Competition concerns for valuers

A lack of competition in the property valuation market will not be good news for consumers, the Property Institute says.

Friday, May 23rd 2014, 12:00AM

by Susan Edmunds

From June 1, ANZ requires that property deals done through mortgage advisers use Property IQ’s Valuation Ordering Service.

A spokesman said: “The panel system – where each valuation job is randomly allocated to one of the valuation firms on PropertyIQ's panel - ensures valuations are independent and accurate. ANZ home loan applicants and customers who have already obtained a valuation from an acceptable valuer will have this accepted provided the valuation meets our criteria.”

ASB requires that all valuations come through the VOS. It has been using the system since 2012.

Property IQ is 40% owned by Quotable Value, and 60% owned by Core Logic. Property IQ says just under 80% of the country’s residential valuers have signed up to the VOS.

When a purchaser needs a valuation, it is requested via the VOS, which allocates the work to a valuer, who then sends the valuation to the bank and its customer.

A Property Institute spokesman said it was hard on valuers who chose not to be part of the VOS.

“Our stance is that it’s a commercial decision to enter or not as they see fit. Now that the banks have made it compulsory [to use the VOS], we think it crosses the line. We don’t think it’s appropriate for valuers to be excluded because they haven’t entered a commercial arrangement.”

He said, irrespective of who the provider was, such a situation was in danger of creating a monopoly in the market. “When there’s a monopoly provider, it’s extremely hard to imagine that it’s going to be good from a consumer perspective."

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