Daily Express Wednesday February 16 2005

Homebuying Bonus for Nosey Neighbours

Being a nosey neighbour is becoming a necessary evil for those looking to buy a home. The launch of websites such as Ourproperty as Myhouseprice means internet users can now find out how much is being paid for homes in their street at the touch of a button.

With many economists predicting a downturn in the housing market, the new services have proved popular with homebuyers looking for insights into how prices are moving in their area.

The services are easy to use, generally allowing people to search by postcode or road name for properties sold over the last two years.

The results give details of the types of properties sold, the date it was sold, how much was paid for it and the house number and full address.

The cost of these services varies. Myhouseprice charges £1 for each property searched for while Ourproperty offers 20 free searches a week.

Ourproperty spokesman, Brendan Mcloughlin said: "If you use 20 searches a week, the next week you will be sent a voucher for 20 more. You an get extra searches by recommending a friend, which will entitle you to an additional 5 searches."

Mcloughlin believes the site's users are changing from property professionals to home buyers. "Initially, we had mainly advisors and estate agents signing up but many people are quite nosey and they like to have a look at how much people in their street have paid for a property," he said.

Mcloughlin said the sites were valuable tools for first-time buyers or people looking to sell their homes. "By using a service like the one we provide, people are able to work out what sort of price they should be paying or how much they should expect to make on their home," he said.

A potential drawback is the information on offer is at least three months old because the Land Registry supplies house price data only on a quarterly basis. This can mean users are not getting a totally realistic picture of what is going on in their local housing market.

It is also possible to find out how much was paid for a house in your area direct from the Land Registry, which launched a new service last month.

This service provides details of more than 19 million properties in England and Wales and documents the price paid for all properties registered since April 2000. The service is slightly more expensive, with each download costing £2.

James Cotton of independent mortgage advisor London and Country, said: "These websites are great from a curiosity point of view, as well as telling you how much properties are selling for. They can also tell you how many homes have sold recently in an area so you can work out how well property is selling in the locality you are interested in."

However, Cotton warned against paying too much for this sort of information: "Estate agents should be able to provide you with this kind of data easily because they usually have a detailed knowledge of their local areas. But if you want a second opinion checking a property on one of these websites is a wise move".