How a property is valued in Sanremo: the method, the data, the mistakes to avoid
The question almost every owner asks, sooner or later, is: how much is my property worth?
The honest answer is: it depends on the data. Not on the opinion of whoever is selling, not on what the neighbour achieved three years ago, not on how much you would like to get in order to buy the next home.
A serious valuation starts from the real market — what has actually completed, not what is on the portals. And it arrives at a number that can be demonstrated and verified, not simply declared.
It starts from real transactions, not listings
The starting point is data from completed transactions in the same area: similar properties, sold recently, at real prices. This data is held by the Revenue Agency, which records the values of all registered transactions.
Listings on property portals are not a reliable reference: they show asking prices, not prices actually paid. The difference, in Sanremo as elsewhere, can be significant.
There is an additional difficulty, typical of Italy: Italians change homes far less frequently than people in other countries. The market moves more slowly, transactions are fewer, and in less central areas a long time can pass between one sale and the next.
The Revenue Agency provides a reasonably detailed search tool: you set a search radius and a time period, and the system returns the transactions that took place in that area. There is however a limitation: for privacy reasons, results are only shown if there are at least five transactions in the selected area. In less central zones, where sales are rare, this means the data simply does not appear.
A second structural limitation compounds this: the data does not include the qualitative characteristics of the property. We know that on that street, in that period, an 80 sqm apartment sold at a certain price. We do not know whether it was on the first floor or the fifth, whether it needed full renovation or had just been refurbished, whether it had a sea view or looked onto a courtyard. Yet these are precisely the variables that drive significant differences in value, especially in Sanremo where aspect and view weigh heavily on price.
Multiple tools are used in parallel
Relying on a single source is not enough. The method we use combines several approaches:
Data from recent transactions at the Revenue Agency provides the statistical base. Specialist software processes the characteristics of the property — floor area, floor level, aspect, condition, energy class — and compares them with comparable properties in the area. OMI values (the Property Market Observatory) provide an additional official reference point.
Where possible, the property is compared with something known directly: a similar apartment sold recently on the same street, or a property whose final price is known because the negotiation was followed personally. This is a concrete calibration that no software can replace.
Colleagues who have sold recently in the same area are also consulted. The local property market runs on information that circulates among those who work in it every day.
It is then checked against the active market
Once the value has been estimated, it is checked against properties currently listed on the portals. Not to conform to them, but to understand the competitive context: if there are similar apartments at lower prices, a buyer will see all of them together.
The result is an estimate, not a certainty
An honest valuation also includes a margin of uncertainty. The property market is not a stock exchange. Transaction prices are public, but the characteristics of the properties are not: floor level, aspect, condition, outbuildings. Without those details, a price alone says little.
What a good valuation guarantees is a verifiable method and an estimate anchored to real data — not inflated to please, not lowered to close quickly.
In 2008 I obtained certification as a Qualified Valuer under the IVS (International Valuation Standards). The method I apply follows those principles: the valuation is a process that can be shown and explained step by step.
The most common mistake: choosing the agent who gives the highest valuation
Asking several agents for a valuation and choosing the one who proposes the highest price is one of the most widespread — and most costly — mistakes.
Inflating the price to win a listing is common practice. The result is a property that sits on the portals for months, loses credibility, and in the end sells for less than it would have achieved had it been priced correctly from the start.
The advice is different: when you decide to sell, the first thing to do is not to ask for a valuation. It is to choose the agent. Visit more than one, understand how they work, decide whether you trust them. Only after that — and only with the agent you have chosen — do you ask for the valuation. If something does not convince you, ask for an explanation. A serious estimate can always be justified with data.
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