New IPAV president sets out his stall

A growing need for professional property valuers could be addressed while also creating careers for young people keen to work in the property market. The new president of the Institute of Professional Auctioneers and Valuers (IPAV), Alan Redmond, is encouraging young people to consider the occupation of valuing.

“Unlike the auctioneering profession,” he says, “Valuers require no state licence in Ireland to operate. And property valuers are in short supply.”

New EU legislation coming into Irish law sets out standards required for financial valuations which will drive demand for expertise in this area.

IPAV offers courses in both valuation and real estate at the Institute of Technology, Tallaght, where students are trained in valuation methodologies through EVS, the European Valuation Standards of the Blue Book.

The Blue Book valuation standards are recognised by the Irish Central Bank and the European Central Bank. Redmond stated at the recent annual IPAV conference that a priority for his term of office would be the development of the organisation's Young Professional Network.

Speaking at the same conference in Castleknock Hotel & Country Club, chartered surveyor of Survey Spain, Campbell Ferguson, told a cautionary tale of the unregulated environment in that country. He said throughout the country there were "tens of thousands of illegal properties," where work houses and bedrooms had been added to existing structures.

“They sell to foreigners,” he said. That anyone would want a workhouse bolted on to their Spanish getaway villa confounds The Block. In any case, caveat emptor.