Quotable Value costing vendors out of market

43ASt, Freemans Bay: Four-bedroom villa with sunny garden. QV: $1.7m. Listed price: $1.049m. Photo / Supplied

House vendors using Quotable Value to set their selling price are being warned they risk costing themselves out of the deflated market.

Real estate insiders say homes are selling for tens of thousands of dollars below their QV rating - raising the possibility of long waits for sellers unprepared to compromise.

"The situation is that QV are using out of date sales to arrive at a market worth," said David Lugton, of Hamilton firm Lugton's Real Estate.

"It is computer-generated so may not be reliable. You have to treat the moving market with caution."

Steven McNamara of valuation specialists Property InDepth said that in a perfect world there wouldn't be any difference between valuations and selling prices.

"At present our valuers are having to do more research. They are having to speak with a lot more people to get the story behind the sales.

"Some QV figures have just been released and they are all over the place in terms of land values and capital values."

Annelise Baird, from LJ Hooker Rotorua, said house prices in her area were definitely selling below the QV.

"There is no question that some ratings are totally out."

QV does valuations for most of the councils in New Zealand.

McNamara said he had received five complaints this week alone from North Shore residents who objected to the valuation of their property.

Doug Pope, of Harcourts Mt Eden, said councils were unaware some properties had been renovated and didn't factor the changes into valuations.

"We don't publicise council valuations in any of our advertising or marketing," said Pope. "They are not a price indicator."

Ian Knox, of Ray White Kerikeri agreed, saying rateable valuations were not always accurate. "We can no longer rely on them. It has been difficult with the downturn but we are getting a confused result."

QV spokesman Steve Langridge said valuations were usually done every three years so inevitably went out of date. "It's not deemed to be accurate other than at the point at which it's valued. It's just a measure for the apportioning of rates.