Property website helps homebuyers

A new website boasts it can give anyone looking to buy a property the lowdown on just about any house, in any street, in any neighbourhood in the UK.

Zoopla will go head to head with other property websites, such as will Rightmove, Findaproperty and Primelocation. A host of smaller sites also compete for the homebuyer's attention.

However Zoopla says it has the edge by being able to provide value estimates on more than 26 million homes with data taken from the Royal Mail and the Land Registry.

Users can find what price a house was last sold for and the prices of recently sold properties in the area to get an idea of how much they should pay. Other useful information includes crime rates and information on local schools.

With property experts reporting that UK house prices can be overinflated by as much as 40 per cent, information available on Zoopla could prove invaluable to the would-be buyer or seller.

According to a survey carried out by the site’s developers, 26 per cent of homebuyers take undue risks on their house purchase because they fail to carry out comparative research on the value of homes before putting in an offer.

In addition, seven in ten homebuyers admit they do not check a property’s previous sale price before signing for the title deeds, and risk paying over the odds for their property.

Although nine in 10 people said their house purchase was the biggest buy of their lives, they spend more time and effort checking out the price of kitchen items, such as blenders and toasters.

Zoopla founder and CEO Alex Chesterman commented: “Zoopla has been created to transform the way users find, track and market homes in the UK by providing free information and tools to empower them.

"We have designed our services with the aim of creating a transparent marketplace and we believe that information should be free and easily accessible to everyone. Zoopla is the UK’s first community property website where all users can view and share information ”

The site also has a number of interactive features, such as the Temptme section, which allows owners to enter the dream figure they'd like to sell their home for. In the Askme area, prospective buyers can get more information about the neighbourhood from locals.