Pioneering AVMs for lenders
Launched automated valuations and property intelligence to lenders in a market that depended on manual, inconsistent valuations.
Established Lightstone as an independent, trusted data partner to the banking sector.
Celebrating 20 years of insights you can bank on
#20YearsTogether
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Financial Services
For twenty years, South Africa's leading lenders and insurers have used Lightstone data to value property and price risk. We combine geo-spatial technology, proprietary databases and advanced analytics into tools that turn property questions into decisions.
What we do
Six ways we support financial services
From a single automated valuation to a portfolio revalued overnight, each product draws on the same underlying property database.
Automated Valuation Models (AVMs)
Accurate residential property valuations, endorsed by international rating agencies and bank credit committees. Five of South Africa's six major mortgage lenders use our AVM in their lending processes.
We have developed industry leading automated valuation models to estimate property values for the South African residential property market. Our models have been developed based on global best practices and our proprietary property databases are extensively used in the Banking and Real Estate markets in South Africa. Our core AVM model has been continuously refined and is the only one regularly reviewed by international rating agencies and bank credit committees.
Enquire about AVMsValuation Systems (EzVal)
A customisable end-to-end valuation platform. Its rules engine routes each instruction to an automated, desktop or physical valuation, cutting turnaround times across the mortgage journey.
Based on our extensive experience of the use of our AVM in bank lending operations, we have developed our own end to end valuation platform (EzVal) that enables users to fully manage and optimise its AVM, desktop and physical valuation decisions. The system is underpinned by our comprehensive property database and has customisable decision-rules engines, routing methodologies and valuation forms to meet our clients' valuations needs.
Enquire about EzValGeo-coding
Precise geo-coordinates for your customer, asset and performance data, even where the source address is incomplete. Powered by Deeds records and our own address dictionary.
We have developed our own extensive spatial property database which, together with its proprietary address and deeds data, enables it to provide accurate, high volume property geo-coding services. Accurately understanding property location enables our clients to extract more value out of their risk and market potential analyses.
Enquire about geo-codingPortfolio and bulk valuations
Fast, repeatable mass valuations for Basel capital requirements, provisions and free equity, insurance value updates, portfolio performance analysis and municipal valuations.
We are a provider of fast, regular, accurate mass (re)valuation services based on multiple methodologies tailored for different industries. We currently regularly update property valuations for bank capital (Basel III), provisioning and free equity calculations, insurance value updates, portfolio performance analysis and municipal valuations.
Enquire about bulk valuationsCredit risk metrics
Asset risk scored on location and property characteristics, drawing on price trends, distressed sale values, area credit scores and turnover rates – used to differentiate LTV and price mortgage loans.
We have developed a number of credit risk metrics for mortgage lenders which primarily focus on asset-driven drivers of Loss Given Default (LGD). These include our Risk Quality Grade (an area based mortgage risk measure), distressed sale valuations and mortgage exposure metrics. These metrics are used by banking clients to differentiate Loan to Value (LTV) and pricing of mortgage loans based on property risk.
Enquire about credit risk metricsInsurance risk metrics
Replacement cost valuations plus peril indices covering flood, lightning, hail, fire, subsidence, dolomite, earthquake, crime and proximity to emergency services.
Lightstone has sourced a number of insurance related data sources and developed unique indices and metrics to assist its insurance clients better underwrite and price its property risk exposures. These include providing residential property Replacement Cost Valuations (RCV) and providing risk indices for flooding, lightning, hail, fire, subsidence, earthquakes and crime.
- Flooding: Assigns a risk index based on the distance and altitude from a water source, with consideration for the type of water source, eg, perennial or non-perennial.
- Lightning and hail: Measures a property's exposure to lightning and hail damage based on the reported lightning density per square km, adjusted for altitude.
- Dolomite: Identifies whether a property is situated on ground consisting of dolomite and estimates the risk of sinkholes based on proximity to mines and other sinkholes.
- Earthquakes: Analyses whether a property is located in an earthquake-prone region based on historical tremor intensity and frequency.
- Crime: Offers a comprehensive risk index and trends for various categories of crime, such as contact crime or property related crime, based on official SAPS data which is mapped spatially.
- Proximity: Reviews the distance of the property from several key points of interest such as police stations, fire stations and airports.
Build note — mailto links removed. The current page carries six separate “Email Lightstone” links, one per product. Every “Enquire about…” button above now routes to the Section G form instead, pre-selecting the matching product in the dropdown so the enquiry is tracked and lands with the right team. Delete this note before go-live.
Who it's for
Built around how you make decisions
The data is the same. What changes is the question you're asking of it.
Value faster, lend with more confidence
Automate the routine valuations and route the rest intelligently. Our AVM and EzVal shorten the path from application to offer, while credit risk metrics let you price each loan against the risk profile of the property securing it.
- Instant residential valuations at application
- Rules-based routing to desktop or physical valuation
- Location-based risk scoring to differentiate LTV
Underwrite on evidence, not averages
Replacement cost valuations give you a defensible sum insured. Peril indices covering flood, hail, lightning, subsidence, crime and more, let you price exposure street by street rather than applying a blanket regional loading.
- Replacement cost valuations for residential property
- Nine peril indices at property level
- Portfolio revaluation to keep sums insured current
Revalue thousands of assets, not one at a time
Valuing each asset individually is slow and expensive. Bulk valuations refresh an entire book on a set cycle, supporting Basel capital calculations, provisioning, free equity reporting and portfolio performance analysis.
- Scheduled revaluation across the full book
- Multiple methodologies applied per asset class
- Outputs formatted for regulatory reporting
Why trust the data
Twenty years of property data behind every number
Two decades of Deeds records
Every registered property transaction since we started, cleaned, geo-coded and linked.
Refreshed monthly
Valuations move with the market rather than sitting still between annual updates.
Independently endorsed
Our AVM is internationally accredited by the European AVM Alliance and bank credit committees.
Built and checked by our own expert analysts
Models are developed in-house and reviewed against actual transactions, not licensed in.
FAQs
Frequently asked questions
Accuracy is measured against actual sale prices and reported as a distribution rather than a single figure, because it varies by property type, area and data density. We'll share current accuracy statistics for your portfolio's profile on request.
Primarily Deeds Office records, enriched with our own address dictionary, geo-spatial layers, market listings and transaction data. The combination is what allows us to value properties where any single source would be incomplete.
Property valuations are refreshed monthly. Risk indices are updated on their own cycles depending on the underlying source, eg, SAPS crime statistics and weather models are released at different intervals.
Yes. Products are available via API, as scheduled bulk files, or through our hosted platforms. Most lender implementations run as an API call inside an existing origination workflow.
Our AVM covers residential property. Commercial property is covered through broader datasets and bespoke valuation work rather than an automated model. Talk to us about your specific asset classes.
The AVM is our long-standing statistical model. The AiVM, launched in 2019, applies artificial intelligence and machine learning to the same data for greater precision. Many clients use both, routed by rules.
We process property and location data in line with POPIA. Client data supplied for geo-coding or bulk valuation is handled under contract and not retained beyond the agreed purpose.
Enquiry
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