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If you’re selling a house you bought through the Help to Buy equity loan scheme you’ll need a Help to Buy valuation. You’ll also need one if you’re ‘staircasing’ or paying off the equity loan in full. We look at how Help to Buy valuations work, how to get the best deal and what to watch out for.
A Help to Buy valuation establishes the value of your property and this is used to work out the equity loan amount you need to repay. If you bought a house through the Help to Buy equity loan scheme you will have borrowed a percentage of the property’s value in the form of an equity loan. And when you pay the equity loan back, you’ll need to pay back this same percentage of the property’s value rather than the original equity loan amount. You will need to get an independent valuation from a RICS surveyor.
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For example, say you bought a house for £200,000 and took out a 20% equity loan of £40,000. If you choose to sell your property without having first repaid your equity loan, then the full amount (minus any redemption payments you may have previously made) will be deducted at the time of sale. This is calculated as a percentage of whichever total sum is highest- either the agreed sale price or the current market value.
So, if you your house is valued at £250,000, when you come to sell it and you sell at this price, you’ll need to repay an equity loan of £50,000 (20% of £250,000).
Help to Buy valuations or Help to Buy surveys must be carried out by a surveyor who is a RICS qualified member. If you don’t do this, you risk the valuation being rejected by the Help to Buy equity loan administrator and needing to commission another, acceptable, valuation at your own expense.
Your Help to Buy surveyor must be:
Find local RICS surveyors to carry out your Help to Buy valuation survey and compare quotes now.
The easiest way to find a RICS registered valuer for your Help to Buy survey is to use our free valuation survey tool to instantly receive quotes from Chartered Surveyors in your local area. Make sure you select a RICS member from the list of quotes you receive.
During your RICS Help to Buy valuation, surveyors will consider factors including:
Your valuation report will include an overview of the property and data on sales history, a list comparables (similar properties nearby) used to determine the home’s value, an assessment of the current housing market in the area and an estimated market value with notes on how the value was determined,.
The report must be created, signed and dated by the certified RICS surveyor who made the survey, on the company’s headed paper and supplied as a PDF file or a digital document that you cannot edit.
You’ll need to pay for a Help to Buy survey. Costs vary but they generally cost from around £200 inc VAT. But it’s important to shop around. Use our free valuation survey tool to instantly receive quotes from Chartered Surveyors in your local area and get your Help to Buy survey today.
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You will need a Help to Buy valuation survey when:
The Help to Buy Equity loan must be repaid after 25 years or at the same time as you sell your home. If you haven’t repaid the equity loan in full, you’ll need to pay it when you sell. You should arrange a Help to Buy valuation after you’ve accepted an offer on your property. Find out more in our guide Selling a house with a help to buy equity loan.
While your loan must be repaid after 25 years you can repay it at any point before then. So if you are able to pay the loan back, and want to do so, you’ll need to get a Help to Buy valuation to get the process started.
You will also need a Help to Buy valuation if you want to ‘staircase’. Staircasing is the process that allows you to partially repay your loan without selling the property. The minimum amount you can staircase at one time is 10% of the total market value of the property at the time you staircase.
If you’ve come to the end of your mortgage deal and want to switch to a new one with the same lender and you don’t want to borrow more, you can do so without having to inform the Help to Buy administrator. But, if you want to borrow more, for example to pay back all or part of your equity loan, you will need a Help to Buy valuation. Read more in our guide How to remortgage your Help to Buy.
Help to Buy valuations are valid for 3 months from the date it is produced. Your Help to Buy valuation must be sent to government administrators within 5 working days of the date it was issued.
You can do this by post: Help to Buy Customer Service team, PO Box 5262, Lancing, BN99 9HE or by email: customerservices@myhelptobuyloan.co.uk.
If the report expires before your property sale completes, you’ll need a ‘desktop valuation’ letter which will extend the original valuation by 3 months.
This letter must be:
If you don’t complete the process in the additional 3 months, you’ll need a new valuation report.
A desktop valuation can be done without the surveyor visiting the property in person, although there are criteria they’ll need to meet, for example the report must be made within 2 weeks of the expiry date of the original valuation report.
The phone number for the Help to Buy customer service team is 0300 1234123. The team is available Monday to Friday, 8am-8pm and Saturday 9am-1pm.
Yes, you’ll need a conveyancing solicitor to act on your behalf with the Help to Buy redemption process. To find out more about the process, read our guide on Selling a house with a Help to Buy equity loan.
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Assuming you’ve followed the process of selling a Help to Buy property and paid the £200 admin fee to repay your equity loan, cleared any arrears or outstanding payments (or agreed a payment plan) and sent your the RICS valuation report, your completed application form and a copy of the Memorandum of Sale from your estate agent, the next step is that you’ll receive a redemption letter.
This redemption letter will confirm:
The repayment amount will include any outstanding interest, fees and arrears.
If your block of flats has certain types of external cladding, you may need a specialist valuation on your property. Find out more about specialist valuations if you have cladding.
You may find Help to Buy equity loan calculators online offering to tell you how much you’ll need to repay but that will only give you a broad estimate. You can do some of the work yourself, starting by working out the value of your property.
But to get an accurate figure you’ll need get a Help to Buy valuation survey and then send it to the Help to Buy administrator who will provide you with an exact figure that need to be repaid.
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If the Help to Buy valuation is higher than the offer you have accepted, firstly you should ask your Help to Buy surveyor to explain their assessment of the property’s value. If the valuation is quite close to the offer you’ve accepted, you may want to get a second opinion from another surveyor in the hope it will be the same as the offer you’ve accepted.
Otherwise, if your buyer won’t increase their offer you may need to find another buyer who is willing to pay the full market value as the Help to Buy administrator can refuse to allow a sale under value so they still get what they think the loan is worth. Or you could pay the difference.
This is the opposite of a down valuation, wihch is when the mortgage surveyor values the property for less than the price the buyer has agreed to pay. Read more in our guide on Down valuations.
The best way to get the best price when you’re looking for a Help to Buy RICS valuation is to shop around. Use our free valuation survey tool to instantly receive quotes from Chartered Surveyors in your local area.
No. You can no longer apply for a Help to Buy: Equity Loan in England. This advice is for people with an existing Help to Buy loan on their property or are buying in Wales, where the scheme has been extended to March 2025. If you want to buy a home with a small deposit, read our guide What will replace Help to Buy?
No, you cannot use a mortgage valuation for this purpose. A mortgage valuation is for the lender’s benefit when you apply for a mortgage to ensure the property is adequate security for the loan. Find out more in our guide Mortgage valuations explained. Add to this the other costs of selling a home – which you can get a full picture of in our guide on What is the cost of selling your home.
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