Factors Contributing to a Land Value Information System to Become a Solution for the Shortage of Property Transaction Evidence in Sri Lanka: Property Valuers’ Perception

Abstract

In developing markets, obtaining comparable evidence for real estate valuations is often challenging. Land Value Information Systems that aim to gather, store, handle, retrieve, and perform land-related data for lawful, organizational, and institutional decision-making processes, have been used in developed countries to address this issue. However, Sri Lanka lacks a comprehensive land value information system. Thus, this study aimed to examine the factors that contribute land value information systems to become a potential solution in addressing lack of property transaction data, focusing on the perception of property valuers in Sri Lanka. A structured questionnaire, unstructured interviews and discussions were used with 30 professional real estate valuers in both qualitative and quantitative methods, revealing a positive attitude towards adopting the system. The advantages of such systems were aligned with time saving, accessibility to up-to-date data, convenience, etc., while concerns included disrupting the valuation industry’s monopoly and information security challenges. The contributing factors were identified under three main categories, technological factors, organizational factors and people factors. Study findings revealed that technological factors were ranked high as most impactful for the successfulness of a land value information system. While technological and organisational factors were deemed achievable during implementation, the study suggests additional efforts, such as establishing a help desk, conducting training programmes to address people-related factors.