VAS Audit has launched Valuation Desktop+ for lenders who require the speed and flexibility of an Automated Valuation Model (AVM) delivered by in-house valuation professionals.

With a commitment to turnaround all reports within 48 hours, Valuation Desktop+ has been designed to work with standard mortgageable residential property below £2m in London and £1m in the rest of the country, as well as semi-commercial and commercial properties.

The service takes all aspects expected of an AVM and includes explanations to all key factors plus conclusion and recommendations. It provides clients with a land registry mapped site plan to make sure the entire boundary has been taken into consideration within the valuation.

It also meets lenders’ requirements for loan book reviews if a property falls outside standard criteria, and post-funding management where there is a need to understand current values to support discussions with a client.

Valuation Desktop+ joins live and retrospective Valuation Auditing, Project Monitoring Audits and Loan Book Monitoring as VAS Audit’s core service areas.

Daniel Owen-Parr (pictured), managing director of VAS Audit, said: “Many lenders are reticent to use AVMs on residential properties at this moment because while automated systems are improving many properties are not vanilla in nature. There is also no option for semi-commercial and commercial properties.

“As such our new Valuation Desktop+ service has been developed to provide a speedy, flexible, cost-effective solution, led in-house by one of our highly-experienced auditors with many years of valuations experience, to provide a valuable valuation tool for lenders and brokers across multiple property types.

“We can review all aspects of a case, so not only will our service cover the basics of a desktop opinion of value, but also it creates the capacity and foresight to highlight any other issues which have to be considered as part of a loan security decision, all delivered through our set report templates.”