FIG Commission 9 - Valuation and the Management of Real Estate

About Valuation

Understanding Valuation

Valuation covers a wide range of assets classes and purposes. A valuation may be required to initiate a loan on a single residential home or for a complex infrastructure project that crosses international boards or possibly the estimate of value of a transport vehicle (lorry/bus/car) or a Rembrandt painting. All will require valuation for a variety of purposes from loan security, insurance, regulatory and financial reporting. It’s a great and exciting job being a valuer! Of course, you need specialist skills for the particular area of valuation work you are undertaking but the opportunities are unimaginable.

Valuation is vitally important

The critical role of valuation in the operation of markets tends to get overlooked. Valuers provide expert information to the market that allows others to make decisions based on that advice, the better the valuation advice the greater the potential for a better decision to be made in allocating this world scare resources. To be effective the valuation profession must be trusted by all parties from the public through market participants to governments and regulators.

Maintaining and developing trust in Valuation

Consistency, objectivity and transparency are fundamental to building and sustaining public confidence and trust in valuation. In turn their achievement depends crucially on valuation providers possessing and deploying the appropriate skills, knowledge, experience and ethical behaviour, both to form sound judgments and to report opinions of
value clearly and unambiguously to clients and other valuation users in accordance with globally recognised norms.
 
As the requirements of governments and regulators progressively increase and the expectations of valuation users continue to grow, global standards for valuation have continued to evolve and now take three different but closely interrelated forms:

• Professional standard – centred on ethics and conduct, underpinned by knowledge and competence
• Technical standards – centred on common definitions and conventions,
  underpinned by consistent application through recognised approaches
• Performance or delivery standards – centred on rigour in analysis and objectivity of
  judgment, backed by appropriate documentation and clarity when reporting.

Role of FIG Commission 9

FIG Commission 9 focuses on Valuation and plays a key role in collecting, debating and disseminating best practice in Valuation. It achieves this by providing a forum to explore challenges that may not fit the normal and opportunities to see how new technology and working practices can influence the efficiency and professionalism of valuers in a wide range of circumstances and geographical locations in every corner of the world.