Digitalisation and valuations: an empirical analysis of valuers’ supplemental skills requirements

Digitalisation is causing significant changes in professional practices and has profound impacts on skills requirements in the service industry. Demand for jobs that require soft skills but do not involve routine processes will be high, while jobs that involve routine processes will be lost or facilitated by technology. In both instances, professionals must acquire complementary skills to operate effectively. As a service profession, valuation is set to undergo changes requiring a shift in valuers’ mindsets towards data-driven technologies. Therefore, this study aims to reveal the additional skills valuers need due to digitalisation and the approaches used to acquire these skills. The study used a qualitative approach and analysed practising valuers’ perspectives. The study’s findings indicate that information technology, time management, interpersonal, and conceptual skills are crucial for valuation practice, and practising valuers acquire these skills through personal-level or corporate-level approaches. The findings provide insights regarding knowledge gaps that require coordinated efforts from professional bodies, training institutions, and policymakers to bridge. Collaboration between institutions is necessary to ensure that the valuation profession can transition smoothly into the digital world to continue to assure society of quality valuations for a stable global economic development.