The question often arrives on a Sunday evening, between one thought and the next. How much is my home worth — really? Not the figure one mentions over dinner, not the purchase price adjusted by a vague feeling, but the amount a serious buyer, accompanied by their bank, would be prepared to sign before a Vaud notary. That question deserves an honest, structured answer — and here is where people most often go wrong — no single method is sufficient on its own.
There are three ways to establish the value of a property. They complement one another. Sometimes they converge on the same figure; sometimes the gap between them is itself the first useful signal. Understanding what each one measures is already enough to avoid the most costly mistakes.
Online valuation tools: a starting point, not an answer
It is tempting to type your address into an automated tool and wait for the algorithm to decide. These platforms exist, some are serious, and they have genuine usefulness: within seconds they provide an order of magnitude anchored in recent transactions in the area. For a standard flat in an ordinary building, they can come close to a reasonable range.
But they cannot see what a camera does not capture. They do not know that the kitchen was completely renovated last year, that the lake view is clear from the sitting room but partially obscured from the bedrooms, that the immediate neighbourhood is quiet, or that a right of way is registered in the land register. They also cannot distinguish between a well-oriented semi-detached villa and an identical one with a damp basement. For a detached house, a villa with a garden, or any property with particular characteristics, the algorithm produces a wide range — sometimes spanning several hundred thousand francs — that cannot be used as it stands.
Use these tools for a first impression, a consistency check, never to set a selling price.
Official valuations: useful, but not market value
Three official values orbit around your property, and it is essential never to confuse them.
The ECA insurance value is set by the Établissement cantonal d'assurance, the cantonal insurance authority for Vaud. It serves as the basis for the compulsory fire and natural hazard insurance in the canton. It measures the cost of rebuilding from scratch, not the market value. An old chalet among the vines may be worth far more than its reconstruction cost.
The tax valuation (valeur fiscale) is the basis for wealth tax. In the canton of Vaud, it is generally well below the market value — sometimes by half. Presenting this figure to a buyer would cause immediate confusion.
The market value (valeur vénale), finally, is what a willing buyer would pay a willing seller under normal market conditions. It is the only figure that matters for a sale. And it is the only one that neither the ECA nor the tax authorities calculate on your behalf.
These three values can differ considerably for the same property. Understanding which one serves which purpose avoids costly misunderstandings, whether in a succession or a sale.
Comparative market analysis: what buyers actually signed
The most reliable method for approaching market value is to study actual, recent transactions involving comparable properties in the same area. This is what serious brokers and bank-appointed valuers do: they look at sales that actually completed — not asking prices, not online listings, but deeds signed before a notary.
This is where local experience makes the difference. Consider a couple thinking of selling their home in Lutry: the floor area can be measured, the year of construction is known, but the value buyers will place on the terrace, the quality of the finishes, or the ease of parking cannot be read from a spreadsheet. It is read in past negotiations, in what comparable buyers ultimately agreed to pay — and in what they refused.
Alexandre builds this database transaction by transaction, across Pully, Paudex, Belmont-sur-Lausanne, and along Lavaux and La Côte. This accumulated knowledge is what turns a broad range into a defensible valuation.
From a valuation opinion to La Juste Mesure
There is a difference between receiving a figure and understanding why that figure is right. A valuation opinion prepared after a visit provides an argued estimate: it identifies the property's strengths, the factors that constrain its value, and the market context in which it sits. That is already far more useful than an algorithm.
For a sale project or a complex estate situation — succession, separation, buyout between co-owners — a more thorough analysis may be necessary. La Juste Mesure is the detailed, argued valuation from Affinités Immobilier: it documents every parameter, compares transactions in the area, and produces a written report that you can present to a bank, a notary, or heirs. It gives the owner a solid foundation, not an intuition.
The Affinity Index completes this approach by measuring how well the property's characteristics match the profiles of active buyers in the area: a property that is technically well valued but poorly positioned relative to actual demand can remain without a serious offer for a long time.
Why two valuations can diverge
If you have ever asked two different people for a valuation and received widely differing figures, you have experienced something both common and instructive. The reasons can be numerous.
- The method used: algorithm, comparative market analysis, income approach (for a yield property), hedonic method. Each produces a different result and suits different property types.
- The quality of the data: a broker who knows recent transactions in your street has a comparison base that someone who rarely operates in the area simply does not have.
- The intention behind the valuation: a deliberately high estimate, designed to win over a seller and secure a mandate, is a practice that exists. It costs the seller dearly: the property sits on the market, loses appeal, and eventually sells for less than a well-considered price set from the outset would have achieved.
A selling price is not a promise. It is a working hypothesis that the market either validates or not within the first few weeks. The more firmly it is grounded in reality, the faster the sale and the shorter the negotiations.
Knowing what your home is worth means understanding what a buyer today, with their bank, is prepared to sign — not what you hope, not what you paid, but what next week's market can absorb.
The value of your property depends on parameters you know in part — the floor area, the general condition, the work carried out — and on others you cannot read alone: recent comparable transactions, active demand in your area, and how your property will be perceived by the most likely buyer profiles. If you are weighing a sale, organising a succession, or simply trying to understand where you stand in the market, the first reasonable step is to request a valuation after a visit, conducted by someone who knows the deeds signed in your commune. It is not a commitment to sell — it is a decision to look at reality clearly, before acting.
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