Zoopla! Property Valuation Web Site

Just discovered this amazing new web site (which can be found at http://www.zoopla.co.uk/ ) which appears still be in beta testing. You just pop a postcode into the box on the home page and it then comes up with all the prices of houses sold in that postcode with an image of the property taken from Microsoft Virtual Earth. Presumably, the prices achieved and date of sale have been taken from the Land Registry information. It has an estimate of your property which is calculated using a clever algorithm. You can then claim a property and add more details and then invite people to make an offer on that property.

The site also has a social networking element to it via the My Zoopla button. This logs properties you have claimed as your own, tracks other properties you would like to buy or are just plain curious about. You can link with other registered Zoopla users and upload personal details and photo.

I think this site is going to be big. I can see this being of great interest to developers who can research properties near to their developments or even identify potential target properties and make offers via the web site. It could be anther worry to agents because it links buyers with sellers directly. Whether putting your property on this site constitutes marketing of your property such that it invokes the HIPs legislation is an interesting question yet to be answered. Bank and building societies might even save the money on valuations and use this site instead! Could be open to abuse though, if you managed to claim a property as yours and give it a low value. This might result in someone suffering financial loss if it put buyers off making offers.