You can have a property valued, appraised, estimated or surveyed — and they are not the same thing. Here is what each one actually tells you, and which one you need before you sign.
A survey is a technical examination, not a price
A building survey answers one question: what is the physical condition of this building, and what will it cost me? It is carried out by a surveyor who inspects the property in person, measures what can be measured, and reports every defect with photographs, a severity rating and an estimated repair cost. It says nothing about whether the asking price is fair — and everything about whether the building behind that price is sound.
A valuation is the opposite: it answers what the property is worth on the market, usually for a bank, a court, a tax authority or a division of assets. A valuer may never look behind a cupboard. A surveyor lives behind cupboards.
And an estate agent’s appraisal is a sales instrument. It is prepared by someone paid by the seller, whose interest ends when the contract is signed.
What happens during a survey
Before the visit, we read the paperwork: plans, minutes of the owners’ assembly, renewal-fund statements, past damage reports, renovation records. Half of the expensive surprises in a purchase are already written down somewhere; they are simply written in a document nobody reads.
On site, the inspection covers twelve areas — structure, roof, moisture, electrics, plumbing, windows, insulation, walls and cracks, heating and ventilation, floor area, façade and exterior, mould and air quality. Where something looks wrong, we measure it rather than describe it: moisture readings, surface temperatures, humidity, thermal images. We inspect the common parts as well as the apartment, because the roof above you is as much your financial problem as your own ceiling.
Within 24 hours you receive the written report: every finding photographed, rated traffic-light style, and costed, with a summary you can take into a negotiation.
Which survey do you need?
If you are deciding whether to make an offer at all, a Red Flag Check is usually enough: a focused inspection, a traffic-light summary, a clear go or no-go. If you are committing — or negotiating — the full building survey is what gives you the evidence and the numbers. If you have not yet travelled to view the property, a document review can tell you whether the trip is worth taking.
And if the property is a new build, the decisive moment is not the purchase but the handover: the day you sign the acceptance protocol is the day the developer’s defects become yours. That one deserves a surveyor standing next to you.
What a survey cannot do
An honest word on limits. A survey is non-destructive: we do not open walls, lift floors or dismantle installations. We report what can be established by inspection, measurement and documentation — and where something cannot be established without opening up, we say so explicitly rather than guessing. That sentence in a report is not a weakness; it is the difference between an expert opinion and a sales pitch.