Valuer sees soft prices

Press, 13 April 1989, Page 25

Valuer sees soft prices

Wellington reporter Urban property prices remained soft, and would only start to recover with fundamental economic improvement, the newlyelected president of the Valuers Institute, Mr Rodney Jefferies, said. Speaking to "The Press” at the institute’s fiftieth jubilee seminar in Wellington, Mr Jefferies said there were some signs of recovery in parts of the rural property market. “There could be a bottoming out and renewed interest in the property market if Government economic policy could be stabilised and interest rates could come down and stay there,” he said. But in the meantime, commercial land values, particularly in Auckland, remained low if not depressed in certain sectors. Residential values were unlikely to feel much impact from the commercial downturn, since different factors drove those markets, Mr Jefferies said. Any pick-up in urban prosperity appeared more likely to bolster house prices. But falling interest rates and increasing incomes remained the main determining factors for house prices. Mr Jefferies said the valuing profession was now grappling with confusing signals from the Government on its future regulatory environment.

“The Minister in Charge of the Institute, Mr Tapsell, told delegates the Government may tighten controls on valuers, at the same time indicating the likelihood of voluntary membership of the institute.” But Mr Jefferies preferred the prospect of deregulation and voluntary membership because of the incentives they would create to provide better services and attracting members. The institute was now 50 years old, and mature enough to be responsible for its own policing and discipline. Computerisation of the valuation process would help make valuers more accurate, while catching out incompetent or dishonest valuations more quickly, Mr Jefferies said.