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Original poster

Remortgaging - Zooplankton valuations correct?

24 replies

LittleMilla · 08/10/2014 20:44

Hello,

We'd like to try and remortgage, capitalising on the fact our house is now worth quite a bit more than when we got it 2.5 years ago. We've done it up and estate agent has valued it at £120k more than we paid. This seems steep (even though I'd love to think its worth that much Grin). Zoopla more conservative at £70k extra but they obvs don't factor in work done.

Anyway, Zoopla estimate will be enough for us to fall in to lower loan to value ratio but don't want to get hopes up.

Anyone advise how accurate they tend to be?

OP posts:
Original poster
LittleMilla · 08/10/2014 21:43

Yeah, obviously meant Zoopla in thread title.

Bloody autocorrect Grin

OP posts:
nikki1978 · 08/10/2014 21:48

I dunno zoopla values our bungalow at £110k more than we paid for in 15 months ago. We haven't done the extension we are planning yet so I really really doubt it. I would trust them but if an estate agent says £120k more then maybe it is more accurate for you.

holidaysarenice · 08/10/2014 21:48

Bloody incorrect!! Ours has lots of values from around 2007.

I suggest go by an average of estate agents.

Bowlersarm · 08/10/2014 21:48

Love the title. People seem to consider them inaccurate, but ours was spot on for what we think our house is worth. (And our neighbours)

suitsyousir · 08/10/2014 21:50

we are in the middle of doing this too. ours is on the market for higher than the zoopla estimate at the agents recommendation. zoopla takes an average across the whole street so isnt very accurate unless all the houses are the same.

TalkinPeace · 08/10/2014 22:01

Zoopla only includes around 90% of house prices from sales : the list of exclusions covers all the outliers

Satinlaces · 08/10/2014 23:50

£80,000 too low in our case compared to estate agents.

BlackbirdOnTheWire · 09/10/2014 00:13

Zoopla undervalues our house by >£600k compared to estate agent valuations.

But the figure Zoopla values our house at is a good £100k below the cheapest property currently on the market within a mile, which is a small flat above a takeaway on a main road.

I'd go on estate agents' valuations...

Original poster
LittleMilla · 09/10/2014 08:52

Helpful to know, thanks! Irritating we'll have to pay £8k to remortgage but in doing so we'll be paying c£250 less per month. DH done the maths and it's worth doing for the remainder of the mortgage terms so we're going to crack on I think.

Will let you know what bank does say compared to Zoopla!

OP posts:
hereandtherex · 09/10/2014 11:59

Doesn't matter what zoopla says. Doesn't matter what an EA says.

What matters is what the banks surveyor says. They tend to more accurate than zoopla (who are random) and more realistic than EAs (who are just after your business).

Unless you live in a prime bit of London then I doubt you'll have much equity.

PossumPoo · 09/10/2014 12:20

8k to remortgage Shock Well I'm sure you've done your sums but how much longer are you tied in for, could you wait as that seems a lot of money to throw away. Interest rates haven't started going up yet so could you hold off longer? (and maybe over pay as much as you can to bring the final figure down as I'm assuming it's a % of what is owed on the loan?)

We are remortgaging at the moment and I looked at Zoopla which said 100k more than we paid and then checked rightmove for what is selling. I think they overestimated ours by about 70k and I'm in London. I'm still a bit nervous that the bank might not agree with my figure (which gives us a very good LTV ratio Grin)

hereandtherex · 09/10/2014 12:28

Again, the bank will not listen to either your opinion, the EA's or zoopla's. They only listen to their surveyor's opinion.

PossumPoo · 09/10/2014 12:39

thanks here if you are repeating yourself for me there's no need. I'm able to read, and re-read posts and take from it what I want...

Should I repeat this post again for you? Hmm

TalkinPeace · 09/10/2014 17:04

Unless you have access to the complete Land Registry set : which is NOT published, you do not know the true value of any home

hereandtherex · 09/10/2014 17:23

I posted twice as there are multiple people making the assumption that a mortgage provider will accept any figure put before them -zoopla's, EA's, your best friend's.

They never have and they definitely don't now.

A bank will want a very conservative valuation, which will be something similar nearby that has sold recently. Then they'll knock about 10% off. At least.

Post MMR you will find a mortgage much harder to get now. You will find the income multiples much lower.

How much is your mortgage? The 8K cost sounds a lot. I'm guessing that includes a penalty.

Original poster
LittleMilla · 09/10/2014 20:29

Ok good news all round. They're valuing our house between Zoopla estimate and too ea price, which is more than enough for us to have 75% ltv and therefore lower monthly payments. Happy to do this based on computer costs and so no need for anyone to come round.

Going to fix again for two years, £6.5k fee/penalty or whatever. But wait for it, our mortgage repayment will drop by almost £500 a month! Such good news!! In the next two years we'll be saving £7k according to spoffin money man that is my DH.

Woohoo!

OP posts:
PossumPoo · 10/10/2014 10:30

good news! It's always nice when the mortgage payments go down and not up Smile

Still waiting for our survey - hope ours is good news too. We will only save 100 per month but there's no exit fee.

Greengrow · 10/10/2014 12:33

Zoople seems to over value every house on our road bar one by a huge margin. It does not relate to sold prices.
It says our road has "current average value of £2,257,480". Then it says the only house sold and that was very recently went for under £2m. How they extrapolate from that given 7% stamp duty kicks in at £2m, I don't know. So presumably the Council are going to say we all have homes over the £2m mansion tax level because of Zoopla's figures which do not seem to be based on sold prices - just wild over estimates.

Greengrow · 10/10/2014 12:35

Ah..I must looked and zoopla have taken £600k off what they had been saying my house was worth. I'm very pleased. (Want it to be as low as possible as I will live here for 40 - 50 years until I die so an increase is irrelevant).

PossumPoo · 24/10/2014 12:14

just wanted to update my earlier post. The bank survey has come back now and they have increased our property value by 20,000 more than what I put down on the form. I honesty think they are wrong (that it wouldn't sell for what they are saying it's worth) but it's London so who knows Shock

Original poster
LittleMilla · 24/10/2014 22:19

possum, that's great news!

whilst I know it's all relative, still good to know your house is going up in value.

OP posts:
PossumPoo · 24/10/2014 23:30

Little, we're not meant to be happy house prices are going up! Grin

Apatite1 · 24/10/2014 23:36

Zoopla has told me our house is worth £300k more than we paid for it. A few months ago. Yeeeaaaahhhhh, I don't think so......

Bordersmummy · 24/10/2014 23:56

Best thread title ever.

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