Zoopla.co.uk: 3.45M Homes Bought in Last 5 Years Remain ‘Underwater’

LONDON, June 29, 2011 -

Zoopla.co.uk has found that 3.45 million homes bought in
the last five years are now worth less than what they were bought
for; homeowners who purchased at the peak of the market are the
worst affected by this trend.

New research from leading property website href="www.zoopla.co.uk/">Zoopla.co.uk shows that 4 out
of 5 homes purchased in Britain since 2006 have a market value
today below their purchase price.

Of the 4.32 million homes purchased since 2006 and where the
ownership remains the same, 3.5m (80%) of these homes are
‘underwater’ (worth less today than their purchase price),
according to Zoopla.co.uk which lists over 17 million previous sale
prices and provides current href="www.zoopla.co.uk/home-values/">value estimates for
every UK property.

Those worst affected are the homeowners who bought at the peak
of the market. 93.2% of homes bought in 2007 and 88.9% of those
bought in 2008 are now ‘underwater’. Over the last 5 years, buyers
who have fared best are those who bought in 2009, having
successfully timed the bottom of the market during the recent
downturn.

At a regional level, the North East of England is the worst
affected area, with 93% of properties purchased since 2006 yet to
climb back to the values paid for them by their owners. At the
other end of the scale, less than half (46%) of homes bought over
the last 5 years in London are now valued below their purchase
price, underlining how much more resilient the capital has been to
the property downturn versus the rest of the country.

Nicholas Leeming, Business Development Director of
Zoopla.co.uk, said: “There is an unprecedented number of
homeowners ’stuck’ with homes they bought in recent years with the
expectation that href="www.zoopla.co.uk/house-prices/uk/">UK house prices
would continue to sky-rocket. And as a result of not wanting to
take a loss on their asset, many owners have been unwilling to set
realistic asking prices to sell them. The London market has been
unique and bounced back very strongly from the recent market lows
of 2009.”

About Zoopla.co.uk

Zoopla.co.uk is the UK’s most comprehensive property website,
focused on empowering consumers with the resources they need to
make better-informed property decisions. We help our users make
sense of the residential property market by combining property
listings with market value data, local information and community
tools.

www.zoopla.co.uk
was founded on the principles of transparency and efficiency and
everything we do aims to make the market more effective for both
property consumers and professionals alike. Our mission is to
provide the most useful online property experience by:

• displaying property listings along with value and price trend
  information
• providing rich property data and local market information in
  one place
• enabling users to search for property in a variety of
  customised ways
• allowing users to engage with professionals via our tools like
  AskMe!
• building relationships between home owners and local estate
  agents

By combining free, instant value estimates for every UK home
with sold prices, local market information and hundreds of
thousands of properties available for sale and to rent,
Zoopla.co.uk has become the ultimate destination for property
consumers to search for property and do their market research. We
are the UK’s fastest growing property website and are proud to have
been named ‘Best Property Portal 2009′ (Daily Mail UK Property
Awards).

Our unique features, like AskMe!™ and TemptMe!™ allow users to
gain an insight into the market and discover information they won’t
find anywhere else. And our AskAnAgent feature has rapidly become
one of the most valued sources of vendor leads for UK estate
agents. We calculate our value estimates using a proprietary
algorithm (secret formula) that continuously analyses millions of
data points relating to property sales and home characteristics
throughout the UK. Our estimates are constantly refined, using the
most recent data available and a variety of methodologies, in order
to provide the most current information on any home.

Zoopla Ltd is a privately held company with a highly experienced
and proven management team, backed by well-respected angel
investors and leading venture capital firms href="www.atlasventure.com/">Atlas Venture and href="www.octopusventures.com/">Octopus Ventures.

For more information about Zoopla.co.uk become a fan on href="https://www.facebook.com/ZooplaUK">Facebook or follow href="twitter.com/zoopla">@Zoopla.

For further information, please contact: Lawrence Hall at lawrence.hall at zoopla.co.uk or on +44(0)20-7620-4618