Mortgage valuation £25k below offer: worth paying for second valuation?

[StrawberryElephants]

We just put an offer on a house - over the bloody moon it was accepted. The house is chain free and vacant - we are first time buyers. The property was top end of budget at £350k but we honestly felt like after lots of looking around anyway- we had found a £370k house for an absolute steal.

However, the bank just did their valuation and listed it as £325k - £25k less than we offered. I am stunned. Estate agents are stunned. Bank obviously wont lend us the amount we requested because its not valued high enough.

The valuer said in their report that there wasn't enough evidence of similar properties selling for the same price nearby. It doesnt appear this way to us - but what do we know right!

I can pay £180 to have a second valuation done. The seller wont drop £25k off the asking (its inheritance for teenagers - sad situation, apparently they won't budge). Ive asked the estate agent to tell the sellers what happend and she suggested asking them to pay £90 (half each).

I guess what im actually asking is - any chance the valuer is wrong and have you had experience of having a property valued a second time round and getting a different awnser. Or - maybe it is what it is... Help 😪

I should add that properties in the area selling for £325 are MUCH shittier than what they are claiming this house is worth! As in; smaller, green carpets, mould spots on walls, red walls and purple paintwork type of grot. So I can't believe it - I feel really sad! 😳

Did they do a desktop valuation or actually go to the house?

They actually went to the house but the comment was just about comparable properties in the area

This happened to me a number of years ago. At that time you could appeal with evidence of similar houses being sold in the same area for the correct valuation. There a a certain timescale which you could show the sold properties in which I can’t remember but could be worth checking if this is still an option . Then you can check the sold prices for similar in the area on rightmove zoopla etc and provide them as evidence

Hi , mortgage broker here .

Who is the lender? You can sometimes challenge a down valuation if you can find good comparables locally to support a higher value.

Worth bearing in mind that going to another lender doesn’t always change the outcome as they often use the same valuation companies.
Xx

We were remortgaging at went for a £885k valuation of our house. Came back as £845k. We did go with another lender and the valuation came back as £885k. However, in the space between - about 2 weeks - the similar house on the road had gone under offer for £950k. We pointed it out and valuer was very helpful in calling their estate agent to check the offer. Give evidence if you can.

You've said other houses are grottier but what about the street? Where I live the area/street makes a lot of difference. I've just sold mine which was higher priced than some comparable sized houses but those houses have probably got better kitchen and bathrooms but are up for less. That's because they are in far less desirable streets.

it's great that the sellers won't budge but your house is only worth what people will and can pay for it. An example, house up for sale near me for £650k. Friend offered asking price in October last year. Valuation came in at £630k and seller refused to drop so friend walked away. In December sellers dropped to £630k and it's still sitting there unsold. Another example, neighbour has he'd her house on for £550k, dropped to £525k now at £500k and still not selling. It's been on the market for 3 years on and off whilst she drops the price. She refuses to take any less than £500k. She's wasted 3 years by being so stubborn and can't moving on. Our house a few doors down sold in 4 days for £15k under asking. We passed the loss on to the house we offered on.

Anyway good luck OP.

Been told that we can appeal and a new valuer company will view the property - but the cost is £180. We cant just send comparable properties over to them to view apparently!?

The estate agent has been brilliant - saying they will give the new valuer samples of properties thwy recently sold when they let them in to view it. They recently sold in the area for a the same price or more or less to show that its valued fairly. The house even sold once before we offered on it! The seller pulled out because the persons chain fell apart - so they have had 2 offers for £350 already.

The lender is Santander if that helps any mortgage valuing gurus on here.

The report is so short - all it says is that theres a lack of evidence of similar properties sold - everything else is fine!

The area is known for not having many properties pop up. Its not a big town where 100s of houses ping up every month. Id say in a 1 mile radius from this house you get maybe 2-4 properties worth £300-£360 pop up each month - if that!... so maybe thats a problem? There's not much to compare too?? Am I clutching at straws.

Things have changed substantially in the last couple of weeks.

https://www.theguardian.com/money/2026/mar/11/uk-mortgage-rates-lenders-reprice-loans-middle-east-crisis

Its one of the best roads in the town really. Its opposite an "outstanding" ofsted school, in catchment for another outstanding one, near nice local shopping parade, 5 mins walk from trains, great buses, 1 min walk to local farmlands walking trails. No council/social housing on the street or actually - within about 10 streets distance. Its built up enough to know that none of the area will be sold off to build a shitty new housing estate.

So its not the area IMO. The road has had a few bungalows sell on it in 3 years or so - which have been cheaper - but they are a whole 300-500 square feet smaller, with smaller gardens too (according to rightmoves historic floorplans).

Thanks for this! I am wondering if this is what will happen here! If two valuations put the house at £325k then surely you have to take it!!? Otherwise you waste more time; and the next person who goes for the house finds themselves in the same spot and more wasted months. Especially as its an inheritance property. Every day its sat there the family is paying the council tax, water, electric etc...

Its Santander - we were told by broker that we cant just submit more examples?? Apparently its got to be a whole £180 to get it rechecked.

Its not so much the £180 - its me doubting if im wrong all along about the property?! I guess we just suck it up and pay £180 to see 🤣

I know the rates are going up - but why would that make a difference to house value?! Sorry for being stupid! First time buyers alert 🤣🙈

Just to say if the executors are selling as part of the estate they cant be seen by the beneficiaries to have sold under value ( could cause someone to challenge that the executor didnt do their job properly), also HMRC will also want to check that it sold for the proper price if IHT is involved

Of course the 'value' is somewhat subjective, but just to say thats why the seller may not be able or willing to budge at this point. Ive experienced this and believe me, every other beneficiary wants to stick their boot in about how 'you didnt get enough for the property and let it go too quickly'

Because in times of crisis lenders become more risk averse and so do valuing companies and group think about 'value'.

Because people can afford to borrow less, meaning they will pay less for a house, and the bank needs to protect their investment by only lending what people can comfortably pay back AND be able to get their money back on the house if the mortgage borrower defaults.The lender"s valuation will take account of the bond market situation and price accordingly.

A valuation is very subjective. Are you putting down a very small deposit? If you don’t buy it then the next buyer may well be a cash buyer or somebody putting down a high deposit so they may be happy to pay the price. The building society are only interested in getting their loan money back so if your mortgage is 50% of the value they would still loan. Hope that makes sense.

TBH, unless you really have to buy a house I would hold off, the geopolitical situation has a long way to run and it can only be negative for inflation and interest rates (personally I want higher rates and volatility because it makes getting a return from say a money market fund easier, but I don"t necessarily want this to come from dead schoolchildren in Iran or anywhere else, but reality is what reality is I suppose) How would you feel if a similar house was 250k next year?

With lenders it isn"t "subjective", it is "market sensitive", they have more insight into the market than most individual buyers and sellers (although anyone can look up the Ten Year Yield chart to see where things are heading) A seller adding 100k because they painted a bathroom is subjective, that isn"t market reality.

Are you looking for a 100% mortgage with no deposit.

We are putting down 5% deposit 😪

If the 2nd valuation comes back the same, the seller wont drop the sale price for us to match the value - so we would have to pull out. We wouldnt have a choice.

Is it even worth bothering to get a 2nd valuation done... or just accept defeat.

But every single year house prices seem to go up... we get older... we throw more money away on rent. We aren't 22 year olds just wanting to move out of mum and dad's - we are mid thirties and been saving for years to scrape this deposit - plus enough to have a safety net savings once fees are paid for us to move.

I cant see that house prices will plummet by 30-50% of their current costs right? 😪

If you love the house, I would throw everything at it and try

5% deposit is very low, so Im not surprised they are wobbling.

Can you literally sell a car or something to get more money?