Why Do Property Valuations Disagree? Zoopla vs Land Registry Data

Put the same address into Zoopla, Rightmove and a Land Registry-based valuation tool and you can easily get three different numbers — sometimes tens of thousands of pounds apart. That's not a bug in any one of them. They're built to answer slightly different questions, from different data, using different methods.

They use different underlying data

Zoopla and Rightmove's automated valuation models (AVMs) blend HM Land Registry sold prices with their own listing data — asking prices, how long properties sit on the market, and price changes during a listing. That listing data is proprietary and updates constantly, which is part of why their estimates can shift month to month even when nothing has actually sold nearby.

A tool built purely on Land Registry data (like this one) only uses actual completed sales — the price a property legally changed hands for, recorded by HM Land Registry. It's slower to reflect very recent market shifts, but every number it's built from is a real, verified transaction, not an asking price or an estimate someone else made.

They weight recency and location differently

How far back a comparable sale can be and still count, how tightly it needs to match your property's type and size, and how much weight a sale gets based on distance — every valuation model makes different calls on all of this. Widen the radius or the time window and the number moves. There's no single "correct" set of rules; it's a genuine methodology choice, and reasonable tools can land on different answers from the same underlying market.

Confidence bands matter more than the headline number

A valuation with 90+ comparable sales within half a mile from the last six months deserves far more trust than one built from five sales three years ago at the edge of a 15-mile radius — even if both spit out a specific-looking number. Any tool that gives you a confidence score or a range, rather than a single suspiciously precise figure, is telling you something important: how much to trust the estimate, not just what it is.

Which one should you trust?

Honestly — none of them, for anything that actually matters financially. Automated valuations of any kind are a starting point, not a substitute for a RICS survey or a formal mortgage valuation when you're buying, selling, or remortgaging. See our guide on RICS surveys vs online valuations for when you actually need the real thing.

What automated tools are good for is a fast, free sense-check: is this roughly in the right ballpark, and how has this area moved over time? For that, it's worth checking more than one and looking at the confidence/comp count behind each, not just the headline figure.