VALUATION - What is it

Valuation is an exercise falling primarily within the domain of economics as well as law. Valuation really concerns itself with all species of legal interests arising out of land and building as well as plant and machinery which are exchanged for money and therefore entails the phenomena of exchange, scarcity and choice that characterizes a market in the economic sense of the term. Property is purchased both for use and as investment; but in both cases the purchaser measures the expected return or benefits to be received from the property against the cost outlay. The valuer task is to express these benefits in money terms and to interpret the relationship between cost and benefit as a rate of return, thus allowing the investor to make a choice between alternatives.