Overview

Reliable valuations play a crucial role in promoting good governance, ensuring transparency in business activities, and restoring trust in the property markets. To achieve this, valuers must adhere to appropriate standards and conduct high-quality valuations. The concept of "valuation quality" is widely referenced in discussions among stakeholders, including regulators, standard setters, valuation firms, policymakers, and researchers. Despite its frequent use, valuation quality remains a complex concept, with no universally accepted definition or framework for analysis. As such, judging valuation quality can be challenging and subjective.

For this reason, the Valuers’ Education and Integrity Foundation (VEIF) has supported a project to develop evidence-based practical Valuation Quality Framework that describes the steps that can be taken to create an environment that supports high quality valuations. The development of the framework is based on insight from interviews with a group of New Zealand-based valuers and clients, including banks, institutional investors, government agencies, and developers.  The articles listed in the useful resources provide a detailed analysis and discussion of the interviews, highlighting the key dimensions that valuers and clients consider when assessing valuation quality. These dimensions have been instrumental in the development of the Valuation Quality Framework.

The framework can be used in multiple circumstances and in various ways. It can be used by individual valuers at any level of seniority in the conduct of a valuation, as a guide to enhance quality. At the firm level, it may be incorporated into training methodology and resources for graduates and emerging professionals to gain a comprehensive understanding of the fundamentals of the valuation profession. More widely, this may be an important consideration in the implementation of additional measures to improve valuation quality.

Although written for valuers, it may be useful for raising the level of awareness among other stakeholders, including users, regarding the essential attributes of a quality valuation. It could be useful for professional valuation organisations in the review and enhancement of professional standards and valuation practices. Within the academia, it can be used to stimulate further research on valuation quality.