Overvaluations

Overvaluations are not harmless optimism; they are one of the reasons the property market feels so messy. A seller is given a fantasy number, starts mentally spending it, and then the mortgage valuation brings everyone back to earth.

I do think it is becoming more visible in 2026 because the market is more price-sensitive. Buyers are stretched, lenders are cautious, and surveyors need evidence. You cannot just price a house based on vibes and hope affordability catches up.

The damage is real. Overvaluations waste weeks, collapse chains, create down-valuations and force renegotiations after everyone has already paid for searches, surveys and legal work.

People fall for them because the highest valuation feels like the best agent. It is not. Sometimes it is just the best sales pitch.

The fix is boring but powerful: use sold comparables, not dreams. Sellers need evidence, buyers need discipline, and agents need to stop treating overpricing as a way to win instructions.

Overvaluations often become more common when the market slows. Estate agents are competing for fewer instructions and sellers naturally gravitate towards the highest figure. There is a long-standing industry perception that some agents win business with optimistic valuations before expectations are brought back down to reality.

The issue is usually not greed. Homeowners are emotionally invested in their property and naturally want to believe it is worth more. The result is unrealistic expectations, longer selling times and eventual price reductions.

I recently spoke to a client selling a property worth around £1.6m-£1.7m. One agent suggested £2m based on a supposedly similar sale. When checked, the property was not genuinely comparable. He wisely obtained three valuations before deciding on a realistic price.

Overvaluations waste everyone's time. Sellers miss opportunities, buyers become sceptical and transactions can fall apart when surveyors arrive at a very different figure.

Overvaluations are undermining the UK property market and they're on the rise. They're one of the most damaging and underreported problems in the UK property market. As a mortgage broker, the fallout lands on my desk daily. Every overvalued instruction sets a transaction up to fail. A buyer invests emotionally and financially, solicitors are instructed, surveys commissioned, then the lender's independent valuation arrives and tells the truth the agent wouldn't. Deals collapse. Real people bear real costs. For some agents this isn't carelessness, it's strategy. Win the instruction with a flattering number, lock in the sole agency agreement, manage expectations later. What compounds this further is agents pressuring buyers to pay for searches before a mortgage offer even exists. When a qualified valuer subsequently down-values the property and the deal collapses, those costs are simply lost. No refund. No accountability.

There is so much dirt thrown as estate agents and their speculative valuations, but that’s their job, to achieve the best possible price for their vendor. The issues in the main arise when a mortgage valuation is carried out and the surveyor, employed to value the house on behalf of a lender gives it a once over. More than once or twice, these themselves defy logic but in a pessimistic way, very much tempering the purchase price agreed, leading onto tricky negotiations between buyer and vendor. A property is ultimately worth what the market determines, and surveyors like very recent evidence of this, which can be problematic if comparables are not available. Eager estate agents then look like chancers winging it to gain an instruction and many do. I always revert to the need of regulation and proper qualifications, a watered-down surveyor. They don’t need to be as qualified as a surveyor, they need to be a market driven surveyor.