THE CHALLENGES OF RATING VALUATION IN NIGERIA (CASE STUDY OF LAGOS STATE)

INTRODUCTION
1.1 Background to the Study
It was in 1987, in the wake of some well publicized research works by actuaries Hager and Lord that Drivers Jonas first sponsored Investment Property Databank (IPD) to carry out detailed research into valuation accuracy in the United Kingdom. The Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS), as the valuers’ professional body, later took over the role of sponsor. In doing so, they were adopting one of the principal recommendations of Sir Bryan Carlsberg’s Working Party on valuation practices.
In 1985, Udo-Akagha, one of the leading estate surveyors and valuers in Nigeria, while writing a foreword to “Guidance Notes on Property Valuation” noted that;
“there ought to be no reason why two or more valuers valuing the same interest in a property for the same purpose and at the same time should not arrive at the same or similar results if they make use of the same data and follow the same valuation approach”.
In the same vein, in 1998, an editorial on page 2 on “property valuation and the credibility problems” in The Estate Surveyor and Valuer, the professional Journal of the Nigerian Institution of Estate Surveyors and Valuers stated inter alia that
“the valuation process has been the focus of recent debate and controversy both within and outside the profession as cases of two or more valuers giving different capital values with wide margins of variation for the same property abound”.

Comments of this nature have led many to ask whether estate surveyors and valuers are interpreters or creators of value. From the above statements, it is evident that the twin problems of inaccuracy and inconsistency (variance) in the valuation practice exist in Nigeria. Even in developed countries such as Britain, Australia, Canada and USA, the valuers’ estimates, methods and processes have been increasingly criticized for over the past thirty years as clients seek advice in increasingly sophisticated investment markets (Baum and Macgregor, 1992).
In the same vein, there has also been a focus on the seeming inability of valuation estimates to accurately represent/interpret market prices or serve as a security for bank loans. Bretten and Wyatt (2002) observed that valuers do not operate with perfect market knowledge while valuers in many instances follow clients’ instructions, analyze available information, make judgments and respond to different pressures from stakeholders when preparing a valuation in a market atmosphere of heterogeneity. However, the study of valuation accuracy should be a continuing one as is the case in the United Kingdom (UK) where the RICS of late teamed up with the Investment Property Databank (IPD) to produce investigations into valuation accuracy in Britain on a two (2) yearly basis.
The effort in this work will accordingly be the study of valuation accuracy and consistency and the factors influencing their occurrences, to cover a more up to date time period with a view to validating/invalidating, expanding and updating the results in the pioneering efforts of Ogunba (1997), Ogunba and Ajayi (1998) and Aluko (2000). Accordingly, the present effort will be to deal with valuation of properties in the Lagos metropolis which is regarded as the most active investment property market city in Nigeria.

1.2 Statement of the Research Problem
Property valuation performs an essential role in property transactions. It provides advice on prospective purchases and sales in addition to supplying material information to underpin property lending decisions. Moreover, since the 1960s and 1970s, property valuations have been used to proxy the exchange price of property investments for performance measurement purposes. This more recent use of valuation indices is a major difference between the property performance measurements and the performance measurement of other investment media markets wherein measurement are undertaken by reference to market transactions.

The differences have led some analysts to argue against property as a portfolio asset, which in turn has led to the under-representation of property in many portfolios. Moreover, the lack of confidence in the use of valuation-based indices might be evidence that the portfolio industry does not readily accept valuations as accurate indicators of prices (and hence returns) in the absence of accuracy studies proving that they are proxies for each other.
Ajayi (2003) noted that increased valuation accuracy and consistency are the demand of the more sophisticated and enlightened clients in the emerging property market of today and the property market has seen remarkable change within the past forty years. Europe and the US have witnessed the emergence of institutional investors, the management of investments on portfolio basis and the recent advent of new property finance methods including securitization and unitization. Clients are now getting much more sophisticated and analytical in their decision making approaches and therefore increasingly require more accurate and consistent valuation estimates from their consultant valuers.

While Accountants, Stockbrokers and other financial consultants have progressively refined their financial analytical techniques to meet and satisfy their changing clients’ expectations, it is rather unfortunate that the property professionals – represented in Nigeria by the Estate Surveyors and Valuers – have been rather slow and lukewarm in their attitudes and approach to the required accuracy changes in valuation practice thereby resulting into complaints from clients about valuation estimates (Ojo, 2004).
The issue of accuracy is also imperative because the profession as it is today is facing stiff competition in all facets of its traditional areas of practice, taking into consideration the fact that the estate agency aspect of the profession has become an “all comers” affair and moreover, that Engineers, Lawyers, Facility Managers and even some stark illiterates (“quacks” of the profession) do engage in property management functions. At the same time, Quantity Surveyors are agitating to take-over the insurance valuation aspect of the profession, whilst Engineers are also seeking to be plant and machinery valuers. In the face of such stiff competition, the estate surveyors can ill afford to be found negligent in the accuracy of their work.

The implication is that the valuation surveyor is faced with both increasing client requirements for accuracy as well as stiffer competition from related professionals. These twin issues of stiff competition and consistency cry out, as it were, for the valuer to respond with pace setting levels of accuracy, and sophistication in his valuation advice. The problem of inaccuracy in valuation manifested itself recently in the case of the valuation of the assets of Nigeria Telecommunication Limited (NITEL) for privatization/disposal purposes when members of staff of the company as well as the interested stakeholders and members of the public in Nigeria openly voiced out their complaints against the excessively low valuation figures/estimates the estate surveyors ascribed to the assets of the company. It was on the strength of such complaints that the then Federal Government under President Olusegun Obasanjo canceled the whole privatization exercise and ordered a re-valuation.
Other instances of valuation estimate inaccuracy according to Ojo (2004) came from financial institutions who continuously complained about the accuracy and reliability of mortgage valuation figures supplied them, which they considered as under-representing the values of such foreclosed collateral securities. He went further to note other instances of alleged inaccuracy which were being investigated by the Professional Practice Committee of the Nigerian Institution of Estate Surveyors and Valuers.

In addition, Ogunba (1997) and Ogunba and Ajayi (1998) alluded to the fact that the average layman nowadays casts doubt on valuation estimates emanating from estate surveyors and valuers. No matter how unjustifiable the criticisms might be, that estate surveyors and valuers are often influenced to hike their valuation estimates because of the need to increase or generate their fees, such criticisms or allegations are a pointer to the fact that inaccurate valuation estimates call to question the valuation skill, integrity and competence of Estate Surveyors and Valuers especially in their core area of practice. From the legal perspective, there is danger that valuers in Nigeria are increasingly found liable for negligence in cases where their valuation figures or estimates mislead unsuspecting and uninformed clients, notwithstanding the exclusion clauses often entrenched in Nigerian valuation reports (Okoror, 1995).

Besides, there is the looming possibility that the property investing public, faced with continuously unreliable estimates, may decide to dump the services of estate surveyors and valuers in favour of services from other consultants such as the Accountants, Financial Analysts, Engineers or Quantity Surveyors who, they think may be able to provide more realistic and reliable estimates. It is therefore important for estate surveyors and valuers to wake up from slumber and take the issue of valuation accuracy and consistency more seriously.
Other envisaged consequences of continuous and unchecked inaccuracy and inconsistency are adequately summarized by Aluko (2004) as:
• Constraints on property performance analysis due to uncertainty surrounding valuations. This may be damaging to the operation of both the property market and property indices;
• Adverse influence on the relevance of the valuer because if a valuation can only have a limited likelihood of accuracy, the client may question why a valuation is necessary at all;
• Adverse influence on the credibility of the valuer as inaccuracy in valuation means that professional advice would be meaningless as the whole basis of property advice rests on the assumption that valuations are a good proxy for prices; and,
• There could be damage to confidence imposed on the property market.
There seems to be relatively sparse research work in Nigeria on valuation accuracy, reliability and credibility as against such studies in the UK, US, Canada and Australia especially in the past three decades. Also, in the face of the globalization of efforts in this very important and core area of the profession; Nigeria and the rest of Africa cannot afford to feel unconcerned and lukewarm if they want to be relevant in the emerging scheme of things.
In the face of such increasing needs for accuracy, reliability and credibility in valuations, we cannot therefore afford to fold our arms in the face of these problems, observations and criticisms and expose ourselves and the profession to ridicule. It is against the foregoing background that the following questions agitate the mind of the researcher in a bid to ensure that valuation estimates become more accurate and standardized in Nigeria. The study focuses in the main on valuations and sale prices of properties as well as valuations between firms by examining the degree to which they are proxies for each other and if not, the reasons why they fail to be proxies. In view of the foregoing, the questions to be addressed include:
• What is the maximum acceptable margin of error (acceptable to all stakeholders) of valuations relative to realized prices?
• Are Nigerian valuations a good proxy for valuations of other firms?
• Are rating valuations a good proxy for property market transaction prices?
• What are the causes of inaccuracy in property rating valuations in Nigeria, if it at all inaccuracy exists?
• What are the condition(s) necessary to ensure correct estimates of market price?
• Are client influences significant contributors to inaccurate valuations in Nigeria?

1.3 Aim and Objectives of the Study
The main aim of this study is to examine the degree of accuracy and consistency in valuers’ estimation of realized property market prices in Lagos metropolis with a view to improving on the quality of valuation practice.
The specific objectives of the study are to:
1. Ascertain the perceptions of stakeholders as to the maximum acceptable margin of error in valuation estimates relative to sale prices within the study area
2. Determine if open market valuations are good proxies for real property investment markets in the study area
3. Examine if open market valuation estimates of one firm are good proxies for contemporaneous valuations of other firms in the study area, and
4. Identify and examine clients’ mode of influence on valuation estimates.
The essence of the study is to address the above issues and problems by focusing mainly on the questions of reliability/consistency benchmarks and the nature and causes of reliability and consistency of the professionally prepared rating valuations in the Lagos metropolitan property market.