Valuation- The mystery of the elusive figures

Valuation as a profession can be best described as the estimation of the value of something, especially one carried out by a professional Valuer.

For the purposes of this article, I am going to concentrate on the valuation of land. Land being described as the space under the land, the land itself and the airspace over it, the appendages to this land come as a secondary factor. 

Unlike most professions that can easily be understood by the lay man after little explanation and dismissed to him as a leaving to the professionals who actually subscribe to this profession, valuers tend to find themselves like lawyers fighting off every Tom, Dick and Harry who think they can do their job.

Valuation cannot defend itself as a noble profession given its tendency to estimate values. It should be noted that this definition of Valuation can be found on Wikipedia.

Two different valuers can carry out a valuation exercise on the same property taking into consideration the same factors but come to different values, yet this is mathematics and the answers should be equal.

Property valuation in particular seems to be a difficult topic to tackle and yet we continue to accept the values given to us by the valuers and turn a blind eye to the discrepancies, pocket the ‘taxes’ collected and count our economy as growing.

In Uganda in particular valuation has become a popular profession, many universities and other institutions churning out hundreds of valuers every year.

Like understanding crypto currency, valuation has become one of those money-making machines that are not to be questioned but the money taken and everything swept under the table. Try and ask a valuer how they come to their values and you will encounter an abyss only they know how to navigate, whether to stop and when to stop. It’s a trust issue you know! Estimates call our minds to betting and I shy away from this comparison but could we be making guesses as to the values?

What is scary is that this profession evolves daily to take on different spheres of our lives and we find that everything needs a valuation at some point.

This is not a problem and paying these taxes is not a problem, the problem is that these numbers are not tangible, they cannot be harnessed and it’s the seniority of the position held in the profession, the more accurate the value.

In this case the private valuers are then at the mercy of the government valuers when it comes to values of government projects. Thank God for the legal professionals who adequately put a stop to these shenanigans when the cases get to court.

The question still remains: Is this mathematics?  

Elizabeth Ruvwa,Valuation
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