Glossary

Every term, in plain English

Property has a lot of jargon. Here's what each term in a PropScore report actually means — no assumed knowledge.

The score (0–100): PropScore's headline number for a property as an investment. Higher is better. It's a weighted blend of six factors, each shown so you can see how the number was reached.
Fair-value estimate: Our best estimate of what a property is really worth, built from real sold prices and comparable sales — the benchmark we check the asking price against. (The industry calls this an AVM, an Automated Valuation Model.)
Price per m²: The price divided by the property's floor area, in square metres. It lets you compare properties of different sizes on the same scale.
Gross yield: A year's rent as a percentage of the price, before any costs. A quick, optimistic headline number.
Net yield: The return you actually keep: a year's rent minus tax, fees and running costs, as a percentage of the price. The number that matters.
Cash-flow: The money left over each month or year after the mortgage and running costs are paid. Can be positive or negative.
Total cost of owning it: Everything a purchase really costs beyond the price — purchase taxes, legal fees, and the recurring costs of holding it. (Sometimes called TCO, total cost of ownership.)
Loan size (LTV): How much you borrow against the property, as a percentage of its value. 75% LTV means a 25% deposit. (LTV = loan-to-value.)
Stamp duty / transfer tax: The tax you pay to buy a property. It goes by different names per country (SDLT in the UK, ITBI in Brazil) and often rises for second properties.
Leasehold / freehold: Freehold means you own the property and the land outright. Leasehold (common for UK flats) means you own the right to live there for a fixed term but not the land — which brings ground rent and, on short leases, resale problems.
Cladding safety certificate: In the UK, proof that a building's external walls are fire-safe. Without it, a flat can be hard to mortgage or sell. (The form is called an EWS1.)
Rent caps: Legal limits on how much rent can be charged or raised in certain zones. In Ireland these are Rent Pressure Zones (RPZ); they cap your income upside.
Off-plan: A property bought before it's finished being built. Cheaper and often on a payment plan, but you're exposed to the builder actually delivering it on time and to spec.
Comparable sales (comps): Recently sold, similar properties nearby, used as evidence for what a property is worth.
Local risks (landmines): Market-specific problems that a global valuation tool averages away — a short lease, a rent cap, an off-plan builder with a poor record. PropScore names and weighs them.
Time on market: How long properties like this typically sit before they sell. Longer means less liquid — harder to sell in a hurry without dropping the price.
Confidence: How sure the score is, given the data behind it. Lots of close comparables = high confidence; little or scattered data = low. Every report shows it.
Short-term let: Renting a property by the night (Airbnb-style) rather than on a long lease. Higher potential income, more work and cost, and increasingly restricted by local rules.