Guides · Estate agents
Choosing comparable sales
Every price you recommend depends on the comparables behind it. Good comparables make the figure easy to explain. Poor ones leave it open to challenge from the vendor, another agent or a buyer's surveyor.
This guide covers where to look, which sales to use, which to treat with care and how to weigh them. It assumes you are working from HM Land Registry sold prices, with your own knowledge of the homes added on top.
What makes a sale comparable
A good comparable is close to the subject home on four things: location, property type, size and date of sale. Condition and features matter too, but you usually have to judge those yourself.
Tenure is part of the match. Compare a leasehold flat with other leasehold flats, and allow for lease length where you know it. A freehold house is a poor guide to a leasehold one.
Start on the street, then widen
Sales on the same street are the strongest evidence, because buyers were choosing the same location. Use every sale on the street in the last 12 months, then decide which are close matches.
If the street has few sales, widen to the postcode sector, such as SN15 1, and keep to the same property type. A sector is small enough to share a local market but large enough to have regular sales. Allow for streets that differ, for example a busy road or a different school catchment. Comparing streets and postcodes covers this in more detail.
Checklist
- Match on location, property type, size and date
- Keep tenure the same and note lease length where known
- Use every sale on the street, then widen to the sector
- Allow for price movement since older sales
- Check floor areas on energy certificates
- Check repossessions, new builds and outliers before using them
- Aim for three to six comparables and weight the closest
Recent sales, and allowing for time
Sales from the last six months reflect the current market best. Older sales are still useful if you allow for how prices have moved since. The quarterly trend for that property type in the postcode district shows the direction and size of the change.
For example, if a comparable sold for £340,000 a year ago and the district median for that type has risen by about 3% since, the same home might be expected to sell for nearer £350,000 today. These figures are only an example, and the trend is a guide rather than an exact adjustment. Working out house price change explains how to read the trend.
The newest sales take two to eight weeks to be registered, so the latest month in the data is always incomplete.
Filling in what the data does not record
Land Registry data has no bedrooms, floor area or condition. The floor area on a home's energy performance certificate lets you compare price per square metre. Old portal listings and floor plans show layout, extensions and finish.
Your own sales records are often the best source. If your office sold the comparable, you know its condition, how long it took to sell and how far the price moved from the asking price.
Then adjust for the differences that buyers pay for locally. An extra bedroom, a loft conversion, off-street parking or a larger garden will usually push a price up. A busy road, a short lease or a home that needs work will usually pull it down. Keep each adjustment modest and note why you made it.
Sales to treat with care
Price Paid Data includes repossessions, company purchases and some buy-to-let sales. These are real sales at real prices, but a repossession or a quick sale may sit below the local range. Check before you rely on one.
Treat new build sales carefully when the subject home is not new, as new homes often sell at different prices from older ones nearby. Look out for sales that are well above or below the rest. There is often a reason you cannot see in the data, such as a home in very poor repair.
How many to use and how to weigh them
Three to six good comparables are usually enough. One sale on its own can mislead, and a long list of weak matches adds noise rather than evidence.
Give the most weight to the closest matches on the same street and the most recent sales. Use the wider sector sales to confirm the range. When you present them, say which ones carry the most weight and why. That makes your reasoning easy to follow and to check.
Do not leave out a close match because it sold for less than you hoped. A vendor or a buyer's surveyor can look up the same sales, and a missing comparable undermines the rest of your evidence. If a low sale had a clear reason, such as poor condition, include it and explain the reason.
The same comparables often matter again later in the sale. A lender's surveyor will look at recent sales when valuing the home for the buyer's mortgage. Our guide to down valuations and sold prices covers what happens when that figure comes in below the agreed price.
Using House Price Monitor
The professional plan costs £15 a month for up to five postcode districts, with a monthly branded report for each. Its valuation packs list every sale on the street in the last 12 months, same-type sales in the postcode sector in the last six months and the quarterly trend for that type, in a PDF with your logo. Your first report is free when you sign up.
Other guides
Using sold prices in a valuation appointment
Preparing a market appraisal from sold prices
Down valuations: what sold prices can show