Help to Buy Equity staircasing based on low RICS valuation question

mrsunnybunny

Hi all! Seeking some advice to see if anyone has any experience getting low RICS valuations to staircase the Help to Buy Equity loan.

Specifically:
- bought house for £500k 4 years ago
- 40% London HtB equity loan
- new and large estate, so other similar properties which have recently been sold offer good price comparisons. Two of the same size and layout properties sold in January for 450k. This suggests I may be able to get a valuation in the 400-450k range, ie a decrease of 50-100k.
- I have a 5 year mortgage with high break fees ending in 2021, so not currently looking to touch this

Let's assume I can get a RICS valuation of 400k, the HtB equity would have gone from 200k to 160k. I have access to enough cash to repay this without touching my mortgage, so a no brainer really to repay the equity recoup some of the losses on the value of the property.

Where I am looking for advice is on the remortgaging I will have to go through next year. Will the bank look at the HtB RICS valuation at all, or is the bank valuation completely separate? In an ideal world, I would like to get a bank valuation next year at the higher end of the range of around 450k, so I can increase the bank mortgage from the current 50% to around 80% and get some of the cash I plan to use for the HtB equity back. I am not reliant on it, so if it doesn't work out that's fine and it's a risk I am willing to take. 

Essentially, this is a play on the low valuations due to Corona with a gamble on a recovery in house prices next year. I was extremely unlucky with timing, having bought an overpriced new built property pre-Brexit. 

bucksbloke

The bank will conduct their own valuation not the RICS valuation. 

eddddy

If you want to remortgage, whichever bank you remortgage with (i.e. your current one or a different one) will almost certainly want to do their own valuation of the flat.

The bank would only take the advice of their own valuer who they have instructed. But the bank's valuer may ask you questions about the property when they visit to help them value it - and one question might be whether you've had any recent valuations.

So you might want to decide how you deal with that kind of question - without being dishonest.