Longford auctioneer addresses IPAV European conference at the RDS

Fintan McGill, MD of DNG McGill Longford and Carrick-on-Shannon and President of the Institute of Professional Auctioneers & Valuers addressed the IPAV’s European Valuation conference at the RDS which attracted almost 700 delegates.

He welcomed reports that the Government is about to announce emergency planning measures to speed up the delivery of homes, something he said IPAV has been advocating for some time.

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And he said high valuation standards are critical – for individuals, for businesses, and for our economy.

IPAV introduced the ‘Blue Book’ European valuation standards to Ireland in 2013. This is the valuation standard recognised by the Irish Central Bank and the European Central Bank for which it holds default status over all other valuation standards in the event of any valuation conflict arising.

Addressing attendees also Genevieve McGuirk, Chief Executive of IPAV expressed concern that the recently advertised role of head of a new Housing Activation Office, pitched at the level of Deputy Secretary General, is going to be of lesser status than that envisaged by the Housing Commission because it would lack legislative underpinning.

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The Housing Commission, set up by the Government and which deliberated for two years found a core issue was ‘ineffective decision making and reactive policy making where risk aversion dominates’ . To address this it recommended a Housing Delivery Oversight Executive be established in statute for a period of time.

This body would be ‘legislatively empowered to remove obstacles to housing delivery and would drive coordination across legislation, regulation, and administrative practices.’