JUST WHEN business seemed to be on the floor for the country’s estate agencies, some of the bigger auctioneers in Dublin are quietly attempting to recruit valuers in the expectation that they will be getting lots of work shortly from AIB, Bank of Ireland, Anglo Irish Bank and the redoubtable Nama.

With an estimated 10,000 properties in trouble – everything from waterlogged sites in the bogs to private homes and multi-storey office blocks – all will have to be valued, first of all for the banks, and then looked at again by assessors hired by Nama. The plan is to complete most of the operation by next June, in time to avail of bailout funds from the European Central Bank. The urgent timetable being set by the banks and Nama suggests that at least 300 detailed valuations will have to be completed each week. This should mean that most agents will get part of the action. The banks are expected to name their panel of valuers within in the next week. By all accounts none of them will be getting the standard 1 per cent valuation fee. We hear it will be less than 0.5 per cent.

We are not talking drive-by valuations here, but more detailed studies based on the international Red Book set of rules. Hang on a minute, weren’t valuations always supposed to be based on this bible? What went wrong?