Help to Buy Valuation in East Peckham

A RICS Help to Buy valuation is needed when you repay your equity loan in full, staircase to increase your ownership share, or remortgage the property. Your mortgage lender will also need the valuation to deal with the remortgage application. It has to be carried out by an independent RICS-registered surveyor with no link to any estate agency or mortgage broker. In East Peckham, where the Help to Buy scheme was popular with first-time buyers in Victorian cottages and modern flats, these valuations are common as owners move on from their original purchase.

Help to Buy valuations in East Peckham start from £195 with Homemove, although the price can rise to £850 depending on the property type and size. Larger detached homes with four or more bedrooms usually cost more, because they take longer to inspect and require more research for suitable comparables. Flats in period conversions may also attract extra cost if the surveyor needs to inspect common parts. Priority services with faster turnaround and weekend inspections are available at premium rates of £295 and £245 respectively.

Your RICS Help to Buy valuation report remains valid for three months from the inspection date. If the transaction is not finished within that period, you may be able to request a desktop valuation extension within two weeks of expiry, which gives you a further three months. That extension can be useful if a sale or staircasing is held up by things outside your control, such as chain breakages or mortgage approval delays that are common in the current market. If both periods run out, a fresh full valuation will be needed at additional cost.

We use at least three comparable properties that match yours in type, size, age and location. For East Peckham homes, those comparables will ideally come from within a two-mile radius in the TN12 area, including nearby Paddock Wood and Hadlow where suitable. They should be recent sales, usually within the last six months, and the report has to show how each comparable has been adjusted to reflect your property’s value. Because only around 30 properties sold in East Peckham over the past year, our surveyor may need to look further afield or allow for time if there have been few recent local sales.

Please make sure the property can be accessed, including all internal rooms, the loft space if it is accessible, and any outbuildings such as garages or sheds. It helps to have documents ready, such as your original Help to Buy lease, planning permissions or building regulation approvals for any alterations, and details of flooding history or insurance claims. If you have a Victorian property with original features or a listed barn conversion, any restoration or renovation paperwork will be useful. Our surveyor will appreciate having all of that to hand during the inspection.

If you think the valuation is wrong, you can ask for a review so our surveyor can explain the methodology and comparables used. You can also get a second opinion from another RICS-registered valuer, although that will mean extra cost. Homes England and your mortgage lender will normally require the valuation to be carried out by a RICS surveyor, and major differences between valuations may need further investigation. Your original report sets out the methodology and comparables, which can help you see how the figure was reached. In a village like East Peckham, where sales activity is limited, it is not unusual for opinions on value to differ.

Because East Peckham faces significant flood risk from the Rivers Medway and Bourne, this is weighed carefully in the valuation. Properties in high-risk flood zones may be treated differently by lenders, which can affect both value and your ability to secure a mortgage. Our surveyors record any flood risk factors, including whether the property sits in Flood Zone 2 or 3, and any resilience measures you have added, such as flood barriers, raised electrics or waterproof rendering. If the property was hit by the 2013 floods, that history will be included. Homes with proven flood resilience may be viewed more positively than those without it.

Staircasing means buying extra shares in the property, usually in 10% increments, until you own 100% and can clear the equity loan. In East Peckham’s rising market, the property is revalued so the current market value can be established, and you pay Homes England the equivalent percentage of that figure. For instance, if you own 75% and want to staircase to 80%, you pay 5% of the current market value. With prices having risen sharply, that may be more than you expected, which is why an accurate RICS valuation matters. Our surveyors understand the local market and can give you the figure you need for the staircasing transaction.