Charles McDowell (pictured), managing director, specialist mortgages at HTB, said: “Until we have more clarity around the actual performance of property prices post COVID-19, we are restricting our maximum LTV to 60% for any loan which relies on a valuation report which contains material uncertainty.

“We will continue to review our position as we are able to build up our base of up-to-date house price data.”

“Valuation is as much an art as it is a science, but a key element of any valuation is suitable comparable transactions and the truth is that we won’t have comparable transactions for a number of months in some cases.

“Our valuation partners are responding to this by including material uncertainty clauses within their reports. We in turn as a lender are responding to this material uncertainty by reducing our maximum LTV to 60%.

“If and when we begin to see valuation reports without these clauses we will lend up to 75%.”