Transparency on the real estate market and today's valuation methods

Real estate appraisal in Germany, dominated by the institution of official appraisal committees, will not be able to close its mind to the challenges associated with digitization and the use of artificial intelligence in the short and medium term. Nor should it. The transparency of the real estate market is far too high an asset for that and one of the pillars of democratic self-image.

However, the content of the term transparency has changed, and today's demands on politics, business and administration can no longer be compared with those of the 1960s. The real estate market is one of the most economically important markets and housing construction also has a social component that is sometimes underestimated.

The question therefore arises as to whether the current regulations governing the determination of land value in Germany still meet the challenges. The three valuation procedures that are strictly regulated in Germany are subject to unnecessary limitations. It is time to make the valuable price data collections of the appraisal committees more central, accessible and usable and to enable the use of artificial intelligence.