According to figures released by the National Association of Estate Agents, some of the UK’s leading mortgage lenders are undervaluing properties by at least 10% - a cut that is having a detrimental affect upon housing sales.

Speaking on these undervaluing, Assumpta Breslin for Principle First Financial Services explained that the reason for these sharp devaluations was because lenders are treating property as a risk assessment.

So instead of valuing properties at their current retail prices, Valuers are purposefully being instructed to devalue properties as a pre-emptive measure to ensure they are not caught out by further property price falls.

Yet whilst these devaluations may be helping mortgage lenders to save on money and protect their finances, these devaluations are leaving homeowners seeking remortgages with little flexibility.

In many cases, a lot of remortgages are not even getting past the valuation stage due to the 10%-20% cuts being implemented by banks.

And this is a stark difference to the figures homeowners could receive 6 to 12 months ago, especially as the Council of Mortgage Lenders are still claiming that the individuals they work with are giving accurate valuations.

With such rapid devaluations being implemented on what ‘might happen’ and not on what has actually happened, remortgaging is becoming even harder.

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