Research reveals owners still largely over estimate how much their home is worth

Home owners in England and Wales over estimated the value of their property by an average 6.8% in 2016 but this is much less than in previous years, new research shows.

In 2015, for example, owners overestimated values by 9.85%, and in 2014 by 13.69%, in 2013 by 13.93% and in 2012 by 18.07%.

The research from homebuyer firm Quick Move Now, compared the figure owners believed their property to be worth to the price the property eventually achieved being sold on the open market.

According to Danny Luke, Quick Move Now’s managing director, after the property boom many home owners became overly optimistic about the value of their property as widespread coverage of rising property prices and the profit on offer through the buying and selling of property gave many home owners false expectations.

‘Home owners have become more realistic about the value of their property, but, as the figures for last year show, with homeowners still overvaluing their property by an average 6.8% many still believe their property to be worth considerably more than its true value,’ he added.

A breakdown of the figures suggests that owners in Greater London have been better at accurately valuing their properties over the last five years and actually undervalued the price by an average of 4.3%.

Elsewhere owners in the South East of England overvalued by 5.32% on average over the five year period, in the East of England it was over by 6.06%, in the South West over by 9.81% and in the East Midlands they were over by 10.02%.

At the other end of the spectrum, owners in the North East of England offered the least accurate property valuations, on average over valuing their property by 19.99% over the same time period.

In Wale owners overestimated by an average of 19.42%, in the North West of England it was 16.87%, in Yorkshire and Humber it was 14.77% over and in the West Midlands it was over by 12.71%.

The figures suggest more optimism about values in the North of the country where price growth has struggled while in London, the South East and the East of England that optimism was not too far off the mark.

‘Unfortunately, in areas where the property market has struggled to pick up following the recession; the North East and Wales in particular, property owners appear to be vastly over optimistic about what their property might be worth,’ added Luke.