Application of spatial resource data to assist in farmland valuation

[摘要] ENGLISH ABSTRACT: In South Africa more than 80 percent of the total land area is used for agriculture andsubsistence livelihoods. A land transaction is generally not a recurring action formost buyers and sellers, their experience and knowledge are limited, for this reasonthe services of property agents and valuers are sometimes used, just to get moreinformation available. The condition of insufficient information and the inability toobserve differences in land productivity gives rise to the undervaluation of good landand overvaluation of poor land. The value of a property plays an important role in theacquisition of a bond, in this context farm valuations are essential and thereforecommercial banks make more use of specialist businesses that have professionalvaluers available.The advent of the Internet made access to comprehensive information sourceseasier for property agents and valuers whose critical time and resources can now beeffectively managed through Geographic Information System (GIS) integratedworkflow processes. This study aims to develop the blueprint for a farm valuationsupport system (FVSS) that assists valuers in their application of the comparablesales method by enabling them to do the following: (1) Rapid identification of the location of the subject property and transaction properties on an electronic map. (2)Comparison of the subject property with the transaction properties in terms of valuecontributing attributes that can be expressed in a spatial format, mainly a) locationand b) land resource quality factors not considered in existing valuation systems thatprimarily focus on residential property.Interpretation of soil characteristics to determine the suitability of a soil for annual orperennial crops requires specialized knowledge of soil scientists, knowledge notnormally found among property valuers or estate agents. For this reason analgorithm, that generates an index value, was developed to allow easy comparisonof the land of a subject property and that of transaction properties. Whether thisindex value reflects the soil suitability of different areas sufficiently accurate wasconfirmed by soil suitability data of the Breede and Berg River areas, which wereobtained by soil scientists by means of a reconnaissance soil survey. This indexvalue distinguishes the proposed FVSS from other existing property valuationsystems and can therefore be used by valuers as a first approximation of aproperty's soil suitability, before doing further field work.A nationwide survey was done among valuers and estate agents that providedinformation for the design of the proposed FVSS and proved that the need for such asystem does exist and that it will be used by valuers.

[发布机构] Stellenbosch University