"Small market, too many companies," was the headline in the NZZ am Sonntag recently. If you look around in the advertising columns of the electronic media, you can see the new diversity that has emerged: Above all, new brokerage and appraiser portals are coming onto the market almost every week. That does not only make the sales-willing Immobilienbesitzerinnen uncertain, also the classical brokers are attacked partly hard and questioned in their existence. Addressed in the advertising lines above all owner-occupiers, but also advertisement texts such as ?which is worth your multi-family house? Determine market value online for free now", often appear unasked when using Google, Youtube, etc.

Demand increases

"These favorable offers only strengthen the demand for valuation services. Just a few years ago, no one knew the technical term hedonic valuation. Today, this is the epitome of valuation models offered free of charge or at low cost," says Gunnar Gärtner, President of the SVIT Chamber of Valuation Experts. He is also the owner and managing director of COMRE AG, a consulting firm based in Zurich. In his view, these models are well suited for single-family homes, condominiums and, to a certain extent, small apartment buildings. "However, the real estate universe is significantly larger and more complex. Sound analyses are essential in real estate project development. The high-priced real estate market requires both the investor and the appraiser to take a close look in order to still be able to act in an economically competitive manner with maximum utilization of the property," he adds. Institutional real estate assets have grown significantly, which must be validated regularly by an independent valuation expert in accordance with regulatory requirements. As shown not least by the newly created positions at all major valuation houses, the demand for qualified real estate valuations has increased significantly in recent years.

But are these low-cost offers, which deliver an estimate in just a few minutes, still reputable? "The low-priced offers serve their purpose for the provider and serve to establish new customer relationships. It only becomes dubious if a property is advertised for sale solely on the basis of a hedonic valuation, i.e. without studying the documents and without an inspection," Gunnar Gärtner is convinced.

Digital processes required

The new appraisers on the web often argue with digitalized processes, which leads to cost savings. Have traditional real estate appraisers not taken digitization seriously enough? Gunnar Gärtner: "Digitization in the valuation business has long since taken place. The classic valuation models have been replaced by DCF systems. Today, valuation software is database-driven and enables cash flows to be calculated to the day. Real estate market data is already integrated into valuation reports as standard." Only the data interface to the property management companies still leaves something to be desired. But here, too, professionalization has long since taken place among the large property management service providers and valuation houses. "Of course, there are still individual members in our association who prefer to work with paper and have few digitized processes in their offices."

Gärtner experiences the industry and in particular the accredited members of the SVIT Chamber of Valuation Experts as extremely dynamic. However, it should be noted that real estate valuation is an empirical science. Even with a disproportionate amount of market data, the interplay of building legislation, building condition analysis, market research, tenancy law and economics will rarely be replicated in data models. "At the same time, I fully agree with the young PropTechs entrepreneurs that the valuation industry is also challenged to position itself in the new market environment. Gone are the days when a real estate appraiser can hold on to this profession by virtue of office. We therefore rely on ISO certifications and a broad range of further training courses for our SVIT valuation experts," says the valuation expert.

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