Ask your lender what it will accept before you pay anyone.
If a bank valuation has come back lower than you expected — blocking a refinance, or keeping your loan-to-value ratio above the threshold at which lenders’ mortgage insurance can be removed — an independent valuation can be useful supporting evidence. But be clear on one point first: no lender is obliged to accept a valuation it did not instruct. Some will consider one as part of a review; some will only accept a report from a valuer on their own panel; some will simply reorder their own. Ask yours which it is before you spend anything.
Usually not error — a different question, asked conservatively.
A lender’s valuation is instructed by the lender, for the lender, to assess the property as security for a loan. That framing produces a systematically more conservative figure than a valuation of market value for your own purposes: the lender is sizing downside risk, not establishing what a willing buyer would pay after proper marketing.
Three other things commonly depress the figure. The valuation may have been a desktop or kerbside assessment rather than a full internal inspection, in which case recent renovation, fit-out and condition simply are not in it. The valuer may not have had access to the sales evidence you have — particularly recent off-market or unsettled comparables. And you are usually not the client, so nobody explained the property to the person assessing it.
None of that makes the lender’s valuer wrong. It does mean an independent valuation based on a full inspection, with the comparable evidence set out and analysed, is answering a different and better-informed question.
The threshold is the lender’s, and so is the policy.
Lenders’ mortgage insurance is generally required where the loan-to-value ratio exceeds a lender-set threshold, commonly 80 per cent. As the loan is paid down and the property appreciates, the LVR falls — and at some point the insurance may no longer be required, or the loan may reprice to a lower-LVR rate.
What is not standard is how each lender handles it. Whether LMI already paid can be refunded or is simply sunk, whether a revaluation is required and who may perform it, whether the change happens automatically or only on request, and whether repricing is available at all — all of this is lender policy and product specific. It is not something we can tell you, and it is not something a broker’s general answer settles either.
So the sequence matters: ask your lender exactly what evidence it requires and from whom, then instruct accordingly. Paying for a report your lender will not look at is the most avoidable outcome in this whole exercise.
Bank valuation vs independent valuationWe are not here to produce a number you want.
We will inspect properly and show the evidence. A full internal inspection, measured and photographed, with the comparable sales analysed and the assumptions stated. If your property genuinely supports a higher figure than the lender’s assessment, the report will demonstrate why in a form a credit team can read.
We will not value to a target. If you tell us the number you need, we will note it and then assess the property on the evidence. A report written to a brief is worthless to a lender and a professional risk to the valuer signing it — and lenders recognise one immediately.
We will tell you when the lender’s figure looks about right. Sometimes it does, and the honest answer is that a revaluation will not help you. You will get that answer in the first conversation, before you are invoiced for anything.
Four questions, answered plainly.
Will my bank accept an independent valuation?
It is entirely a matter of lender policy, and it varies. Some lenders will consider an independent report as part of a review; some accept reports only from valuers on their own panel; some will simply order a fresh valuation of their own. No lender is obliged to accept a valuation it did not instruct. Ask your lender or broker exactly what it requires, and from whom, before paying for a report.
Can I get LMI removed if my property has gone up in value?
Possibly, but the rules are set by your lender and the applicable policy rather than by the valuation. Whether a lower loan-to-value ratio removes the requirement, whether any premium already paid can be refunded, whether a revaluation is needed and who may perform it, and whether the loan can be repriced are all lender and product specific. Establish your lender’s position first; the valuation is the second step, not the first.
Why was the bank valuation so much lower than the agent appraisals?
Because they answer different questions. A bank valuation assesses the property as security for a loan and is conservative by design; an agent appraisal is an opinion of likely selling price prepared to win or service a listing, and tends toward the optimistic end. The bank valuation may also have been a desktop or kerbside assessment, in which case any recent renovation and the property’s actual condition were never seen.
Can you value it at the figure I need?
No. We will assess the property on the evidence and tell you what it supports, which may be above, at, or below the lender’s figure. A report written to a target is worthless to a credit team — they see them regularly — and is a professional risk to the valuer who signs it. If the evidence does not support your figure, knowing that now is more useful than paying to find out later.
Where this connects to the rest of the file.
Bank valuation vs independent valuation
Who instructs each, who can rely on it, and which authorities accept it.
An independent figure for your own decision
Where the purpose is your decision rather than a third party’s requirement.
What sets the fee
Property type, location and complexity — never the figure you are hoping for.
What happens, and when
Four stages from enquiry to signed report.