Petition: Estate agents are overvaluing houses and pricing people out

walesrocks_123

I've started a petition to get estate agents to use a chartered surveyor to value the properties they sell. I believe they are artificially inflating the housing market for their own gain. They have no qualifications. Anyone can become an estate agent and it's not a regulated industry despite contributing £101.2bn to the UK economy. 

With no need to support their valuations with facts, estate agents can easily say your house is worth £50,000 more than you thought. Realistically house price is not determined by trivial things estate agents use to value a house and it's wrong to convince sellers they can get more.

Long term I believe their lack of correct valuations will contribute to out-pricing younger generations from the market and prevent a healthy turnover of the housing market.

Thank you

walesrocks_123

Cannot post links please use this url with no spaces: https:// petition.parliament.uk/ petitions/551290/ sponsors/new?token=BThpb9AYYlj0-qtFvZr1 

walesrocks_123 said:

I've started a petition to get estate agents to use a chartered surveyor to value the properties they sell. I believe they are artificially inflating the housing market for their own gain. They have no qualifications. Anyone can become an estate agent and it's not a regulated industry despite contributing £101.2bn to the UK economy. 

With no need to support their valuations with facts, estate agents can easily say your house is worth £50,000 more than you thought. Realistically house price is not determined by trivial things estate agents use to value a house and it's wrong to convince sellers they can get more.

Long term I believe their lack of correct valuations will contribute to out-pricing younger generations from the market and prevent a healthy turnover of the housing market.

Thank you

JGB1955

I wouldn't worry about it - it's apparent that valuations for mortgages are bringing some 'sense' to the market.

princeofpounds

The only people ultimately value houses are buyers and sellers.

Appointing a surveyor to bring houses onto agency books would be huge expense for zero benefit.

Anyone who gets a mortgage has a valuation survey anyway.

You're not a chartered surveyor are you by any chance?

The pricing of houses is mainly influenced by the pricing of borrowed money (interest rates), the imbalance between the rate of household formation and the supply of new housing units, and the general health of the economy (which dictates wages). 

theoretica

Scotland has a system where all houses on the market have a basic survey and a valuation.  Hasn't noticeably made prices fall or buying easier for young people.

Thrugelmir

 walesrocks_123 said:

I believe they are artificially inflating the housing market for their own gain. 

In what way?  

AdrianC

walesrocks_123 said:

With no need to support their valuations with facts, estate agents can easily say your house is worth £50,000 more than you thought. Realistically house price is not determined by trivial things estate agents use to value a house

I think you've just shot your own argument in the foot there.

As you say, the number an EA comes up with is just an advertising number. If it's too high compared to other properties in the market, nobody will pay it. If nobody pays it, the EA doesn't get paid. Pretty much everybody requiring a mortgage gets a chartered surveyor's opinion on the agreed price, and the lender base their lending on that.

walesrocks_123 said:

https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/551290

"This petition is gathering support
<petitioner's name>'s petition needs 5 supporters before we will check that it meets the petition standards and publish it. Please try again in a few days."

That full link you posted is required to be one of the first five sponsors...
https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/551290/sponsors/new?token=BThpb9AYYlj0-qtFvZr1

If you are needing to publicise the petition in order to reach the first five to make it public, I would suggest your chances of reaching the 10,000 needed to get a vacuous non-response platitude from the government are slender - let alone the 100,000 needed to get it ignored in a minor committee room at an inconvenient time.

csgohan4

Where's crashy?

NameUnavailable

Crazy!

The market decides the value of property - how much someone is actually prepared to pay for it.

EA's will suggest a price bracket to market at based on their knowledge of the local market - if they know they sold a property very similar to yours last week for £250K they are, I would suggest, reasonable to suggest yours is worth that and the actual asking price is usually the vendors decision.

I worked as an EA in the past and more often than not the vendors would disagree with our valuations and insist on more. What does the EA do? Lose the instruction by refusing their request or think OK, let's try it at £270K knowing that they can probably talk the vendor down when they realise they're not getting interest at thier price.

I did however refuse to take some properties on because of vendors unrealistic expectations - they were just too far detached from reality to even attempt it!

eidand

what EAs value houses at makes no difference, the buyers aren't stupid. 

Comms69

walesrocks_123 said:

I've started a petition to get estate agents to use a chartered surveyor to value the properties they sell. I believe they are artificially inflating the housing market for their own gain. They have no qualifications. Anyone can become an estate agent and it's not a regulated industry despite contributing £101.2bn to the UK economy. 

With no need to support their valuations with facts, estate agents can easily say your house is worth £50,000 more than you thought. Realistically house price is not determined by trivial things estate agents use to value a house and it's wrong to convince sellers they can get more.

Long term I believe their lack of correct valuations will contribute to out-pricing younger generations from the market and prevent a healthy turnover of the housing market.

Thank you

The vendor determines the price.