Research on an Applicable Mass Appraisal Technique to Real Estate Markets in China

For the last two decades, China has achieved high economic growth accompanied by rapid development and a series of problems in real estate market. In order to promote a healthy real estate market, some cities in China began their studies and practice in mass appraisal (MA) of real properties for transaction tax purposes. Mass appraisal has been used worldwide for more than fifty years by most assessment jurisdictions to provide estimates of market values. However, different from the real estate markets in developed countries, traditional mass appraisal techniques are hard to implement due to the varied characteristics in the real estate market of China. This paper investigates the characteristics of the real estate market of China and comes up with the innovative Unity Valuation Approach based on the traditional mass appraisal techniques. Then, with an empirical analysis based on the practical experiences in Shenzhen City of China, the results demonstrate that the Unity Valuation Approach is acceptable and reliable. Our findings suggest that this approach is also applicable and helpful to countries or areas where transaction volumes are sufficient.