Lina Bellman

Authorised property appraisers’ perceptions of commercial property valuation

Purpose - – The purpose of this paper is to describe and analyze the thought patterns of authorized property appraisers (APAs) when valuing commercial properties, and draw conclusions about their collective thinking in terms of content, complexity, and homogeneity. Design/methodology/approach - – A standard set of value-adding factors and bipolar constructs was included in a grid form used for data collection. The repertory grid technique and principal component analysis were used to map and analyze the thought patterns of nearly half of the APAs in Sweden. Findings - – Analysis of the mean grid for all respondents revealed three dimensions in the aggregated APA thought pattern: property object – property market focus, abstract – specific information, and expert – superficial assessments. The aggregated thought pattern was found to be moderately complex, and the APAs demonstrated relatively strong homogeneity in their thought patterns. Practical implications - – Based on the moderate complexity and relatively strong homogeneity in respondent thought patterns, this study discusses the upcoming establishment of a profession. Originality/value - – To the authors’ best knowledge, this is the first study using the repertory grid technique to map and analyze APA thought patterns at an aggregated level.

High-impact information types on market value: property appraisers’ information sources and assessment confidence

Abstract This explanatory paper describes and analyses which types of information professional property appraisers perceive to have the most impact on a commercial property’s estimated market value, which information sources they primarily use, and how reliable they perceive the information sources to be. The paper also investigates whether appraisers’ perceptions differ depending on the location of the business. A sample of 67 authorised property appraisers in Sweden was surveyed using the repertory grid technique as a questionnaire tool (to investigate unconscious behaviour), and non-parametric statistics. Analyses of the data show that four types of information have the greatest impact on estimated market value: the local environment and location are perceived as reliable, and property appraisers have confidence in those assessments; rental income seems problematic, because the property owner is the major source of information; and property appraisers are not confident in assessments based on discount rates. This pattern holds for various geographical locations.