The Lightstone AVM. The Lightstone AVM uses multiple statistically robust analytic approaches to estimate the current market values of individual residential properties. These approaches – comparable sales analysis, repeat sales indices, non-linear regression techniques and other innovations developed by Lightstone's research team – are continuously back-tested and refined to ensure consistent, high quality automated valuations. The valuations are then further improved by determining and applying the optimal combination of methodologies to each property assessed.

The Lightstone Safety Score. Lightstone rigorously tests the accuracy of each of its analytic techniques to estimate the precision of the final prediction for each property. Deriving a reliable measure of confidence is a complex exercise and requires a combination of rules-based decision-making, statistical analysis and back-testing. The key output of this ongoing calibration process is a safety score that clients can use to build their property valuation strategies. The Lightstone Safety Score is a measure of the probability that the actual selling price of a property is not less than 90% of the predicted value of that property (the ‘safety value’).

Lightstone Data Quality. Data is the heart of Lightstone’s business and we spare no cost or effort in ensuring that our data is comprehensive and reliable. We obtain data on an ongoing basis from the Deeds Office and the Surveyor General - the primary sources of South African residential property data - and augment it with data from secondary sources, such as banks and estate agencies. We also apply proprietary filtering techniques and advanced address-standardisation processes to all incoming data. These techniques, developed over a number of years, are critical in ensuring that the Lightstone records are identifiable, accurate and reliable – a significant challenge in the South African data environment. The Lightstone AVM service is available through Lightstone’s Web Site, electronic mail, virtual private network or via Lightstone Processing’s application processing platform.  In addition, the Lightstone AVM service is available for batch (portfolio) orders and can be customised according to client needs.