Blending AI innovation with RICS expertise to deliver faster, smarter, and compliant property valuations.
From instant comparables to portfolio-wide revaluations, artificial intelligence (AI) is accelerating nearly every step of the valuation process. Yet the most important shift is not replacement—it’s reinforcement. Under RICS and IVS, technology is a powerful tool in the valuer’s hands, never a substitute for professional judgment.
This article explores where AI adds genuine value, what the latest standards require, and how an RICS-regulated firm like Reliant Surveyors integrates technology confidently and compliantly.
Two cornerstone frameworks govern modern valuation practice: the RICS Red Book and the International Valuation Standards (IVS). Both have been refreshed and are now fully in force for current work—the latest Red Book Global Standards are effective from January 31, 2025, aligning closely with IVS.
This was published in January 2024 and also takes effect from January 31, 2025. For valuers and clients, this matters: it locks today’s tech-enabled methods into a consistent, auditable framework across markets.
The 2025 IVS update emphasizes better documentation and data inputs—key themes for AI-assisted work (e.g., clear audit trails for the data and assumptions driving model outputs). In other words, if a model supports the conclusion, the files should show how and why.
Automated Valuation Models (AVMs) and other machine-learning tools can scan large datasets to propose a value range, flag outliers, or benchmark trends. RICS acknowledges its growing use while highlighting opportunities and risks: speed and coverage on one hand, but model bias, data gaps, explainability, and misuse risk on the other.
The professional consensus is steady: AVMs inform valuation; they don’t define it. A RICS valuer remains accountable for method selection, appropriateness, and final opinion of value.
What “good” looks like with AVMs? Transparent methodology, representative data, and measurable performance. Industry guidance (including from public-sector assessment bodies) stresses model governance: quality data, out-of-sample testing, confidence intervals, monitored drift, and clear documentation that a non-technical reviewer can follow.
Below is a pragmatic, five-step blueprint that Reliant Surveyors can (and does) apply across asset types and instruction purposes:
Pull public registry data, transactions, listings, permits, geospatial layers, and macro
indicators; reconcile duplicates and anomalies.
Maintain an auditable trail of sources and
transformations to meet IVS/RICS documentation expectations.
Use an AVM or ML model to generate indicative values and comparables; let the system surface
anomalies (e.g., unusually low floorplate efficiency for a submarket).
Record the model’s
confidence band and any caveats (data sparsity, renovations, atypical features).
Conduct inspection and qualitative checks that models can’t—condition, specification,
workmanship, micro-location, rights/encumbrances, ESG factors, and market sentiment.
Decide
if the model is appropriate for the purpose (e.g., portfolio monitoring vs. secured lending on a
unique asset). The valuer owns this call under the Red Book.
Reconcile model outputs with traditional approaches (sales comparison, income, cost). If there’s
a gap, explain it. If the model is rejected, document why.
Keep a clear line from input to
conclusion to satisfy the strengthened documentation focus under the IVS
2025.
Provide a clear valuation report, with scope, assumptions, limits, and—where models were used—how
they were validated and weighted.
Maintain a model risk log (including updates, versioning,
and performance metrics) in case of review or audit.
Dubai’s regulators continue to digitise market infrastructure, making cleaner inputs available to valuers and models. Dubai Land Department (DLD) has rolled out smart platforms such as Dubai REST, valuation services, and “smart evaluation”/instant sale features, alongside data-driven indices—e.g., the Smart Rental Index 2025—that improve transparency and benchmarking.
While these tools don’t “do the valuation” for you, they help populate the evidence base a valuer needs and can feed responsibly into AVMs.
As a long-standing Dubai-based firm, Reliant Surveyors is uniquely positioned to integrate these digital tools with professional expertise, ensuring accuracy, compliance, and market relevance.
Landmark, luxury, or highly specialized properties rarely have “good” comps or stable model features. Valuer experience with micro-markets, build quality, and buyer behavior is decisive.
Not all valuations carry the same consequences. A secured lending valuation for a development asset demands different skepticism than a desktop portfolio update. The Red Book anchors those purpose-driven choices and disclosures.
Models can overfit to yesterday’s regime. Valuers challenge assumptions, adjust for current sentiment, and document why—core to maintaining stakeholder trust and auditability under IVS/RICS.
AI is raising the property valuation baseline for speed, coverage, and consistency—but value still needs a valuer.
Under the 2025 Red Book and IVS, Reliant Surveyors integrates AI responsibly—where it is appropriate, explainable, and documented—while always standing behind a clear, reasoned, RICS-compliant opinion of value.
That’s technology complementing human expertise, exactly as the standards intend.
For expert
advice and professional valuation services
in the UAE, contact Reliant
Surveyors today.
