Validate provides property desktop valuation and auditing services to specialist lenders and challenger banks.

B&C spoke with founder of Validate, Stephen Todd (pictured above), about how growth has led to the brand switch-up, as well as changes and challenges he’s seen in over the past 10 years and the opportunities for the company’s future.

With a decade of industry experience under its belt, Validate — which provides property desktop valuation and auditing services to specialist lenders and challenger banks — rebranded to reflect its own growth, as well as it's evolution as a standalone brand.

“What we found over time was VAS Panel has grown so large and there was confusion about the two different businesses essentially,” said Stephen.

“So, we took the decision to take that VAS name away completely from VAS Assurance, and rename it Validate… I think then it paved the way for this to have a fresh new look and brand and move it forward,” he continued.

In the 10 years since the company’s launch, some industry-wide changes have also taken place, according to Stephen — not least in the accessibility and quality of data on properties, which has risen, along with the use of AVMs.

With more solid data available to back up its valuations, Validate can now feel more confident providing them via desktop, according to Stephen.

When it comes to more vanilla properties and those with lower LTVs, desktop valuation can be a good solution, Stephen explained. People have also become more trusting of a fully automated system.

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“I think there has been a perception of desktops being riskier in the past, but the data that's now available to the market in general makes these desktops a lot more accurate,” stated Stephen.

While there have been signs of progress in the market, the past 10 years have had their own set of challenges. Stephen pointed to failures in government infrastructure projects, which have created hurdles to housebuilding.

“The government [has] not been good enough at building enough houses, building infrastructure’’, he said, highlighting the failure to move forward with the northern leg of HS2.

“If you build infrastructure well, it allows you to build more houses, and they've not been able to do that.’’

Investors have also faced issues: “What I've seen is the investors getting penalised in terms of stamp duty and changes in regulations.”

Even in a difficult market for housebuilding, Stephen still saw opportunity for desktop valuations, especially when it came to challenger banks and back-book reviews, with their requirements meaning that commercial properties need to be revalued more frequently than residential properties.

 “I’ll go as far as saying that that is a headache for lenders, because they're having to revalue things that are already on their books,” explained Stephen.

“I think this desktop service provides a really valuable alternative to them because it probably will be cheaper and the turnaround times quicker, so that's something I think in the next five years I expect to see more of.

“The battles we've faced and the things we've had to overcome have been absolutely vast.

“But our specialist and challenger bank industries are brilliant, and full of brilliant people and characters… Everyone wants to do the best job possible to service this growing space.”