RICS Romania successfully held its first Valuation Conference at the Bucharest Hilton on 23rd November 2011, on the theme of “Adapting to uncertainty in times when perception becomes reality”.

Many of the country’s leading real estate valuation experts attended to take part in a spirited debate on the topics of “Valuation for lending purposes – a tool for financial stability, or crystal ball gazing?”, and “Valuation for financial statements – the perspectives of Auditors, Valuers, Client and their Bankers”.

The strong line-up of speakers included Robert Mayhew FRICS (RICS European Board), Prof Ion Anghel FRICS (Academy of Economics, Bucharest), Antoaneta Nuta (MARSH), Bogdan Cernescu (MD ERSTE Group Immorent Romania), Ioannis Ganos MRICS (Bluehouse) and Sorin Petre(PWC). Radu Boitan MRICS, Chairman of RICS Romania, moderated the conference.

Robert Mayhew opened with an informative summary of the key trends in the occupational and capital markets of Central & Eastern Europe, highlighted issues arising from the latest (7th) edition of the RICS valuation standards ‘RED’ book, and initiatives being pursued by the RICS in Europe to ensure the highest quality of advisory services to Clients, such as the Registered Valuer scheme.

Antoaneta Nuta from MARSH explained the key aspects of professional indemnity insurance policies available to valuers in Romania, and the merits of annual policies or project-by-project cover was debated.

Considerable debate was generated by Ion Anghel’s presentation on the differing perspectives to valuations for bank security and the issues surrounding longer-term sustainable value and market value affected by shorter-term cyclical market trends.

Sorin Petre successfully demystified the Auditors’ very investigative approach to valuations required for financial statements, and many participants contributed to a debate on the tricky issues involved in reconciling valuations for the disparate purposes of financial audit, local taxation and bank lending.

The conference concluded with all parties in agreement on the need for the valuer’s objectivity in undertaking valuations for both bank financing and financial reporting, and the need for clear and open dialogue between the eternal triangle of the stakeholder parties : Client – Bank/Auditor – Valuer.

Finally, several recently qualified Chartered Surveyors were presented with their RICS Diplomas, by the RICS Romania Chairman, Radu Boitan MRICS.

RICS Romania is very grateful to MARSH for their generous sponsorship of this conference.