Zoopla advises consumers to watch out for over-valuations by agents

British property portal, Zoopla, has issued a warning of the influence of real estate agents over-valuing properties.

Research by the portal claims that ‘over-priced’ homes take 58 days longer to sell than those that are sold for closer to asking price, rising to 60 days in London.

The research, which analysed initial asking prices and cross-referenced them with sold prices from the Land Registry database across 12 months, says over-priced properties end up selling for £12,000 less than their initial valuation.

Homes that were not discounted in the final sale price were described as fairly priced and those that were discounted in the final transaction were deemed to have been initially over-priced.

A Zoopla spokesperson said: “Where homes have been subject to a discount, they are categorized as having been over-valued initially. In other words, the research has been underpinned by an assumption that the transaction value represents the true market value.”

The analysis covered the period between June 1, 2018, to May 31, 2019, and found that the median asking price for over-priced homes – those that end up selling below asking price – was £235,000, while the eventual sold price at the Land Registry was £223,000.

In contrast, homes that were deemed to be priced fairly were listed at £199,995 and sold for £200,000.

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