Panel Prioritises Ethics, Standards in Valuation

• 10 July 2016
• Local News
• 1225 Views

The International Business Chamber (IBC) and the Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) hosted a business luncheon on Tuesday 19 April focused on the topic of valuation of property in Cambodia and addressing the current gaps.

Panelists at the event included Salim Aslam, ASEAN manager of RICS, Kim Heang president of the Cambodian Valuers and Estate Agents Association (CVEA), and Ross Wheble, country manager of Knight Frank. The discussion was moderated by David Marshall head of financial institutions at ANZ Royal Bank. The lively discussion largely focused around the need for ethics, standards, indemnity insurance and education.

“The less transparent you are, the less ethical the practice, the higher the risk. The higher the risk, the lower the value of assets, the lower the value of wealth,” Salim Aslam told Construction & Property Magazine. “Risk premiums are very high here because of a lack of clarity, he added. “Transparency and standards must be foremost in everyone’s minds.”

While not seeing eye to eye on all points, the panel were in broad agreement on the need to improve education and build capacity among human resources in Cambodia in the property sector.

CVEA president Kim Heang repeated his intention to establish education frameworks in partnership with international institutions to raise standards and career opportunities for those in the real estate sector.

“There are no real estate-related degrees or qualifications here, so that’s an issue in terms of valuing in accordance to international levels of standards,” said Ross Wheble. “What we need to promote is real estate as a long-term professional career that will create demand for the real estate courses.” Aslam said, “In an up and coming country such as Cambodia, having enough professionals learned [in] international best practice would be one of the challenges.”

He acknowledged that Cambodia is a young market though warned that if local bodies don’t push for relevant standards, then there is a risk others will do so.

“Without such capacity-building efforts, there will not be enough professionals available to meet urgent demand and complete projects on time.”

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