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The complexity of property valuation, coupled with valuers’ cognitive limitations, makes some degree of error inevitable in valuations. However, given the crucial role that valuations play in the efficient functioning of the economy, there is a need for continuous improvement in the reliability of reported values by enhancing the quality of the decision-making process. The purpose of this paper is to review previous research on valuation decision-making, with particular interest in examining the approaches to improving the quality of valuation decisions and identifying potential areas for further research.

The paper adopts a narrative approach to review 42 research articles that were obtained from Scopus and Web of Science databases and through author citation searches.

Our findings show that existing literature is skewed towards examining the use of technology in the form of decision support systems (DSS), with limited research attention on non-technological (i.e. behavioural) approaches to improving the quality of valuation decisions. We summarise the non-technological approaches and note that much of the discussions on these approaches often appear as recommendations arising from other studies rather than original investigations in their own rights.

We conclude that studies investigating the effectiveness of the non-technological approaches to improving valuation decision-making are lacking, providing various avenues for further research.

This paper presents the first attempt to provide a comprehensive overview of non-technological approaches to improving the quality of valuation decisions.

This study updates and extends the current work on the issue of accuracy of property valuation. The paper investigates the factors that contribute to property valuation inaccuracy and examines different strategies to achieve greater accuracy in practice.

An online questionnaire was designed and administered on the Australian Property Institute (API) registered valuers, attempting to examine their perceptions on the current state of valuation accuracy in Australia. The variables/statements from responses are ranked overall and compared for differences by the characteristics of respondents.

Using mean rating point, the survey ranked three factors; inexperience valuers, the selection, interpretation and use of comparable evidence in property valuation exercise and the complexity of the subject property in terms of design, age, material specification and state of repairs as the most significant factors currently affecting valuation inaccuracy. The results of a Chi-square test did not, however, show a significant statistical relationship between respondents' profile and the perception on the comparative importance of the factors identified. Except for valuers' age and inexperience valuers and valuers' educational qualification and inexperience valuers and the selection, interpretation and use of comparable evidence in property valuation exercise. Also, the three highly ranked strategies for reducing the level of inaccuracy are: developing a global mindset, use of advanced methodology and training valuers on market forecasting skills.

In order for valuers to provide state-of-the-art service to the public and to remain relevant, there is a need to accurately and reliably estimate valuation figures. Hence, the strategies highlighted in this study could be considered in a bid to reduce property valuation inaccuracy in practice.

This study provides an updated overview of the issue of property valuation inaccuracy in the Australia valuation practice and examines the strategies to reduce it.

Considering the changing dimensions of client influence in the emerging sub-market in Nigeria, different from previous general insinuations, this article examines the new strategies adopted by clients to influence estate surveyors and valuers (ESVs), factors that predispose ESVs to client influence and the effects of clients' influence on valuation outcomes and real estate markets in emerging sub-market, using Ibadan market as the study area.

The paper is situated within a client influence assessment framework, modified to reflect contextual incidents. Contextualization was made possible with the involvement of both practitioners and academic researchers. Validated copies of the questionnaire were administered to the registered practicing ESVs in an intact group during their monthly state (provincial) meeting and through direct delivery at their firms. Data collected were analyzed using descriptive and inferential statistics.

Contrary to the previous studies, the authors found no significant relationship between ESV professional qualifications, the firm's staff strength and the frequency of clients' influence in valuation assignments. Hiding important information and clauses, begging, lobbying, and seeking undue favor and promises for future jobs or appointments are the influencing strategies clients employ to pressure valuer. The topmost factors are emerging sub-market and economic-induced factors, lack of due process, and adequate transparency on the parts of firms and Valuers. It was established that the new dimension of client influence leads to the mortgage valuation accuracy dilemma, discredit of professional confidence, default and financial distress, and generating mistrust in the property market.

The implication is the new dimension of client influence, different from the previous studies, thus calling for professional and policy attention. As real estate investment and transactions transcend globally, understanding the local sub-market condition is imperative.

The novelty of the paper is the exposition on the dimensions of client influence within the economy and the implication for the professional body regulatory policy.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the role knowledge plays in expert commercial valuer practice to unpack the way theoretical and experiential knowledge operates in order to improve practice and education.

Adopting a cognitivist perspective and identifying meta-reasoning, using a grounded theory methodology, through the study of 11 chartered valuation surveyors practicing in Birmingham, United Kingdom, the distinctive theoretical and experiential knowledge they used was elicited through their in-depth reflection on a valuation task followed by analytical interviews exploring meaning and reasons of actions described.

The results confirmed that multi-sourced and rich valuation knowledge was a key attribute of a valuation expert. However, the experiential knowledge was not used to undertake the task but to select the methods and knowledge appropriate for the task and context. This meta-reasoning is a key to the speed, accuracy and justification of their practices. Thus, the experience gained from many years of valuation provides expert valuers with meta-reasoning involving knowledge of what, how and when to deal with problems in different circumstances such as the knowledge of markets and handling of clients.

Making meta-reasoning a key aspect of valuation will identify its characteristics more clearly, thus assisting the development of practitioners and providing a new focus for education to advance professional goals.

Meta-reasoning and meta-cognitive knowledge have not been identified as a key to successful valuation practice. This meta-reasoning allows a subtle balance of theory and experience in valuation practice that is appropriate to the situation.

Behavioural studies of valuers have suggested that valuers rely on a number of cognitive strategies involving reasoning and intuition when undertaking a valuation task. However, there are few studies of the actual reasoning mechanisms in valuation. In other fields, much attention has been paid to forward and backward reasoning, as this shows the choices and decisions that are made in undertaking a complex task. This paper studied this during a valuation task. The purpose of this paper is twofold: first, to develop a methodological approach for empirical research on valuers’ reasoning, and, second, to report expert-novice differences on valuers’ use of forward and backward reasoning during a valuation problem solving.

The study utilised a verbal protocol analysis (VPA) to elicit think-aloud data from a purposive sample of a group of valuers of different levels of expertise undertaking a commercial-valuation task. Through a content analysis interpretive strategy, the transcripts were analysed into different cognitive segments identifying the forward and backward reasoning strategies.

The findings showed that valuers accomplished the valuation task by dividing the overall problem into sub-problems. These sub-problems are thereafter solved by integrating available data with existing knowledge by relying more on forward reasoning than backward reasoning. However, there were effects associated with the level of expertise in the way the processes of forward and backward reasoning are used, with the expert and intermediate valuers being more thorough and comprehensive in their reasoning process than the novices.

This study explores the possibility that forward and backward reasoning play an important role in commercial valuation problem solving using a limited sample of valuers. Given this, data cannot be generalised to all valuation practice settings but may motivate future research that examines the effectiveness of forward and backward reasoning in diverse valuation practice settings and develops a holistic model of valuation reasoning.

The findings of this study are applicable to valuation practice. Future training efforts need to evaluate the usefulness of teaching problem solving and explicitly recognise forward and backward reasoning, along with other problem-solving strategies uncovered in this study, as standard training strategies for influencing the quality of valuation decisions.

By adopting VPA, this study employs an insightful and rich dataset which allows an interpretation of thoughts of valuers into cognitive reasoning strategies that provide a deeper level of understanding of how valuers solve valuation problem; this has not been possible in previous related valuation studies.

This study explores the challenges of access to finance from local financial institutions (LFIs), i.e. local banks, for public–private partnership (PPP) infrastructure project delivery in Nigeria. The aim is to provide useful insights that could inform policy solutions to ease the local funding of PPP infrastructure projects in Nigeria and, by extension, other developing economies.

Adopting a qualitative research methodology, the study engaged PPP stakeholders involved in securing funds for PPP infrastructure projects in Nigeria. A total of 15 PPP stakeholders, drawn from the public and private sectors, were purposively selected and their views on the research problem obtained through recorded telephone interviews. The opinions of the research participants were subsequently analyzed and the results discussed with the outcome of the examination of relevant literature.

The study found that the significant factors affecting access to local finance for PPP infrastructure projects in Nigeria include low capital base by LFIs, weak project viability, lack of capacity to manage PPP-related activities, inconsistent government policy, poor legal framework and public perception of PPP.

Insights from this study are useful for PPP stakeholders in mitigating the barriers that influence access to local finance for PPP infrastructure projects in Nigeria and other developing economies. This study is also useful in enhancing the current policy structure in developing countries as a way of revamping the existing infrastructure framework through LFIs.

This study provides clarity on the peculiar challenges impeding access to finance from LFIs for PPP infrastructure projects in Nigeria and will be useful for debt providers and policymakers in evaluating the bankability of PPP infrastructure projects in Nigeria and other developing countries.

The purpose of this paper is to identify the core dimensions of problem solving of experts in commercial valuation in order to provide a rich stimulus for managing current practice and enabling future development.

The study adopted a cognitive position but emphasised understanding the everyday commercial property valuation practice in a naturalistic context and from the participants’ perspectives. Given this, a grounded theory approach was employed as a research strategy to guide the data collection and surface theoretical interpretations. Data were obtained through in-depth interviews with practicing valuers working in private real estate firms within metropolitan Birmingham, UK.

The interviews uncover four dimensions of experts’ problem-solving practice in commercial valuation: multidimensional, domain-specific knowledge base; cognitive process that is centred on analysis and reflection; collaborative problem-solving venture with colleagues; and professional practice issues awareness. A conceptual model is proposed which integrates these dimensions enabling a clearer understanding of the nature of valuation work.

This study was designed to be descriptive and theory generating, thus, the findings cannot be generalised as the sample was confined to one city and consists of a small number of senior practicing valuers. Therefore, the findings may not be fully applicable to other practicing valuers, other geographical locations or more widely to other types of property valuation. Nevertheless, the findings provide an important cognitive framework which can be verified by other researchers seeking to examine the practice of expert valuers.

The identification of the core dimensions of expert problem solving in commercial property valuation is shown to have implications for valuation practice, education and continued research. The valuation practice environments need to develop mechanisms to provide time that would enable these multi-dimensions of professional competence to be developed. Further work is needed to expand and refine the model across expert practice in other specialty areas of valuation practice.

This study expands the current understanding of valuation process to areas of expertise that have received less coverage in behavioural valuation literature, that is, the central role of knowledge and cognition and how these are integrated for effective valuation problem solving and decision making.

The paper aims to provide a better understanding of the interactions between housing investment and economic growth. In particular, the paper emphasizes the separate effects of private housing investment (PHI) on the aggregate economy using quarterly data in the UK from 1974 to 2015. This is important due to the relatively growing interest around the world, including the UK, in encouraging greater private housing investment as a way of boosting economic growth.

The paper used the widely accepted and recognized econometric concepts of unit root, Granger causality and co-integration and provides tentative quantitative evidence of the causal and predictive effect of PHI and economic growth.

The key finding is that the level of investment directed by individual and institution into the private housing sector is key to future development, and will strongly reduce economic performance volatility.

Given that this is a bivariate time series analysis of PHI and economic growth (proxy by gross domestic product), the conclusions of this paper need to treated with caution, as there are other potential variables that might be omitted to make the model more robust so as to reach a more conclusive result.

This study complements existing literature, not only by providing new empirical evidence on the nexus between housing markets and the business cycle but also by being the pioneering attempt at examining the impact of PHI on the economy in the UK.

Decision-making behaviour of property investors has been the focus of real estate research for decades. Yet, there is no consensus on a generally accepted behavioural model that suits all market conditions and investment peculiarities. While scholars have emphasized the significance of rational reasoning and cognitive influences on property investment decision-making preferences, gaps remain regarding the impacts of market disruptions on property investment decision-making behaviour. This paper, therefore, explores the institutional framework as a theoretical basis for understanding property investment decision-making behaviour amidst market disruptions.

This paper reports a systematic review of pertinent theories that have explored decision-making behaviour. Commencing with an index search of high impact peer-reviewed journals, a snowball identification of relevant citations was also deployed to assemble theories from the field of psychology, sociology, economics and urban studies. Although a preliminary dataset of 82 papers with relevant decision-making theories was identified, the final dataset comprised 27 papers and 7 theories. The identified theories were reviewed accordingly.

The outcome of this study suggests that the institutional framework offers a robust approach to property investment decision-making amidst market disruptions, especially because it recognizes the dynamism in the investment environment and the roles of formal and informal rules that exist therein.

This study advances the current understanding of property investment decision-making behaviour by recognising the dynamism of the investment environment and how factors such as principles, laws, tradition and routines can lead to an established and legitimate standard of reasoning. By integrating both rational and cognitive attributes, the study provides a holistic perspective to property investors' decision-making behaviour in response to market disruptions.

Quite a substantial number of academic papers have examined the performance of both direct and indirect real estate relative to other investment assets. While these studies are valuable in the field of real estate investment performance measurements, a gap still exist in the literature on the comparative performance of investment assets in the various sectors of the stock markets of most emerging economies. This paper aims to fill the gap by providing analysis of the historical performance of real estate and other securities in the Nigerian capital market.

Annual open and closing market prices of shares and dividend of sampled listed companies in addition to data on all share index (ASI), consumer price index (CPI) and yield on 90‐days T‐Bill were obtained for the period 1999‐2005. These were then analysed using descriptive, risk‐adjusted measures and regression models.

The empirical evidence suggests that while real estate outperformed the market on a nominal basis, it underperformed the market stock on a risk‐adjusted basis over the time period of analysis. Unexpectedly, real estate security did not provide a good protection against inflation and is also uncorrelated with the stock market.

This paper provides empirical evidence of the investment characteristic of indirect real estate investment in Nigeria. The results suggest that real estate security does not after all provide a good substitute to direct real estate investment.