Property valuations

Commercial Property Valuation is assessing the value/worth or price of land and/or buildings, but it can also apply to cables, pipes, access, advertising signs, grazing land, fields of wheat, in fact a valuer with the necessary skills can be called upon to give opinions upon nearly anything.

To become a valuer, the usual route to qualify is to first achieve an Bachelor Honours degree in property this is then followed by a minimum of two years of structured training – known as the ‘Assessment of Professional Competence’, after qualification the valuer is awarded the designation Member of the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (MRICS), not all Chartered Surveyors are valuers and many specialise in other areas such as Building Surveying, Quantity Surveying, Fine Art, Rural/Agriculture to name but a few of the career choices available.

Valuing property usually requires an understanding of the buyers and sellers market and adopting a justifiable but bullish approach to try and achieve the best outcome for whomsoever the valuer is acting for.

The valuer’s role is varied and the job can be provincial e.g. working for a small practice managing corner shops and little offices, through to working for a substantial global investment company assessing vast multi-rented shopping centres, 50 storey office blocks or huge industrial complexes with values totalling billions of pounds sterling.

Within Maidstone council, the role of the valuer is varied and multi-skilled, assessing residential property, industrial units, shops and property occupied by the council for its own use. Every year the council has to account for its property assets and these are valued each year to produce a book value for audit purposes.  The valuer can be called upon by Planning to provide professional expertise in assessing planning submissions, or by other departments who may consider short-term leasing of other property.

Other important parts of the valuer’s role include determining sale values and providing advice in respect of potential development opportunities, appealing commercial rates assessments and realigning leases to maximise value.