What To Do If Home Buyer Survey Value Is Lower Than Offer?

This article explains what a down valuation is, how a house is valued and what to do if your house is valued at less than your buyer's offer...

Selling a house should be easy – you choose an estate agent, list on the market, find a buyer, accept an offer and move. There’s nothing else that could possibly be added to make the process more confusing, right?

Not quite.

Between accepting an offer and moving, you have the conveyancing process to get through, during which there will be a valuation done on your house by the buyer’s mortgage lender.

The survey comes back and the lender informs you that they value the house you are buying as less than what you are paying for it.

That throws a spanner in the works, and is called being downvalued.

If this is happening to you, do not panic! We’re here to talk you through all things down valuations, including how common they are and how they affect sellers.

We’re also going to talk you through what to do if your house valuation is much less than the offer – you’ll be glad to know you have a few options!

Table of Contents

• What is a down valuation?

• How does a down valuation affect sellers?

• How is a house valued?

• Can you renegotiate a house price after a valuation?

• How common is a down valuation?

• What to do if the valuation is less than the offer?

What is a down valuation?

The Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS), who often undertake valuations on behalf of clients or mortgage companies, dislikes the term "down valuation". They prefer to be more exact with their description, stating, "What is being described is the difference between worth (to the individual buyer/seller) and market value." on their blog about the myth of down valuation.

That aside, essentially, a down valuation is where your buyer’s mortgage surveyor values your property at a lower price than you’ve agreed to sell the property for.

The difference between the two figures (the agreed price and the valuation price) is the down valuation.

For example, if you agreed a sale price of £150,000 and the house repayment surveyor values the house at £130,000, then you have a down valuation of £20,000.

As a down valuation is a result of your buyer’s mortgage lender, you won’t find out about it until you’re a long way into the selling process, which does make things a little trickier - something that can put your property chain at risk!

It can take a fair few weeks for the surveyor to visit the property, then there’s a delay before they write a report, which will also mean more delay until the report is read by the mortgage company and a valuation is then given.

Nothing with mortgage companies ever happens quickly, adding to the frustration.

How does a down valuation affect sellers?

Having a down valuation on your property can mean that the sale falls through, with your buyer no longer wanting to pay over the odds for your property and you unlikely wanting to renegotiate on pricing.

Or, as we’ve just hinted at, instead of losing your buyer, they may come back to you and ask to renegotiate on price. Of course, this will mean you have to take a price hit, but it should hopefully mean your sale will go ahead without further problems.

Here is an example of the effect it had on one Reddit users sale:

Another problem with receiving a down valuation for sellers is because you receive the down valuation so far down the line, if the likely happens and you lose your buyer, any initial potential buyers will probably have moved on and so you will have to start again and find someone new.

How is a house valued?

A mortgage lender will use a valuation process called the International Valuation Standards (IVSC), which will produce what is known as a RICS-compliant mortgage valuation.

RICS is the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors and is a globally recognised professional body that offers qualifications to professionals, showing the standard of individuals with this qualification.

It's worth noting a mortgage valuation is different from a more in-depth home survey conducted by RICs. A full home survey looks into:

• The condition of the property

• The sold price of 3 or more similar properties in the local area

• The current market conditions

• The current levels of supply and demand in the local area

A mortgage valuation does not have as much insight into the property's condition, and they are often done as a desktop inspection, meaning no one will physically visit the property.

On Natwest's website, they even state:

"The valuation that we complete will be for our purposes only. It may not be a physical inspection of the property. You should not rely upon this valuation.

Consider carrying out your own survey to satisfy yourself of the property's value and condition."

The survey and valuation done are completed on behalf of the bank, and not on the buyer or seller’s behalf - most of the time you will not receive a copy of this report and should not rely on it for your own peace of mind.

This also means it won’t cover the same things you would expect in the homebuyer’s searches and shouldn’t be used in place of a full, in-depth structural survey.

The main aim of the valuation is purely to check that the bank isn’t committing to lending too much on a property that isn’t worth it, as this would be too high risk and could lead to the bank being unable to get back the money lent on the property.

Ultimately, any valuation is the best guess of an individual as to what the property is worth and will differ across different people. The main aim is to get a rough idea that the property is worth the agreed sale price; if it's not, they may consider it too risky to lend on.

Can you renegotiate a house price after a valuation?

A buyer may look to renegotiate the purchase price with you if their mortgage survey comes back at a lower value, meaning there’s a down valuation.

For a buyer, this will mean that they will be unable to proceed with the mortgage offer and will therefore be unable to buy the property, unless they can renegotiate a lower price with you.

It puts you in a rather tricky situation.

As a seller, you’re under no legal obligation to renegotiate the house price, but it’s up to you whether it’s in your best interest to take a price cut or to start fresh and try to find another buyer.

There are a few things you need to weigh up and take into consideration.

• Overpriced: It can be hard to look at your property impartially, but if it has been downvalued, then you need to ask yourself if it's genuinely overpriced. This needs careful consideration, because even if you are unwilling to drop your asking price for this particular buyer, you may come up against this issue repeatedly with future buyers, wasting even more of your time.

• Challenge the valuation: You can request that the buyer challenge the valuation, have they asked their lender to reconsider? You may want to further gather comparable property evidence to argue that the lender's valuation is wrong.

• The time: Time is money, an old adage, but still true. It's very likely that if you are unwilling to move on the price, the sale will collapse. This will mean you have to go back on the market and start from scratch, and you need to weigh up if this is something you are willing to do.

If you’re in a chain and are relying on your sale going through to be able to make a purchase, but don’t want to renegotiate and take a price cut, then we have a section coming up on ‘what to do if house valuation is less than offer’, which you can scroll down and have a read of.

How common is a down valuation?

It’s bad news for sellers as down valuations are actually very common.

In 2018, the BBC reported that down valuations were at their highest rate since the financial crisis.

That was quite some time ago, though, and the popularity of down valuation usually varies with the market.

Take 2020 for example, down valuations soared in line with the COVID pandemic. Prices had been rising, but lenders were worried about the future and a potential crash, so valuations reflected that.

Fast forward to 2025, and they appear to be on a rise again, according to this extract from the Mortgage Insider article featuring Graham Lock, an adviser from Lock and Key Mortgages:

The gap has reduced since we last rewrote this article; house prices are also selling 4.5% lower than the asking price, according to research by Zoopla, featured in The Guardian. This means at the moment properties are selling quite close to asking, which could explain an increase in down valuations, as in the past houses have typically gone for 10-15% below asking.

The reason homes are being overvalued when it comes to the asking price is that it’s in the estate agent’s best interest to give you the highest possible valuation for your property.

You're going to choose the estate agent that promises they can sell your house for the most money, right? It's a pretty common estate agent trick.

However, mortgage lenders have to take a more long-term cautious view, making it more likely they will be inclined to go towards undervaluing the property, which is what is causing more down valuations currently.

What to do if the valuation is less than the offer?

So, you’ve received a down valuation on your property, you don’t want to lose your buyer, but you don’t know what the best way is to move forward and need some help.

You’ve come to the right place! Let's assess your options.

Push your buyer to find a new lender

The first option you should consider is trying to put pressure back on your buyer to find another mortgage lender.

You'll need to accept that it might extend the timescales slightly. Different lenders have different criteria and may see the valuation differently.

But they need to be careful with this, some mortgage companies will use the same valuation methods and even companies that they outsource the work to.

The biggest piece of advice we can give here is to try to get the buyer to use a reputable mortgage broker. We wouldn't always recommend them, but in this situation, they know each lender like the back of their hand and they will have come up against this problem before.

A good mortgage broker will save them, and you, a lot of time shopping around and getting different valuations from multiple lenders.

Just be prepared that regardless, it's going to add a fair few weeks onto the sale, and if you go down this route, then that's something you need to account for.