Warning over ‘down valuations’

The property market will be hit by a wave of "down valuations" after a year of surging house prices, experts have warned. As a result, homebuyers may need to find thousands of pounds more in cash or risk losing their new home, while sellers face the prospect of deals collapsing. Mortgage brokers have reported a rise in down valuations, which occur when a surveyor, working on behalf of a bank or building society, values a property below the price agreed between the seller and buyer. The rise of bidding wars, thanks to exceptionally high demand and record low levels of property available to buy, has pushed up agreed sale prices. Scott Taylor-Barr of Carl Summers Financial Services, a mortgage broker, said buyers engaged in bidding wars had pushed prices up to a level that "simply can't be justified" by independent valuers. 

The Sunday Telegraph (08/08/2021)