Derry property guide
Why your LPS capital value is not your house value
Many Northern Ireland homeowners look up their Land & Property Services (LPS) capital value and assume it is an official statement of what their house is worth. It is not. The capital value exists to calculate domestic rates, and it is frozen at a valuation date of 1 January 2005.
What the LPS capital value actually is
LPS assessed every domestic property in Northern Ireland at what it would have sold for on 1 January 2005. That figure is the basis for your rates bill. It has not been updated for market movement since, so it tells you what your home was judged to be worth more than two decades ago — not what a buyer would pay today.
Why it diverges from today's value
The Derry market has moved a long way since 2005. The official UK House Price Index puts the Derry City and Strabane all-property average at £185,356 for Q1 2026, with growth of 10.2% in the last year alone. A 2005 anchor without that market movement applied will usually sit far below today's realistic guide price. Improvements made since 2005 — extensions, renovations, conversions — also never show up in the frozen capital value.
How a 2005 anchor can still be useful
Used correctly, the capital value is a helpful starting point rather than an answer. Because it was assessed consistently across all properties at the same date, applying the official market uplift since 2005 can convert it into a current guide price. That is exactly how the House Price Derry methodology plans to use licensed LPS records once property-level matching is connected: anchor at 2005, apply the official HPI multiplier, and always label the result as a guide.
What to do instead of reading your rates bill
- Treat the LPS capital value as a rates figure, not a sale price.
- Start from official market data: the Derry City and Strabane HPI average and the composite for your property type.
- Get a guide estimate narrowed by postcode, house number, and property type.
- For a sale, remortgage, or legal decision, use a qualified in-person valuation — no online figure replaces that.