Surveyors' valuations - do they undervalue?

[conkerbonker]

We're waiting to hear the result of a mortgage valuation on the house we're buying.

I've heard that surveyors tend to be conservative in their valuations.

Could anyone advise me what sort of percentage below market value they generally come in at?

TIA

[conkerbonker]

Anyone know how surveyors approach valuing a property?

Do they generally under-value?

Thanks.

[goldenpeach]

Hi, we have been househunting and we heard lots of people talking about undervaluing, in one instance the owner of a house they were thinking of selling to us direct undervalued their property when they remortgaged so he wanted out.
My DP uses zoopla for 'valuing' houses we are viewing (where we are looking the asking prices are very inflated like there is no credit crunch). There is also a halifax house price index, which only works if you know what the house has been sold before, but not always accurate, my DP says zoopla is best.

[queenrollo]

there is a lot of under-valuing about at the moment, which is not uncommon when the market is falling/stagnant.

The house we are buying was valued at 30,000 less than the asking price, but it has been on the market for two years which is an element to consider. We have been lucky that our seller wants to progress so accepted our revised offer, but many vendors may not be in a position to do so.
I don't think most surveyors would undervalue by such a big margin....there are lots of factors involved in ours - age of property, unconventional layout, amount of renovation needed.

[conkerbonker]

Okay, thanks for your comments.

We're buying in a popular area with few properties for sale. Prices have dropped over the last year, but now asking prices have gone up over the last three months, slso higher prices seem to be being being paid.

We're in the south east where I hear traditionally a post-housing slump recovery starts first (?)

We have to move to be near a new job and school so no chance of waiting to see what prices do in the medium term.

This could be a spring bounce and it hurts a bit to be buying in a local market that seems to be recovering, but we need a roof over our heads!

Just wondering how the surveyor is going to value it when the land reg prices are published a couple of months in arrears and so they may not be up to speed with the local recovery.

[goldenpeach]

Do let us know. London prices still crashing, which is not happening out of London... For us it would be cheaper to move back to London, which is weird

[conkerbonker]

Hi

Well, the valuation came in at exactly the money we are paying.

Not sure how to interpret that other than to
be grateful that the surveyor doesn't think we are overpaying.

Does anyone think we might have done quite well on the price
given that surveyors are generally a bit on the cautious side with valuations?

TIA

[navyeyelasH]

Is your mortgage with The Abbey?

[1dilemma]

One mans undervaluation is another mans realism!!

House prices dropped recently according to my morning newspaper!

[conkerbonker]

Navy, no it's not with the Abbey.

[willowstar]

we are buying a house in an area where there is a glut of newish houses on the market, but where there is very little else, so the prices for anything older have not dropped at all whereas the newer homes have lost their value. Anyway, our mortgage survey valued the house we are buying at £12K over what we paid for it and we are getting our mortgage with the Abbey.