Expounding the Valuation Matrix In a Liquidity Crunch Economy
On the 27th of March 2015, the Real Estate Institute of Zimbabwe members and other real estate market players converged at The Seminar was held under the theme “EXPOUNDING THE VALUATION MATRIX IN A LIQUIDITY CRUNCH ECONOMY”. The theme was derived and motivated by the rising challenges that the market is facing in carrying out property valuations in the wake of liquidity crisis which is looming in the country.
On the day ,speaker after speaker emphasized on the need to put our minds to task and rigorously think on the need to revamp the modus operandi of carrying out valuations in such a complex setup exacerbated by the liquidity crunch affecting the whole country.
The Vice President of the Institute ,Mr. Siza Masuku welcomed all guests and speakers at the onset of the Seminar and he pledged the allegiance of the Institute in maintaining quality standards in the Industry and real estate education in his opening remarks. He however, acknowledged lack of data in the industry to support decision and policy making and called for the market players to have their contribution in making sure that an establishment becomes effective to support facts with figures. During his welcoming he also lamented on the “huge significance and contribution which real estate made to the economy”
Next on the podium was Mr. F Nyambiri who is the Managing Director of Pearl Properties. He explained in detail the standards and professional competencies required in the process of valuation and left it upon the attendees to go deeper into the subject and understand more of the concepts for they are more critical in delivering quality service to the clients. Valuation standards help in making sure that valuers produce high quality work, Mr. Nyambiri reiterated.
Valuation standards are essential in real estate practice to maintain uniformity and conformity which are also essential elements to safeguard the integrity of the whole industry. Mr Nyambiri also challenged valuation practitioners to keep on updating their skills and reminded them that competency can expire, drawing laughter from the attendees. His message was in line with the Continued Professional Development policy which the Institute has implemented. Along the same message, Mr. M Mpofu gave his own presentation in which he stressed on the presence of high level uncertainties faced by valuers in the current environment. He later on encouraged the members of the Institute to contribute to the efforts of establishing a central database with the record of property sales and their features and elaborated the essentiality of such an establishment in the long run.
The next presentation was by Mr. Mike Juru which centred on corporate governance, the liquidity crunch and the process of valuation in the confines of international standards and ethics. He went on to note the serious challenges that the liquidity crunch has poised on obtaining corporate governance issues when carrying out valuations. Real estate valuation is such a significant quota of every companies operations and it has to be treated as such. With reference to balance sheets of selected companies Mr. Juru managed to highlight how much influence valuers have on each companies valuations and he reinforced the figures by his echoes that valuers control the market.
Detective Mleya who presented a topic on detection of fraud in the real estate sector weighed in by reminding the attendees with a toast of humour that there might be fraud culprits in attendance. He acknowledged there are a lot of cases of fraud that from have emanated from the real estate sector. According to Detective Mleya ,fraud is not new, it is an old profession, he bellowed citing the biblical case of Ananias and Saphira. Fraud is crime committed through falsehood and misrepresentation. He then went on to give some examples of how fraud can be committed in real estate. Mr. Mleya also called for an anti-fraud strategy within the real estate sector in order to adequately deal with the arising cases.
A presentation made by the RBZ touched on the plans to make sure that all real estate agents make an appointment of Money Laundering Reporting Officer (MLRO), carry out Customer
Due Diligence & Know Your Customer Principles (CDD/KYC) and help with the Identification & Submission of Suspicious Transactions to tackle money laundering issues.
In his presentation on sustainable practices in real estate and construction, Mr. K Chitiva from the Green Building Council made an assertion that sustainability practices leads to profitability
and encouraged real estate players to consider green concepts in property development. He challenged real estate players to consider the environment first in all their practice.
