To wonder where Zoopla gets their estimates from?

[SarahH12]

Currently buying a house, looked up the house we put an offer on to see what the Zoopla estimate was. Zoopla estimates it at 88 k over what we've had accepted. Also looked up the house we're currently in (private rental) and apparently we're overpaying by 200 pcm despite us paying the going rate for the area.

AIBU to wonder where the heck they get these figures from and to think they're totally UR?

Or have we just been overpaying rent and under paying for purchasing?

They’re nonsense. Says my house is worth £150k less than it is actually worth.

They use a mathematical formula based on the price the last house in that area with the same number of rooms sold for. Or they use the formula on the last sale price of your house if you have it.

We had a house in a terrace and they were all extended in wildly different ways but the prices on Zoopla were pretty much all the same.

It's an algorithm isn't it?
So it's going to be a best guess but it's not going to be anything other than a best guess because properties in the same are can vary wildly.

I think it takes recent land registry sales in that area and then calculates an average rise or fall.

So if you have a house that doesn't have many equivalents and hasn't sold in a long time it will be a lot less accurate than a flat in a block where they change hands all the time IYSWIM. Also houses are more difficult as there is more potential for extending differently and there might be more land etc or something that devalues it like a right of way across the driveway that zoopla wouldn't know about.

Take it as a guide with a big handful of salt!

The house prices are nonsense. You can go in and modify the price.

My neighbour's house was shown as nearly £1m when it is worth half that.

I spotted there was a bit where you could add information if you are the owner so i made up some nonsense and lo and behold my house value increased to what I'd told Zoopla I thought it was worth.