Real case: flooding, radon and a motorway next door

A spacious flat in Torrelodones (Madrid), in a good residential area. The buyer was convinced. But Hogarfax's report stacked up three warnings the listing never mentioned: an area near flooding, high radon and a motorway right beside it. Seeing them on the map, they walked away. A real, anonymised case.

Flooding and high radon

Two warnings at once in physical risks. The first, «Area near flooding»: the surroundings appear in a risk zone. The second, more serious, in red: «High radon risk area» —«it can accumulate indoors»— especially on ground floors and homes in contact with the soil. It is not an absolute barrier, but it means checking ventilation and, in any works, applying the CTE measures. Guides: flooding and what radon is.

We open the viewer and the figure stops being a label: the flood zones (in blue) cover much of the home's surroundings. Again, the key is that you check it yourself on the official mapping — it is not told to you by a text or an AI that can hallucinate a convincing but false answer. We cover this in AI in property reports.

And a motorway right beside it

The report also flagged «Road nearby» under surroundings and nuisances: the home is at a distance where traffic is noticeable. Switching on the major-roads layer in the viewer, you can see the motorway running beside the building. Noise and quality of life, a factor no listing photo shows. Context in road, airport and rail noise.

Three warnings and a timely retreat

Flooding in the surroundings, high radon indoors and a motorway alongside. Individually, each is manageable; together, they described a very different home from the one in the listing. The buyer knew it before signing and preferred to keep looking. 24.90 € that saved them a six-figure mistake.