The chartered surveyor has introduced different approaches — in conjunction with Property Risk Inspection Ltd — to remotely value a property, providing 80% coverage of all properties in England.

The first option is a traditional desktop valuation by a RICS-registered valuer.
 
This includes ordnance survey map validation, general insurance qualification, flood risk assessment, subsidence risk, and collation of online datasets to establish the market valuation.

Where there is insufficient data to rely on the desktop valuation, the vendor can take geotagged time-restricted photos of the key property components and send them to the surveyor to strengthen the remote valuation using a property risk inspection application.

Arnold & Baldwin can also send a property risk data gatherer to take additional external photos and measurements, providing street views and assessment of land and outbuildings for more unusual properties.

•   Masthaven launches new broker portal offering instant DIPs for bridging
•   Property market reopens but 'the great unknown is how cautious surveyors will be with their valuations'
•   Arnold & Baldwin launches CPD seminar series for brokers

In addition, the firm can arrange a physical internal inspection at a later date to validate the original valuation, where lenders require this as part of their funding lines.

Joe Arnold, managing director at Arnold & Baldwin (pictured above), said: “Physical property inspections are still possible in some situations, and RICS will soon be announcing guidelines to facilitate a safe way for more inspections to be carried out more frequently.

“Realistically, however, remote valuations are going to be an integral part of the market for quite some time, and so we have introduced a menu of options for lenders that addresses some of the limitations of remotely valuing a property.

“Lots of feedback suggests that properties fail a traditional desktop valuation because there isn’t enough data, and so we have identified ways that use technology, creativity, and expertise, to provide the extra information that’s required.”