Lenders and surveyors are downvaluing new homes by up to £20,000 throwing transactions into disarray and denting housebuilders’ hopes of improving sales. Valuers are giving little or no new build premium, pricing new homes against the second hand market. “New build is being valued in the same way as any other build,” said Georgina Newcombe, sales director of William Davis. “For example, a valuer is taking the average price of a four-bedroom property – the average of all these properties in the area – and valuing new build against that. Our figures are then changed.” Andrew Mullin, md of Yuill Homes, said the housebuilder’s properties were being compared to 60- year old houses in a “fire situation.” <br> <br> “We complain to the surveyor but they just say they’re doing it for the lender, who clearly does not want to lend, but is getting around it by downvaluing,” he says. “But if I decide not to accept the valuation, the customer doesn’t get the mortgage.” David Dolby of the Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) commented that professional institutions were working to rectify the problem of second hand valuations. But he added: “If a lender asks a valuer to consider …