it to £192,000.

The range they show is between £192k & £202k which is no where near what we want from the property.

To be fair, what an estate agent might tell you is the market value is more likely to be an (over) optimistic estimate than a conservative one relative to what houses actually sell for.

Home owners can often have themselves an overinflated opinion of what their home is worth, so estate agents valuing at the higher end of the range and valuing properties in line with expectations that are sometimes unrealistic are more likely to get their business.

csgohan4

Their not as good as what you think the house is worth.


Zoopla don't go into the houses to see any damage or consideration of renovation projects for example.

MistyZ

Not very accurate for a whole host of reasons others have covered. But we've used it as part of the jigsaw along with what little remains of our common sense and current for sale prices in the area.

davidmcn

datostar wrote: »

Absolutely useless when houses have previously been sold at a discount to the market price, e.g. to Local Authority tenants etc. They take the last price from the Land Registry which is the actual price paid, not the pre-discount value (which they have no way of knowing) then slavishly apply their percentage increase over the years.

And similarly the price on the registers may be artificially high, where e.g. a builder has sold at their list price, but with a load of freebies given to the purchaser behind the scenes.

googler

Things that should be taken into account when valuing a property that Zoopla does not, and cannot take into account;

The style of the property. Traditional, modern, detached, semi, terraced.
Differences in style within a street or area
The condition of the property.
Improvements made to the property which add value
Modifications made to the property which reduce its value
Improvements, developments or other occurrences in the local area which impact on housing values generally (until a statistically-significant number of sales have been made to reflect this)
Other activity in the market, including unsuccessful sales

I think that's a fair whack that it misses out on.

With regard to the last point, if you knew (as any local agent worth their salt should) that, for instance, two similar houses had been on the market at X pounds, that they'd been on the market for X months with no interest, would you market a similar house at X pounds or more? No, you would pitch it lower in order to get a sale. Zoopla cannot take this into account. Likewise, it can't take into account that house X did or didn't sell because it was either impeccably clean and tidy, or depressingly grubby. Local agents can, and should, when valuing any other property to come to market.

hazyjo

Zoopla overvalued my last house by over £100k!


Jx

kingstreet

mozza78 wrote: »

It rather amazes me that someone hasn't yet developed a better valuation tool than zoopla's rather basic approach. I know every house is unique and all that but still could get a lot more scientific than the finger in air job and a look at a few properties in the area have sold for that zoopla seems to employ.

Hometrack.

£20

https://www.hometrack.com/uk/products/market-intelligence/property-valuation-report

davidwiggins01

We've just sold our house for £370k. Zoopla estimate: £369k
Next door is identical to our except EOT rather than mid. Zoopla estimate: £320k (it should be a bit more than ours)
Next door the other side is identical to ours. Zoopla estimate: £374k (so not far off)
Estate agents valued ours between £350k and £400k.

Zoopla has the house we are buying at £441k and we are paying (asking price of) £425k.

Make of all of that what you will.