The Intermediary – November 2025 - Flipbook - Page 24
T E C H N O L O GY
In focus
What is holding
back desktop
valuations?
I
22
t was welcome news to see the
Government turn its focus to
improving the homebuying
journey, which could see four
weeks shaved off the process if
proposals go ahead.
While not all of it related to the
new-build market specifically, much
of it rang true – namely, the need for
property professionals to have the
right information and data at the right
time to make swier decisions for
borrowers with greater certainty.
Around the same time as
the Government launched this
consultation, Skipton Building Society
told us it would be initially instructing
desktop valuations for all new-builds
unless exclusions applied.
In the second-hand market, this
news may be nothing to write home
about. But in the new-build sector,
where I’m told by my valuer colleagues
that around 10% of new-build
surveys are desktop, this is certainly
something we’re excited about.
It got me thinking: why aren’t
desktops more widely used in our
market? This would certainly improve
the efficiency of the homebuying
journey. The greater use of desktops
would go some way to speeding up the
process and meeting at least one of the
Government’s objectives.
“Data is the enabler of remote
valuations,” I was told by one leading
firm that carries out desktops for
many of its lenders.
Skipton’s panel valuers obviously
have the right data. Skipton told
Data enabler
Tall orders
To find out, I got on the phone to
several valuers to ask why they’re not
more widely used. I was surprised by
what I discovered.
Aside from the general blockers to
desktop usage – lender risk appetite,
lack of a suitable warranty for the site,
or just not enough comparables – the
inconsistent access to data about a
site, which I thought would be made
available more centrally, was what
struck me the most.
So, inconsistencies in the amount
and quality of property data that
individual surveying firms hold or can
access plays a big part in how many
desktop valuations are carried out
across the new-build market.
But there’s another issue, too – one
which seems astounding to me given,
the digital era we live in.
Without a copy of the UK disclosure
of incentives form in their possession,
even a surveying firm that’s got data
The Intermediary | November 2025
The greater use of
desktops [in the newbuild market] would go
some way to speeding
up the process and
meeting at least one of the
Government’s objectives”
me its motivation for making the
change boiled down to its desire to
drive efficiency benefits – not just for
itself but for brokers, borrowers and
developers.
Not all surveying firms, she said,
have access to the property and
development data that a lender needs
if it is to be comfortable enough to
accept the risk.
HELEN PIERSON
is director at MAB New Homes
bursting out of its ears will not be
permied by the lender to carry out a
desktop val.
If the UK DIF isn’t obtained within
the lender’s service level agreement
(SLA) you can say goodbye to
a desktop.
It was described by one valuer as “an
industry challenge” that’s been around
for at least 20 years.
Volume developers, I’m told, tend
to use an automated process here, but
with small to medium enterprises
(SMEs), it’s a case of waiting for them
to send it by email.
Given that developers can be
closed for two days during the week –
obtaining this inside the lender’s SLA
is a tall order.
Innovation, automation
One of the Government’s objectives for
home buying and selling reform is to
have faster, more reliable transactions
enabled by beer digital tools, a
streamlined process and reduced
repetition.
I completely agree. That means
here in the new-build sector we need
more co-ordination of the collection
and accessibility of central documents
– such as site information sent to
NHBC and the open sharing of data
across valuation firms – so where
appropriate, desktops can be carried
out in much greater volumes.
Innovation is happening and
improvements to automation are
coming, but it needs to be more joined
up. Let’s come together and make
it happen. ●
