In the case of secured lending, banks and other institutional lenders normally require accurate appraisals of the value of the involved property assets as part of their risk assessments before finalising mortgages. It is in the best interest of both the lender and the borrower to seek professional valuation advice from qualified, trained and professionally accredited valuers to enable proper and fair decision making.

Accounting standards often requires that property assets recorded in the financial statements of corporations are revalued on a regular basis. Formal valuation reports prepared by professional valuers ensure that the valuation advice given complies with the International Accounting Standards, the International Financial Reporting Standards or any equivalent.

A valuation report at hand ensures that a party is well informed before making a decision for acquiring or disposing a property. The report can also be used to facilitate negotiations, and to ultimately declare the values correctly in the deed (attesting transfer of ownership) to avoid being pursued for tax evasion by relevant authorities.

The Land Acquisition Act entails how compulsory acquisition of private real property can be made by the government. While the compulsory acquisition cannot be normally contested, the offered compensation can. Compensation provided following expropriation should normally reflect the expropriated property’s value along with connected damages. We provide professional valuation reports to indicate the compensation which can be demanded by considering and assessing the value of the expropriated property, any loss in value of remaining land (if any) and any other losses. We also appear in courts as expert witness whenever requested.

Most common cases involve us representing our clients against the relevant tax authorities, who claim that our clients underdeclared their property’s values during transactions as a way of tax evasion. For any property transaction, the tax payable is normally based on the declared value of the property. With our expertise being property valuation, we are the best placed to assist our clients to contest the government valuers’ assessments of value.