
Sellers are routinely surprised that a bank valuation lands below their asking price. It is not a comment on the property. A valuer is answering a different question from the one the market answers.
The question being asked
Not "what will someone pay" but "what could this be sold for if the bank had to sell it". That is a distress-adjusted number by construction, and it will usually sit below an open-market price.
The four inputs that actually move it
Comparable registered sales. Registered transactions in the same pocket, not asking prices on portals. This is the single biggest input.
Land value. In hill towns especially, the land carries the value and the structure depreciates against it.
Legal position. Any defect in title, approval or approach reduces the number or stops the report.
Age and condition of the structure — which is where finish quality enters, and it enters last.
What sellers can do
Very little about the number, and quite a lot about the file. A clean set of papers, a documented approach road and evidence of registered comparables in the pocket will move a valuation more than any amount of new tiling.
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