NatWest application returned low Valuation, pushed to higher LVT

N8tey

Greetings!
We applied for a NatWest 5yr fixed rate advertised at 3.94% this week. Home valued at £622K on Zoopla (£605K by current lender Halifax) but NatWest came back with £575K. This would push us above the 75% LVT limit for this product (which has been pulled from the market in the last 2 days). We are now being offered 4.44% for 5yr fix which is obvs a big jump in price. 

If we put in approx £10K cash savings we could stay at 75% LVT and grab the 3.94% rate we applied for and locked in. It hurts to use such a large chunk of our rainy-day cash just because of a lowball valuation (done online too)…

Would other lenders potentially value higher than this NatWest number? Bearing in mind the Zoopla/Halifax valuations… Considering another application now to either Santander, Clydesdale, or Coventry. 

Thanks in advance for any insight. 

housebuyer143

You can request a physical valuation from NatWest if you are unhappy with the desktop valuation.
If you change lender you need to ensure they don't use the same surveying firm as many panel them out to the same surveying companies. 

smipsy

If you genuinely believe you've been lowballed and the property is worth more, request a physical valuation. Be warned, you may not get a result you would want, because the valuator may not agree with your opinion of the property.

Otherwise play it safe and use your savings to stay within the same LTV band.

RelievedSheff

You can ignore the Zoopla valuation. They are wildly inaccurate.

Lenders valuations are always on the conservative side. 

You have the money set aside, just use it to stay under the 75% LTV bracket. There is no guarantee that a physical valuation will result in any better valuation. It could even go the other way.

mi-key

What is the difference in monthly payments between the two deals? 0.5% difference in the lending rate isn't that much, so it may be better to keep the £10K in savings ( and get some interest on it to offset the difference) 

N8tey

mi-key said:

What is the difference in monthly payments between the two deals? 0.5% difference in the lending rate isn't that much, so it may be better to keep the £10K in savings ( and get some interest on it to offset the difference) 

Over the 5yr fixed period the  0.5% difference amounts to £11,400. (It’s a fairly large mortgage balance :0 )

Definitely wouldn’t take the 4.44% offer from NatWest though. We could re-fix for 5yrs with our current lender (Halifax) at 4.15% and as previously said, their own valuation keeps us below 75% LVT. This is our back-up option. 

Thanks all for the input. Am thinking I’ll put the savings in to achieve the lowest available rate from NatWest.