Only one route to redemption for valuers | Analysis - print | Property Week

Only one route to redemption for valuers | Analysis - print | Property Week

Their special guest is responsible for tens of billions’ worth of distressed property, and the audience was ready to hang on every word. And then he told them:

“You could have been more vigilant in drawing attention to the enormous systemic risk which was being created. Many of you must have wondered about the sustainability of the ever-escalating upward price spiral … driven by cheap money and by a coterie of bankers and market participants who appeared to lack a basic understanding of the dynamics of a properly functioning market.”

You must have questioned whether a fourfold increase in commercial and residential property prices in the decade after 1997 could have been justified, given its ever-increasing divergence from the trend of economic growth.”

“I expect the valuation professionals among you will claim that your job is to provide the best estimate of the market price of a particular property at a particular point in time. However, there is a widespread external view that your responsibilities are more extensive than that.”