APPLICATION OF INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGY IN PROPERTY VALUATION

APPLICATION OF INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGY IN PROPERTY VALUATION

Information and Communication Technology can simply be defined in its simplest form as an electronic medium for creating, storing, manipulating receiving and sending information from one place to another.

ICT is also used to refer to the convergence of audiovisual and telephone networks with computer networks through a single cabling or link system. There are large economic incentives to merge the telephone network with the computer network system using a single unified system of cabling, signal distribution, and management.

ICT is an umbrella term that includes any communication device, encompassing radio, television, cell phones, computer and network hardware, satellite systems and so on, as well as the various services and appliances with them such as video conferencing and distance learning. ICT also includes analog technology, such as paper communication, and any mode that transmits communication.

Estate Surveying and Valuation is one of the professions in the built environment that requires the use and application of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) in the various areas of its practice. Such ICT devices and applications include computers, networks, hardware, software, satellite and so on.

 

Jenkins (2002) had echoed a rhetoric question: in what form would the valuation profession survive in the 21st century? Same question was earlier posed by Appraisal Institute (2001). These questions are germane because new software packages that purport to do valuation and Appraisals have been, and are being developed.

 

These software packages do not sufficiently address emerging needs and the complex legal relationships involved in the valuation of property rights. It is therefore important for Valuers to be trained on how to realign valuation with the needs of clients, with dexterity and flexibility as French (2008) has proposed. Aluko (2010) asserts quite rightly that valuation should be so fashioned towards the clients’ specific needs. Several desktop based applications are available. These include MS Word for word processing useful for report writing and other documentations, MS Powerpoint for presentation. Others are PDF for protection and preservation of data integrity and MS-Excel – for quantitative and statistical analysis.

 

Surveyors who wish to be competitive in the global practice will find out that in particular, MS-Excel package is a software application without which any practice will find it difficult if not impossible to survive in the 21st Century.

 

Strengths and Weaknesses of ICT Use

ICT has its strengths and weaknesses. The weaknesses include cyber security challenges, frustration from data loss, data theft, identity theft, password loss or leakage, hacking and Data storage challenges (Barnat, 1994). The general global concerns on Cyber Security brought up some home truths about the dangers inherent in the use of cyber space. All these are dangers associated with ICT either in Offline or Online usages. These weaknesses notwithstanding, the global relevance and utility of ICT use has not been diminished in any significant sense as more and more uses are being made of it. So, Bender (1994) had asserted that generally the world must rely on Technology to solve environmental problems. One of such possibilities is in Valuation.

Ms EXCEL in Real Estate Education and Practice

First among the prime computer applications is the MS Excel which offers a means of quantitative analysis as well as Statistical Analysis in spreadsheet formats. By these two features, MS Excel becomes an indispensable working tool for Valuation and Investment Appraisal in spreadsheet format as demonstrated by French (2008, 2013 and 2015). Olatunji (2010) also applied the worksheet format to establish that medium-term property rights have values that can be assessed. There are many new software packages that perform some Valuation functions; Present Value of N1 (PV), Amount of N1 (A), Years Purchase (YP) calculations are some of these functions; Parry’s Valuation Table containing millions of calculations is now available in soft form with Equated Yield, IRR and other capabilities. It was noted by Davidson (1982), that the use of valuation tables, (and by extension valuation software applications) is not to replace the work of the Valuer; rather it is to save the valuer’s time from distraction by intricate mathematical problems.