What is a Property / House Valuation?
“What’s my property worth?” is a question that we get asked quite regularly at Auctioneera; of course it’s a natural thing to be inquisitive about how much your house or apartment could be worth on the open market. To many people, a property or house valuation is the first step to listing a property for sale. It certainly is the first step for that purpose but did you know that there are a variety of types of property valuation?
Property Valuation Types
Local Property Tax Valuation
All residential properties, regardless of when they were built, became liable for local property tax (LPT) from 2022 onward. As per Revenue: “LPT is a self-assessed tax charged on the market value of residential properties in the State.” The tax paid by the owner of the residential property is based on the market value of the property on the valuation date. For 2022, the valuation date was 1st November 2021. There are some property exemptions from LPT - learn more here. As a self-assessed tax, you will need to do the annual calculations yourself but we have a useful guide to assist in how to value your property for LPT purposes.
Fair Deal Valuation
The Nursing Homes Support Scheme, more commonly known as the Fair Deal Scheme is operated by the HSE. It provides an avenue for people who own an asset (the asset can be cash assets and / or non cash assets e.g. property) to offset that asset in order to help to fund their nursing home accommodation. You can learn more about how the Fair Deal Scheme works here. If a family is attempting to use the property of a loved one to apply for this scheme, they will need a valuation for the family home and this is used as part of the assessment.
Mortgage Lender Valuation
Having successfully achieved mortgage approval and having moved to the sale agreed stage of a property sale, mortgage lenders such as AIB, Bank of Ireland, Permanent TSB and others will require a bank valuation to be completed. This is not to be confused with a pre-purchase survey; a pre-purchase survey is not a bank requirement. Lenders provide the purchaser with a panel of possible valuers (these would be qualified estate agents or surveyors) and the purchaser engages with one of those valuers to visit the property and provide a valuation for the lender. The cost is usually around €150 and is payable by the purchaser. Note that some lenders including AIB insist that the valuation report must be dated within four months of the date of the drawdown of the mortgage.
Probate Valuation
A probate valuation is a necessary step as part of the granting of a probate. This will happen when someone has passed away and their asset (a property) needs to be valued; as part of this process, the valuation needs to be completed by a qualified professional whether it is being put up for sale or not. The appointed valuer will provide a document for the purposes of probate whereby they will value the property based on the date that the deceased passed away. You can read more about this topic in our ultimate guide to probate.
Family Law Valuation
As part of separation/divorce proceedings and also as part of instances where a family member might be gifting a property to another family member, a family law valuation might be required. This is a document outlining the advised market value of a property that can be used if needed in court proceedings.
Is a Property Valuation Free?
If you need to get your property valued for the purposes of putting it up for sale, a valuation of your property is free with Auctioneera. When you get in touch with us about a property valuation, we will take some details about the property, we will then assign an estate agent for the purposes of the valuation. The estate agent will then visit your property at the agreed time and date, they will do a walkthrough of the house or apartment and they will then make an assessment as to what they feel the property will make when put on the market (at the time of the valuation). This will come in the form of a document in what’s known as the advised market value (“AMV” - see below for a sample document with the address redacted).
Once the property is listed for sale, the guide price must not be less than the AMV. All estate agents operating in Ireland need to have a licence issued by the Property Services Regulatory Authority (PSRA) and so the PSRA can, as part of their annual auditing process, ask for file evidence of how the estate agent arrived at a particular valuation. This is to ensure that the valuation and AMV was completed via a reasonable assessment. This would include use of relevant market comparables i.e. similar properties that sold in the area and other properties listed for sale when the valuation took place.