How reliable are Zoopla house price estimates?

[Mackerz]

Looking for some advice as I’m about to start house hunting.

Sold flat in central Manchester in September 18, thought we’d bought a house but the purchase fell through. We decided to rent for a bit - to get a feel for the suburb we wanted to live in, Christmas and then Brexit round 1 (March 2019) were approaching and nothing much was going on the market. We’ve decided to start looking again now as we’re hoping that Sept/Oct will see an influx of houses (I know Brexit round 2 is approaching so that may stop people putting their houses up for sale but no harm in looking).

I’ve had a look through zoopla at some of the houses I viewed last year and Zoopla is estimating their prices at 15-30k less than they sold for in September / October 2018. I’m looking at the 320 - 350k mark for a 3 bed in a niceish area of Manchester.

Are Zoopla estimates reliable for houses that sold recently (so they have a recent price from the land registry), are Zoopla predicting house price drops? What does everyone think, should we leave it a few months and see what prices do?

it's not at all reliable. We live in a row of flats, all completely identical in layout, and Zoopla's estimates next doors as being £30k more than mine, even though we bought for a similar price around the same time. Which makes no sense at all. Plus, we've done loads of work to ours which it doesn't know about.

Incidentally we've just sold ours for £60k over what they estimated, so it doesn't really mean anything!

It's really inaccurate for our street and prices are underestimated by a long way. Mostly because most of the properties that have sold are flats and the 3 bed houses are rarely on the market.

Zoopla doesn't take in to account condition, lease status, schools etc.
If yours is the smallest on the street the zoopla price will be inflated, and vice versa.
I would take it with a pinch of salt, and certainly not be guided by it tbh.

They haven't got the correct number of rooms on ours and list the price as lower than next door's smaller house, so I am sceptical.

I'm looking at 1 of 3 almost identical houses in an area near a city centre. The zoopla valuations are around 150K different. They are 3 beds but ours has been described as a 4 bed and the agent details show how a 4th bed can be carved out by splitting a room and also says 2 recept when in face it's one huge one that can't easily be split. The 'upgrading' may have increased the estimated value hugely as 3 bed terraces are much cheaper than the 4 bed ones round there as the style is different. That and Brexit is giving me the wobbles. Good thread, has made me think and the Guardian article compounds my uncertainty about proceeding. It may be the others are undervalued but maybe ours is overvalued. We didn't get a valuation for the house with the survey as we arn't financing via a mortgage on that property as we have a BTL and have applied for a loan on that as cheapest option. I think there is a converstaion about to happen between us and the agent.

@Ginandtonics

Yes, we are wobbling and wondering whether to wait and see what Brexit brings re house prices. We’re due a recession anyway, Brexit or no Brexit. Whether it will be a small dip rather than a big one like 2008, who knows.

I think Zoopla can probably be taken as a starting point, as long as you do more research on other similar, recently sold properties in the same area. My colleague mentioned that Nationwide also have a house price estimator on their website. I’ve never used it but I may check their estimates of the same houses I’ve looked at in Zoopla and see what the difference is.

Laughably inaccurate - they value our flat (with nice garden and dedicated parking space) as 50K less than the the flat above us which is in a terrible state, about 200ft smaller (ours was extended), no garden or parking (they often use ours) and has less than 70 years remaining on the lease.

We sold at the start of summer for the lower end of our Zoopla estimate (2 bed semi on a street with mix of 2-4bed 1930s semis)...I think they vary but are usually on the ball park!