Feeling a bit stupid here, who can help out.
Zoopla list a few different housing types in their price calculator.

Period – obviously means old, but how old?
New build – ok that’s clear
Contemporary – how is that different to new build?
Purpose built – huh? what does that even mean? are any of the other categories not usually built for housing purposes??
Thatched – ok, that’s obvious
Mansion block – mansion sounds posh and block sounds like concrete. please explain.
Low built – is this bungalow?
Council – obvious
Park home – wtf is one of these?!

And what category would an ex council semi fall into if it wasn’t an ex council house?

Purpose built= a flat in a proper block of flats, not a flat in a converted house
Park home = static caravan
Mansion block, mainly a London thing. Posh low to medium rise flats, built for private sector from 1900s to 1950s

Period – would expect this to be at least pre-wars/late Victorian.
New build – ok that’s clear
Contemporary – contemporary in style, rather than all the new builds made to look like twee Victorian cottages or Georgian piles.
Purpose built – huh? what does that even mean? as above.
Thatched – ok, that’s obvious
Mansion block – looks a bit like mansion, but actually flats. Lots of these in battersea/maida vale etc.
Low built – No idea
Council – obvious
Park home – also no idea

Park homes. Prefab, often ‘double wide’

http://homeseekerhomes.co.uk/park-homes.html

Low built = Specifically aimed at Dwarfs and Hobbits 😉

“period” can not so much mean a particular age but a house thats retained the features from the period it was built

Low built could be low rise – i.e less than 3 storeys.
Purpose built could also mean pre fabricated – concrete walls etc. Houses that were built and intended as temporary accommodation after the war. Clues could be in the pictures – rendered walls rather than brick.
As above, mansion blocks are the victorian version of flats – they look like one big mansion but are actually flats.

Knowing what I know about our housing stock at work, i’d steer clear of anything that isn’t traditional built with a cavity wall. Even the 60’s built stuff is causing problems now though – porous brick etc.

Thanks guys. Where on earth do most normal houses built between victorian era and present day fall then? Too young to be period, too old to be new build, not avant garde enough to be contemporary… leaves them no pigeon hole?

Edwardian and Georgian are all periods after victorian* 😉

And a new build is Elizabethan surely?

*they might not be THE period known as…

We tend to classify our properties (local authority) in terms of rise (low, medium and high). Traditional or non-traditional build and pre/post 1945.