Landmark Valuations, a division of Landmark Properties which works closely with Landmark Advisory analysts, today announced that it has witnessed an increase in the number of UAE residents requesting valuations for immigration and divorce proceedings during 2010.
Landmark Valuations has seen a significant increase of 50% in valuation requests for immigration purposes, particularly to Canada, over the past 6 months. "The country that the individual is migrating to often requires the person to hold a certain net worth and state their net worth of assets in the application. In most cases, the largest asset individuals hold in their 'balance sheet' is property," explained Saeed Hashmi, Head of Valuations at Landmark Properties.
According to Hashmi, valuations for divorce purposes are also common at present: "During divorce proceedings the court usually requires the divorcee's assets to be valued to determine the appropriate split. We have also seen a number of valuation requests for estate purposes this year, which in addition to divorce procedures are quite personal and can lead to life changing decisions."
Many companies have been carrying out valuations for year-end auditing and corporate strategy purposes during their financial year as property prices have changed significantly throughout 2010.
"Traditionally, the majority of valuations undertaken are for bank lending purposes, however this trend has changed as bank lending volumes have been low and particularly selective during the past year," said Hashmi. "In addition to bank lending purposes, many valuations are requested for auditing and accounting purposes as companies look to re-value their balance sheets, something that is extremely important in the current climate as values have changed drastically over the past two years."
The Property Valuations team carries out valuations and inspections for clients for a number of reasons including: bank loans; balance sheets and company accounts; inheritance; purchases; stock market flotation; investment portfolio valuations; corporate strategy; and receiverships.
