The influence of clients on valuations

The literature on appraisal smoothing and valuer behaviour contains frequent references to the “political pressures” faced by valuers. However, the vast majority of these are either unsubstantiated or based on anecdotal evidence or media reports. Recent research focusing on the issue of pressure similarly suffers from either a lack of formal evidence that particular sources of pressure (e.g. client) actually exist or preconceptions concerning the effect of such pressures. This paper reports on the results of a study which seeks to redress these shortcomings by identifying the non‐methodological factors that affect the values reported to, and ultimately accepted by, clients. The study consists of a series of individual in‐depth interviews with senior New Zealand Registered Valuers addressing the topic of “non‐methodological factors affecting reported values to clients”. Our results indicate that the primary factors affecting the degree to which clients influence valuations, are the type of client, the characteristics of valuers and valuation firms, the purpose of a valuation and the information endowments of clients and valuers.