France has joined the UK and the Netherlands as the third country in Europe to make the RICS Valuer Registration (VR) system compulsory for member-valuers.
France has joined the UK and the Netherlands as the third country in Europe to make the RICS Valuer Registration (VR) system compulsory for member-valuers.
Effective from 30 January 2015, the compulsory implementation of the programme in France was announced at the SIMI property fair in Paris on Thursday, where RICS hosted an event to explain its implications for the French market.
‘In an increasingly global business environment, introducing VR on a mandatory basis in France will provide lenders, asset managers and investors with a clearly identifiable designation for the best regulated and qualified professionals,’ said Lutz von Peter, RICS regulatory manager for EMEA.
Under RICS Valuer Registration, property valuers are monitored and audited to ensure that their valuations are carried out in accordance with international standards. This supervision is aimed at increasing the transparency of valuations, thereby inspiring confidence among financial institutions and investors. RICS-registered valuers who violate the rules are disciplined, and, if they continue to default, may be suspended or even expelled from the organisation.
‘Valuer Registration sends a clear message to clients, governments and banks that RICS members welcome open scrutiny and comparison with industry best practice,’ said Von Peter.
The VR programme is about about trust and about reducing risk,’ he stressed. ‘If you see a Valuer Registration logo you can be sure that the person brandishing it is qualified, adheres to international standards and is monitored because the best rule is not worth anything if no one checks that it is done.’
RICS launched Valuer Registration in the UK on a compulsory basis in 2010 to boost confidence among the general public and raise the credibility of the profession in the wake of the financial crisis. The initiative was subsequently rolled out on a voluntary basis a year later in continental Europe, the Middle East and Africa. Last year, the Netherlands followed the UK in making VR mandatory, while the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Cayman Islands and Hong Kong adopted the programme in early 2014. In Europe, 458 RICS valuers have signed up to VR so far, with the highest concentration in the Netherlands, France and Germany.
France - Europe’s third-largest real estate market after the UK and Germany - has more than 300 RICS members, of whom 89 have already signed up to the VR programme on a voluntary basis.
Listen to what Lutz von Peter and other RICS experts have to say about the RICS Valuer Registration programme in the following video interviews conducted by PropertyEU