Nama valuers puzzle over prices

IT’S A HARD station being a valuer for Nama, according to some of the estate agents who are now charged with establishing just how much property is worth right now.

First of all, though they’re glad to have the business in these lean times, the fees aren’t great.

Then there’s far more paperwork than in the good old days when a valuation could be scribbled on the back of an envelope. There’s also the fact that any valuation carried out is second guessed by a different valuer, with the first one desperately hoping that he’s – and it generally is a “he” – is in the correct ballpark.

There are other problems too, like how to value a property that was once considered a development site, but is now simply a house with a large garden.

Many such properties were sold in the white hot years of 2005 and 2006, when it was assumed that the existing house, be it modern, Edwardian, Victorian or Georgian, would eventually be surrounded by new houses and apartments.

Such was the anxiety of the planners to increase densities in suburbia that they allowed high density developments in the back and side gardens of old houses, even where the original house was listed for preservation.

Many of these proposed redevelopments didn’t happen, and the suburbs now have their fair share of empty properties whose value has shrunk to that of single residential units – in other words, just a house with a decent garden.

Developers who are sitting on this kind of property, and letting the house run down in the meantime, could be in trouble if local authorities assert their right to insist that listed houses be reinstated fully by their owners.

Certainly, neighbours would like to see this happen where a property is quietly being let go to rack and ruin, just because it is no longer worth millions.

For valuers, the challenge is to establish a true value on this kind of property, bearing in mind that the cost of a forced reinstatement could be considerable.

As one such valuer put it, in some cases, the property might have to be valued entirely in negative terms if the council has the right to force it to be rebuilt.

It would be Interesting to hear what local authorities have to say about this.