Why asking price tells you almost nothing
An asking price is one seller's opening position, filtered through their agent's pricing strategy. It's not evidence of value — it's a starting point for negotiation, and in a slowing market it's frequently the figure that ends up being reduced. Comparing a "BMV" claim against the asking price of similar current listings is comparing one piece of marketing against another.
What actually counts as evidence
HM Land Registry's sold-price data records what buyers genuinely paid, completed transactions, not opinions. For a comparison to be valid it needs to be a real sale, in the same postcode sector, ideally within the last six to twelve months, of a similar property type, tenure and bedroom count — and adjusted where the comparable needed work the subject property doesn't, or vice versa.
Common mistakes that inflate a "discount"
Comparing a flat against house sales. Using a sale from three years ago in a market that's moved since. Treating a new-build sale as comparable to a period conversion. Ignoring that the "comparable" sold in poor condition and needed the same £20,000 of work the subject property does. Each of these makes a real discount look bigger than it is, or invents one that isn't there.
How PropertyAlert automates this comparison
This is precisely what PropertyAlert's postcode-sector benchmarking does for every listing it scores — pulling real Land Registry sold prices for the sector, not asking prices from the portal, and using that as the basis for the investment score. It's the same manual process described above, run automatically across every active listing rather than one property at a time.
Use it as a floor, not a ceiling
Land Registry data lags live listings by weeks to months, since it only records completions. Treat a sold-price benchmark as a reliable floor for what the property is genuinely worth — not as a precise live valuation, particularly in a market moving quickly in either direction.