The number under the number.
Your valuation report may contain three values for the same building. Which one your lender uses decides your loan, and it is never the headline loan to value that tells you. This is where leverage is silently lost on commercial deals.
By Dominic Whitecross, Co-Founder, HyLend. Last reviewed September 2026.
What a restricted marketing period actually is
Market value assumes a property is properly marketed for as long as it reasonably takes, with a willing buyer and a willing seller and no time pressure on either. That is the fair figure, and it is what most people mean when they say what a building is worth.
A 90 day or 180 day value is the same property valued on a special assumption: that the sale has to complete within three or six months. Nothing about the building has changed. What has changed is that the seller can no longer wait for the right buyer, and the valuer prices that constraint.
Lenders care about this because it is a rehearsal of their own worst case. If a facility goes wrong and the lender has to sell the security, it will not have the luxury of an open ended marketing campaign. A restricted marketing period figure is the lender asking, in effect, what would this realistically fetch if we had to move.
The discount is asset specific and there is no reliable rule of thumb. Broadly, a 180 day figure lands 5% to 15% below market value and a 90 day figure 10% to 25% below, but the valuer is weighing saleability, location and how many credible buyers exist for that particular asset. Mainstream residential stock in a liquid market barely moves. A specialised building with a thin buyer pool moves a long way.
What it does to your loan
A commercial investment property. Market value £800,000. The report also gives a 180 day value of £720,000 and a 90 day value of £660,000. Every lender below quotes “up to 65% LTV”.
| Basis the lender applies | Value used | Advance at 65% | Versus market value |
|---|---|---|---|
| Market value | £800,000 | £520,000 | — |
| 180 day value | £720,000 | £468,000 | −£52,000 |
| 90 day value | £660,000 | £429,000 | −£91,000 |
The rate on all three might be within a whisker of each other. The cash is £91,000 apart. If your deal needs £500,000 to work, two of these lenders cannot do it at any price, and you will only find that out after paying for a valuation unless someone establishes the basis first.
Watch for the dual test as well. It is common for a lender to advance the lower of a percentage of purchase price and a percentage of the 180 day value — for example up to 90% of price or 70% of the 180 day figure, whichever is less. Two constraints, and the binding one is rarely the one quoted at you.
Where restricted marketing period values bite hardest
Commercial security. Effectively standard practice. A commercial report will usually carry market value and at least one restricted marketing period figure, and often a vacant possession figure too. Commercial mortgages →
Land. The widest discounts of any asset class, because the buyer pool is smallest and the value depends most heavily on consents that a forced sale cannot wait for. Land bridging →
Sale exits. Where the lender is being repaid by a sale rather than a refinance, it is underwriting the same disposal risk the 90 day figure describes, and it will lean on that figure accordingly.
Below market value purchases. The whole point of a discounted purchase is the gap between price and market value. A lender sizing on a 90 day figure narrows that gap before you start, which is why the basis matters more on these deals than on any other. 100% and below market value bridging →
Specialist and trading assets. Care homes, hotels, holiday parks and similar carry the widest spread of all, because the value as a trading business and the value as an empty building are two genuinely different numbers.
Commercial bases you will meet alongside it
On a commercial report the restricted marketing period figure is only one of several assumptions in play.
- Investment value on a yield. The valuer assesses market rent, deducts operating costs and applies a yield to the net figure. Covenant strength and unexpired lease term move this materially: a short unexpired term on a single let unit is one of the most common causes of a disappointing commercial valuation.
- Vacant possession value. The building empty, with no tenant and no business trading in it. On a purpose built specialist asset this can sit far below the going concern figure, and where a lender sizes on it the deal changes shape entirely.
- Fully equipped operational entity. Trading assets are valued on fair maintainable trade: the profit a reasonably efficient operator could sustain, capitalised. Your actual accounts inform it but do not decide it, so an underperforming business is valued on what it should earn, not what it does.
- Bricks and mortar versus commercial basis on HMOs. A high yielding HMO can value substantially higher on an income basis than as a large house, but lenders apply criteria — typically six or more lettable rooms, Article 4 or sui generis planning, a layout not easily reverted to family use. Meeting them is what unlocks the higher figure. Commercial HMO finance →
How to protect your loan size
You cannot argue a valuer into a higher number. You can do four things that genuinely change the outcome.
- Establish the basis before you instruct. The most valuable question in the process, asked before any fee is paid: is the loan sized on market value, on the 180 day figure, or on the lower of price and a restricted figure?
- Give the valuer the evidence at instruction. Tenancy schedules, trading accounts, planning consents and licences, accurate floor areas, specification and genuinely comparable recent sold evidence. Information supplied up front shapes the report; information supplied afterwards rarely changes it.
- Fix what is fixable first. A lease with eighteen months unexpired values very differently from one regeared to five years. Where timing allows, sorting the tenure before the valuation is worth more than any negotiation after it.
- Compare the cash, not the percentage. A lower headline LTV on market value frequently beats a higher headline LTV on a 90 day figure. The only comparison that means anything is the net advance that reaches your account.
This is the part we do before you spend anything
We test the deal against the whole market on basis of value as well as on rate, so you find out which lenders can actually reach your number before you pay a valuation fee that is not refundable.
90 and 180 Day Valuation FAQs
What is a 90 day valuation?
A 90 day valuation is the market value of a property on the special assumption that it must be sold within a restricted marketing period of three months rather than exposed to the market for as long as it takes. It is not a separate opinion of worth; it is the same asset with a time constraint imposed. Lenders use it to understand what they would recover if they had to sell quickly, and some lenders size the loan against that figure rather than against market value.
How much lower is a 90 or 180 day valuation?
A 180 day figure typically falls 5% to 15% below market value and a 90 day figure 10% to 25% below, but there is no fixed percentage and it is a mistake to plan around one. The valuer assesses saleability for that specific asset: location, depth of the buyer pool, tenure, condition and how specialised the building is. Liquid mainstream stock discounts modestly, while a specialised asset with a handful of plausible buyers can discount far more.
Which lenders lend against the 90 or 180 day value?
It varies by lender and by asset rather than following a neat rule. As a general pattern, mainstream residential bridging is more often sized on market value, while commercial security, land, higher leverage cases and deals with a sale exit are more often sized on a restricted marketing period figure. A number of lenders apply a dual test, advancing the lower of a percentage of purchase price and a percentage of the 180 day value, which is why two apparently similar offers can differ substantially in cash.
Why does my loan not match the LTV I was quoted?
Almost always because the percentage is being applied to a lower figure than you assumed. A quote of 70% sounds identical whether it is 70% of market value or 70% of a 90 day value, but on an £800,000 asset with a £660,000 90 day figure that is £560,000 against £462,000. The useful question on any indicative quote is not the percentage but what value the percentage is applied to, and whether the lender has actually seen a valuation or is assuming one.
How is a commercial property valued differently?
Commercial valuation usually rests on income rather than comparable sales: the valuer assesses market rent, deducts operating costs and applies a yield. Alongside market value you will often see a vacant possession figure, which assumes no tenant and no business trading, and on a trading asset such as a care home or hotel you will see a value as a fully equipped operational entity based on fair maintainable trade. On specialist assets the vacant possession figure can sit far below the going concern figure, and a cautious lender sizing on it changes the deal completely.
Can I do anything to improve the valuation figure?
You cannot influence the valuer's opinion, but you can influence the evidence they work from. Supplying tenancy schedules, trading accounts, planning consents, licences, accurate floor areas, specification details and genuinely comparable recent sold evidence at the point of instruction produces better outcomes than trying to correct a disappointing draft afterwards. On the deal itself the bigger lever is choosing a lender whose basis of value suits the asset, because that decision is worth more than any presentational improvement.