An analysis of the methods applied for the assessment of the market value of residential properties in Italian judicial procedures

The present research analyzes the main methods implemented for the assessment of the market value of residential properties in Italian judicial procedures. This value represents the reference for the “starting price” in the subsequent property auctions. An Italian study sample of 514 residential properties assessed by technicians in judicial procedures between November 2020 and March 2021 has been collected. The analysis shows that almost 58% of the studied dataset have used indirect sources (e.g. quotations published by public and private entities/operators) for the market value assessment, whereas about 27% do not specify the approach and/or the data elaborated for the evaluation. Only 15.4% have implemented approaches provided by the International Valuation Standards (IVS): in particular, 4.9% have used a market approach method, 1.4% have applied the direct capitalization method, 9.1% have combined different approaches for checking the results obtained through an IVS method or for considering an arithmetical average of the outputs assessed.