Valuers 'chasing house prices downwards' claim

Mmmmmmm having been in the business many years it always makes me chuckle that surveyors/valuers always ask me as a "Mere agent" do you think the price is right,whats your opinion. Half the time they dont really know what things are truly worth. In honesty can anyone value to the nearest £1000 i think not!

• 08 May 2009 06:51 AM

And when will Agents give sellers what they want - the best chance of selling at their ceiling price in the difficult market? i.e. Let them know that if they smarten the place up they will improve their chances of getting the best price. The £300k terrace probablly left the valuer un-impressed,knowing it would be hard to shift at any price- result low valuation. Why not suggest a chat with an independant Staging Consultant and get the seller and the property better prepared for the reality of the market?

• 07 May 2009 00:59 AM

So who calls the floor? and when?

• 06 May 2009 18:52 PM

The answer to all of the above questions is 1999.

When you take into account, all of the variables, Libor, LTV etc, Rising interest rates, reposessions. etc etc. The unavoidable answer is that they wont stop falling until, they revert to 1999 prices. I remember the early 1990's. We were selling one property per week.
Its being whispered around our office. But no-one wants to admit it.

• 06 May 2009 18:34 PM

A large part of the problem is that valuers are presently being sued left right and centre by small time lenders who are agrieved that they have lost out in the crash, and are looking to recover some of the losses by suing the original valuers. In the nineties the big established lenders took the losses on the chin. This time around they are looking to blame someone else - no wonder valuers are twitchy. In the good times the lenders actively encouraged valuers to turn a blind eye if something was overpriced - now they want those same valuers to pay for the banks mis-guided policies of the boom.

• 06 May 2009 16:03 PM

I wish surveyors could agree though. I thought they were professionals! Why is it one is down valuing 20% on a property already reduced by 20% while another only down values a property by 10%. Oh and they always ask the agent for the value of properties.

• 06 May 2009 12:58 PM

Property is worth what people are willing to pay for it. To assume that this rule only applies when prices are on the up is very short sighted.
Strange how the very same system is so unfair to people when it marks them down on their expectations.

• 06 May 2009 11:42 AM

Some companied are protecting themselves, if a valuer, values anything up his company jump on him and ask why who what where when £, so its easier to down value. But you could say the market will drop a bit more, then go up, so value my house as if it is 2015, you cant do that! So....

• 06 May 2009 11:28 AM

Huge deposits and downvaluing also. Talk about the belt and braces which will inevitably halt any recovery and ensure further falls in values even if the economics dictate otherwise. Stupidity in the Banking sector continues to reign.

• 06 May 2009 11:21 AM

And what ? Sounds like common sense to me surveyors down valueing, or am I missing something ?

• 06 May 2009 11:19 AM

Valuers use to do this only a few years back, so we thought anyway. However, they might as well down value now, so that it speeds up the bounce back time rather than hold back the inevitable decrease in prices. The sooner the prices stop decreasing in price, the sooner we can plan a strategy in the sales market.

• 06 May 2009 11:11 AM

2 bed terrace west yorkshire £300,000 i think not. £80k sounds like a good buy all the same. I'll give £85,000 and complete in two weeks.

• 06 May 2009 11:10 AM

Valuers are sinmply doing their jobs and protecting themselves. When the market was booming they were under pressure to accept silly valuations to avoid killing deals and costing the banks mortgage business. Now prices are falling the pressure is in the other direction, and will remain so until prices reach a floor.

I don't remember estate agents whining about valuations being too high during the boom years, even though valuers were having to accept values way in excess of the latest available transaction data.

• 06 May 2009 09:01 AM

The valuers should take into account the significant further falls predicted by the Futures Market. They have bounced a bit recently but still imply significant further falls over the next three years. Real people betting real money is the best indicator of where we are haeding.

• 06 May 2009 08:48 AM

Pre-judging future falls seems to be a sensible method of ensuring sufficient security for mortgages.

The sooner vendors can adapt their expectations to the current market, the sooner the number of transactions can increase.

• 06 May 2009 08:45 AM

For remortgages lenders are already valueing 40% below peak. At the start of the year before BOE official warned Darling "not to stop the property crash",and people predicted "green shoots" , both the Director of Rightmove and Savills said seller needed to reduce their property 25% - 30% fro peak, it hasn't happened. CEBR despite what they have said this week, predicted 2 months ago that even if mortgage approvals doubled property would fall 35%. British Bankers Assoc last week confirmed approvals fell nearly 7% in April back to 2001 levels. CEBR said if the government didn't help the property market prices would fall 40%. Neither the National Assoc of Estate Agents or the CML liked the budget and said there was nothing in it to help the market,indeed the CML said last week "the green shoots have no roots." The money available for lending is down almost 2/3rds this years and now there is talk about mortgage lending "drying up" due to councils etc withdrawing investments from lenders because of Mooodys downgrades on the basis "that the assumption now is 40% falls." Prices now have to fall in line with incomes, during every crash they have fallen to where they were prior to the bubble, so back to 3x's loan to income. Lenders will not be happy to lend good LTV's until they have fallen 40% - 50%. The UK market is not going to bounce back, after 40% falls it will only increase in line with incomes, we went broke allowing property to treble in 3 short years.

• 06 May 2009 08:09 AM

Thats right, my 2 bed terrace in West Yorkshire is worth at least 300k and increasing in value by 2% a month, but some stupid valuer said it was worth 80k. What planet are these people on?

• 06 May 2009 08:06 AM