“There was a significant shift on the valuation market in the first half of this year. The focus shifted from valuations for guaranteeing bank loans to valuations for financial reports. In the worst case scenario, looking at international markets, I see a drop of at least 20 percent in the market by year-end,” the President of the National Association of Valuators in Romania (ANEVAR), Adrian Vascu, told Business Standard. According to the official, real estate valuations for transactions were proportional to the number of deals signed in this period, which was very low.
“In the first half of the year, the market dropped 25 percent, which could amount to 30 percent by year-end. Real estate property valuations for guaranteeing bank loans, which made up some 60 percent of the market’s net sales last year, fell 60-70 percent in the first six months, with the only valuations made ones for rescheduling loans,” said Adrian Crivii, General Manager of Darian, the main player on the local valuation market.
Darian’s net sales slid 10-15 percent in the first half of 2009. Not even valuations for loans granted as part of the “First Home” government program help boost business, because the traded amounts are low. “Valuations for the “First Home” program are not a life boat, because tariffs are low, so I do not see a rebound in the second half of this year, but rather a worsening,” Crivii added.
Main players on the real estate valuation segment are the valuation departments of large real estate consultancy companies: Colliers, DTZ Echinox, CBRE-Eurisko, BNP Paribas, and Cushman&Wakefield, and on the business valuation segment, the valuation divisions of companies included in the Big4 group.
