I recently read some research from Compare My Move which said only 45% of homeowners in the UK have instructed an independent surveyor. While this figure might be across all their property purchases, I’d say that on a case-by-case basis - for individual transactions - it’s actually closer to 10-20%.
It’s an ongoing problem in the world of surveying and perhaps something we also need to work on in the wider housing and mortgage industry. It’s a strange situation - most of us wouldn’t dream of buying a second-hand car, for example, without getting someone to look under the bonnet or carry out some background checks, yet people regularly spend hundreds of thousands of pounds on a house without securing a proper professional survey.
What’s putting people off?
If we start with the most obvious reason - cost. Whether someone’s a cash buyer, buy-to-let investor, or buying a new home, there’s often a perception that surveys are an unnecessary extra expense. First-time buyers have also usually stretched their finances by this point, having scraped together the deposit and legal fees.
Another big reason alongside this is the common assumption that if the mortgage lender is happy to lend on the property, all must be OK. I do think there is perhaps an argument to say that as an industry, we need to make it much clearer that this isn’t necessarily the case.
The lender’s valuation is merely them checking they can recoup their money if the buyer defaults on their mortgage. It’s not designed to tell buyers whether they’re making a good purchase or warn them about thousands of pounds worth of unexpected repairs they might face. It’s certainly not a detailed assessment of potential problems with the property.
Despite this, some people mistakenly think the lender’s valuation is some kind of safety net. While others assume they’re getting a proper survey, because they don’t fully understand the difference between a valuation and a survey.
A third reason I think is psychological. Once people have found their dream house, they don’t necessarily want a surveyor pointing out everything that’s wrong with it. If someone’s been searching for months and finally found the perfect place, sometimes ignorance feels easier than hearing about potential problems. There also might be a worry that it could cause delays.
Why it could backfire
In an ideal world, instructing a professional RICS survey would be as common as visiting a broker or solicitor. Yet the reality is most people buying a house are doing so without really understanding the condition of the property they’re purchasing, which can cause all sorts of problems.
The Compare My Move research also found that a third of those who did commission a survey said they’d been able to knock an average of £6,400 off the asking price based on the survey’s findings. Some of the most common problems they’d uncovered were roof issues, electrical problems, damp, insulation issues, structural movement, subsidence, woodworm, drainage problems and Japanese knotweed.
Some of these aren’t minor cosmetic problems, they’re potentially expensive to fix and I’m sure most buyers would rather know about them beforehand.
While a survey might cost between £400-£1,500 depending on the type and property size, it could potentially save buyers much more than that down the road. At the very least, it means going into the purchase with eyes open about what needs doing.
There are three main options when it comes to a survey: a Condition Report (the most basic), a HomeBuyer Report (the middle ground), or a Building Survey (the most comprehensive), with each one more detailed than the last.
Where this leaves us
As mentioned, the low uptake of surveys isn’t anything new, but change could be coming soon.
The Home Buying and Selling Group (HSBG) and the Open Property Data Association (OPDA) are working to develop a digital property pack, with the potential for an upfront survey as part of that. This would be similar to the Scottish system, where sellers commission surveys before marketing their properties.
Such an approach would mean the cost barrier disappears for buyers since it would be the seller who pays for the survey.
While we’re still some way from implementing this across England and Wales, it represents the most realistic path to significantly increasing survey uptake. Until then, the responsibility remains with individual buyers to decide whether the upfront cost is worth the potential savings and peace of mind - and with us as an industry to keep spreading awareness of the risks.
Given the average house price in England is around £300,000, spending 0.3% of the purchase price to properly understand what you’re buying doesn’t seem like a bad idea.
