Anyone had a property valued recently?

[Amethyst24]

I'm about to put my 1-bed zone 2 flat on the market. I've had a valuation from one EA so far, and it was absolutely eye-wateringly high - more than double what I paid for the flat when I bought it in 2005.

Obviously I'll get other EAs in to look at it, but I was quite shocked. I suspect it's partly that my flat is in the £240K+ price bracket and they want to set the asking price far enough above £250K to avoid the tricky £251-270K area and stop people thinking they might get it for under £250K. But still.

Has anyone else had a similarly optimistic valuation recently, and was it realistic?

Yes, according to the local EA our flat (Zone 1) has gone up by 119% since 2006. Even if we don't get what the EA said she'd try for, it will definitely still be in excess of a 100% increase. It is also far enough above the relevant stamp duty threshold that there's no danger of people offering low to try to get underneath it.

Oh sorry, you also asked if it was realistic. I have looked at some of the property changing hands around here recently. Yes, I think it's realistic.

Thank you . I will see what other valuations say. I've been watching the market pretty obsessively, as you do, but this genuinely came as a shock.

We had our house valued last week. In less than 2 years it has risen in value by 25%, and that is with it still having '70s nightmare kitchen and bathrooms which are truly hideous! And definitely realistic.

My 1 bedroom flat in Stoke Newington that I bought in 2006 for £190k has just sold for £375k. Not by me unfortunately. London is crazy.

We bought our house in SE London in 2011 and it was valued last month at roughly 100% more! Looking at Rightmove, and some sold prices starting to trickle through, that valuation is at the top end of a realistic increase of at least 80%.

Yep same here. SE London. Bought in 2009 for 295k, just valued at 550k. So much demand that we are assured there will be no problem selling. This is great but it also means that it's a massive nightmare trying to buy.

SE London (where I live too) has grown faster than London as a whole. IN many ways SE London which has always been more affordable is catching up with other parts of London. In Dulwich (zone 2) prices for flats have doubled since 2005. People who had a large enough deposit to buy between 2009 and 2011 have made even more than that though.

I've just had my (good condition) 4 bed house valued at £270k by the valuer from the mortgage company.

My neighbours have put their similar, but smaller (3 bed) house on same road on for £285k.

We bought our houses at the same time 3 years ago - ours was bought for £245k and theirs was bought for around £230k I think.

Houses round here have been going at full asking price within the first week but theirs hasn't sold as of the few weeks it's been on.

Used to live in London, now in Oxford. Our house sold in 6 days flat for 80K more than we bought it 3 years ago. House prices have gone bonkers in the South East, and more so in London.

Thanks everyone. My flat is SW (Brixton) so I guess it's benefitting from being the new Shoreditch (or something). But we live in SE London and I agree, it's gone crazy here.