Valuers defend themselves against broker attacks

Mark Robins, Adelaide director of valuations firm LMW Hegney, said valuers usually expect to price a property within 10 per cent of another colleague's assessment.

"There are various methods and approaches which we have to use as an industry, but it's ultimately subjective and it's definitely not an exact science," Mr Robins told The Adviser.

"We're subject to fairly strict time constraints from the lenders and that does have an impact on the quality of the report to an extent."

Mr Robins said although there are some bad valuers out there, broker criticism is often unfair.

"Their incentive is to try to get a deal across the line and a valuer is just another hurdle in that process so I'm not surprised that we cop some flak from brokers," Mr Robins said.

"Real estate agents, in order to get a listing, can over-inflate the expectations of the vendor and try to condition that back to the market, whereas the valuer is an independent person who takes an unbiased approach," he said.

According to a recent poll on The Adviser's website, 52.7 per cent of respondents said the valuations their clients receive are usually too low.

George Boulougouris, managing director of valuations firm MVS, said it is wrong to claim that valuers regularly under-price properties.

Mr Boulougouris said some brokers have a tendency to remember the odd valuation problem rather than the overwhelming majority of deals that flowed through smoothly.

He also said that the stronger market over the past two years has helped promote better relations between banks, brokers and valuers.

"At the moment the market is good, in homogenous areas there are plenty of sales, so the values are standing up," he said

The debate about valuations has prompted the FBAA to announce that it will ask APRA to investigate how valuations are calculated.

[Related: Sydney and Melbourne property prices set to fall]