Mortgage Valuation survey - do they normally value it at what you are paying?

[befuzzled]

that's it really, just curious, all our valuations on the 3 properties we have bought were valued at the price we paid - do they ever value them higher/lower?

Our first place was valued lower, partly because it was overpriced but also they got an out-of-London posh surveyor in who said 'excellent location with park, transport, shops nearby, in good condition, redecorated nicely, but ugh, there's council tenants within 100 yards so that drops the value by 30k'. We then got local surveyor to value who was much more realistic.

Current house they valued at somewhat less as the full structural survey showed up lots of extra problems, so we negotiated to take that into account and got the price reduced to roughly what they said.

at the moment a lot of sales are falling through because the mortgage valuer thinks the price is too high, I think it happens less in a rising market than a falling one.

I think there are two scenarios where the valuation comes in lower:

1. where there is genuinely something wrong with the house eg subsidence, roof problems, etc. Sometimes the mortgage co will still offer the full amount but with a retention until these problems are fixed.

2. where the mortgage co just doesn't want to take the risk of lending the full amount - especially where the buyer has a small deposit/is asking for a large multiple of income/etc. instead of saying "we just don't want to lend you that much" they may use the valuation as an excuse to bring down the amount. If there is a v large deposit they are much less likely to quibble over the valuation.

3. is pure speculation on my part of course but I have heard of this.

We had had a siginificant down valuation as a result as a bad survey which also imposed a retention on the mortgage offer even though we had a large deposit and small LTV. Vendors refused to budge on price so we decided that we didn't love it enough to overlook the £30K difference

Mine have always been valued lower! Not by much - just by a few grand. I don't think I massively over pay and both houses proved a sound investment - just a cautious surveyor in each case I think.

Also they like to give you bit of ammo to negotiate with. One was in a rising market and one was in a flat market so I don't think I can blame the market.

It's so much luck of the draw and the particular surveyor on the day, especially in places like London where it's often hard to come up with an exact comparison due to things like school catchments making a huge difference in price within a few yards.

oh forgot to say - each time we took the hit as we had a big deposit so it didn't affect our mortgage offer.

it's only an issue for the bank is the mortgage is for close to 100% or you are just on the outside cusp of a loan to value ratio. (Ie if you need a loan to value of 50% to get your particular deal, and the valuation tips you into a different category).

If you have a reasonable amount of equity then it's purely up to you what you do with the information.

IF the mortgage - apols.

We were hoping the house we are buying would be down-valued as we think we are paying over the odds, however we are only getting a 45% mortgage and the surveyor valued it at exactly what we are paying.

I think if it is a high loan to value mortgage then surveyors are a bit more careful about ensuring the value is accurate.