Surveyors lower home valuations

Homeowners coming to the end of cheap fixed-rate mortgage deals are having the valuation of their properties reduced by surveyors, who fear the housing slowdown could gather pace.

Sharlene Goff, FT.com - 21 March 2008

Some borrowers are being denied new and cheaper mortgage deals after finding their properties are worth less than they paid for them two years ago.

This comes as a growing number of mortgage providers restrict loans to customers outside certain areas or cap the maximum amounts homeowners can borrow at £350,000 as the credit squeeze intensifies.

Paul Welch, managing director of Clegg Gifford Private Clients, a mortgage broker, said borrowers were increasingly being locked into expensive rates with their existing lender as they were unable to remortgage after their initial cheap-rate deal expired - full article