Zoopla Estimates

KittleSkittle

Hello,
I’ve been reading this forum for a couple of weeks. I’m a new buyer, never done this before, and a bit daunted/overwhelmed by the whole process.

I wanted to ask those more experienced than me how much stock they place in the Zoopla estimated values? I’m not sure how they’re calculated - I would guess there’s some lag? But are they a good general indicator of value, or not worth taking into account?

All thoughts and opinions welcome and gratefully received!

Thank you!

Irishpearce26

Pointless. When we sold our house in March Zoopla said our house was £40k more than our neighbours house. Their house is identical apart from its much more modern inside and has a better conservatory. Difference we bought 4 years ago they bought 17 years ago. So pointless go by recent sales of similar properties in the area.

Slithery

They've been known to show a +/-£100k difference on identical neighbouring properties.

Ignore them.

purplebutterfly

When we sold my grandad's, his house was the only 2 bedroom on a large street full of everything from 3 to 6 beds. 

 Zoopla based its estimate on an average of all properties sold in the close vicinity and valued my grandad's at £50K more than it was worth. 

MaryNB

It's very rough at best. It would only really work well if all properties in the area were the same and the value increased at the same rate. The estimates won't take into account any improvements that would increase a property's value beyond local market increases. If a house hasn't been sold in many years, is of a different style to neighbouring properties or has had a lot of work done it next to useless. 

AlexMac

Why so harsh; it's only an algorithm?
I always assumed they simply took the last registered sale and date from the land registry, and applied the local  postcode's average house price inflation.  At least that's what they do in our street, where properties vary in size, style, date and consequently, price.  So my neighbour's house, very similar to mine, and which, like ours, last sold on 10 years ago is valued at 100k more than mine, because I chiselled  40-50k more off the asking price than he did at the time; and they've simply inflated both by 70% (which is the local 10-year price rise).  In my street, Zoopla doesn't give a simple value but cites a range; eg £421k - £527k, or for one of the posher ones £1.65m - £2.02m (which seems so broad as to be unhelpful, but is probably correct- somewhere n the range!)

In fact, local sale price histories are most useful because that's real life data. 

Dunno what they do if there have no such past sales data;  the ghost in the machine must just make it up?  For example, just up the road, there's a block of 45 sheltered flats owned by the Council. So never on the market since built in the 70's.  But zoopla lists all of  'em separately and ascribes exactly the same value to each; £388-£582k.  Daft, as they will never be for sale as individual units, although we assume one day the Council may sell for demolition.

But if you are nosy, it's a great way to see what neighbours paid!  So it has some use

Nikkilou86

Our old house shows on Zoopla as worth more than my friends who’s just sold in same street despite fact they had en-suite, hallway, driveway and larger garden than our old house - it’s a guide but it’s not very accurate.

Our current house took a dive when the house down the road sold at less than we paid, it needed a new roof, windows and pretty much total refurbishment, is on a significantly smaller plot and backs onto petrol station - ours needed none of this work, is bigger and has no view of petrol station yet zoopla down valued ours in line with this one as it had same no of bedrooms. We also have an extra reception room.

Very much a guide. 

Scotbot

AlexMac said:

Why so harsh; it's only an algorithm?
I always assumed they simply took the last registered sale and date from the land registry, and applied the local  postcode's average house price inflation.  At least that's what they do in our street, where properties vary in size, style, date and consequently, price.  So my neighbour's house, very similar to mine, and which, like ours, last sold on 10 years ago is valued at 100k more than mine, because I chiselled  40-50k more off the asking price than he did at the time; and they've simply inflated both by 70% (which is the local 10-year price rise).  In my street, Zoopla doesn't give a simple value but cites a range; eg £421k - £527k, or for one of the posher ones £1.65m - £2.02m (which seems so broad as to be unhelpful, but is probably correct- somewhere n the range!)

They do but the postcode level inflation is not down to the lowest level. I think it the post code is M32 1AA  it applies the M32 inflation figure. Fine if it is a cookie cutter house on a large estate.  Not fine if it was a fixer upper that has been fixed up or a house where an extension has been added. Not fine if the properties in the postcode are all different. I live in a 4 bed house but  4 beds in  two roads  a  quarter of a mile away are at least 50% bigger and at least  50% more expensive. Sales from these roads distort the data.
Zoopla gives a good feel for trends but for individual house estimates it can be out a mile.

ansaryon

KittleSkittle said:

I wanted to ask those more experienced than me how much stock they place in the Zoopla estimated values?

Very little to none in my immediate area!

My property (a 4-bed "chalet bungalow") was valued by a chartered surveyor in 2016 at £200K.

Zoopla now reckons it's worth £315K (with a range of £284K to £347K) - way off IMO.

My bungalow last sold in 1982 (for £32K, FWIW), so there's no recent sales data for Zoopla to work from.

My neighbour's house is a light construction bungalow with two bedrooms. Zoopla says £278K, again way off its real value. It was also last sold in 1982, so no info for Zoopla there to extrapolate either.

The last house sold in the area was a 2-bed bungalow (standard construction) over the road. It went for £233K in 2019. Zoopla reckons £253K for it now.

In other words: Zoopla is worse than useless here. Other areas may vary - I suspect as others have said in an area where the houses are all similar, or even where there's a regular change of ownership, it'd be more accurate.

daivid

Seems generous for my house too. That said when I remortgaged I used the lower end of the Zoopla estimate for the value of my house, which got me into the LTV bracket I wanted and seemed like a reasonable answer for a layperson to give. Mortgage went through fine so perhaps Santander's valuation service is just as optimistic or Zoopla wasn't far out (there wasn't much wiggle room for the LTV). As others have said much depends on how recently a house has sold and how similar nearby houses are and how recently they have sold.

KittleSkittle

Thanks for the replies.

It makes sense that an algorithm will miss a lot out that might affect value, and won’t be too reliable in an area where the houses are very varied.

I’m viewing a house today, and another on Monday. Both of them have a guide price that is the same as the Zoopla estimate. From what I’ve seen looking at houses of similar size in the general area the pricing seems about right, but I’ll do some digging into the sold prices more locally to each one.