Faced with the challenge of conducting physical valuations of properties during the COVID-19 crisis, Swansea Building Society is now allowing “drive-by valuations” by surveyors on properties where the mortgage has a loan-to-value ratio of 60 percent or less (excluding self-build and renovation mortgages).
While these cases will still require a physical valuation at a later date, this will allow for cases to proceed to offer stage where an initial satisfactory valuation report is received pending a satisfactory physical valuation report being done prior to completion.
All cases with a loan-to-value of above 60 percent will still require a physical valuation.
The Building Society, which has branches in Swansea, Mumbles, Carmarthen and Cowbridge, said that it hopes the new procedure will allow the property market to continue ticking over despite the crisis.
Alun Williams, Chief Executive of Swansea Building Society, said: “In these unprecedented times, we are constantly seeking new solutions to some of the difficulties our customers face. We believe this is a good solution to the challenge of surveyors not being able to access properties physically and it should allow the property market to continue to operate in some form despite the lockdown in the UK.”
