Armenian prime minister suggests that State Commission for Protection of Economic Competition study property valuation process

YEREVAN, March 14. / ARKA /. Armenian prime minister Tigran Sargsyan suggested today that the State Commission for Protection of Economic Competition (SCPEC) conduct a study of the property evaluation process.

"It is necessary to find out if there is a competition there, or this market operates on e agreements that prevent its  natural development,"  Sargsyan told SCPEC chairman Artak Shaboyan during a Cabinet session. "Today we do not even know what the market price of real estate is ,"  he said. He said different evaluators evaluate differently one and the same property.

"The problem is that commercial banks work as a rule with three or four appraisers, whom they trust, and these evaluators appraise the property low, while other appraisers, operating in  the market, give different assessments. Now our task is to figure out what is going on in this area, and understand how to solve this problem ", he said.

The prime minister said it is wrong that commercial banks choose to work with one or two appraisers, while there are dozens of them in the market.

"If they work only with one or two appraisers, there is no competition, and therefore, there is no objective assessment. Commercial banks demand that property be valued as cheap as possible to avoid possible risks,  but on the other hand, this violates the rights of economic entities, " he added.

Sargsyan said he will convene a meeting within one week to discuss World Bank proposals regarding this issue and additional steps which will improve real estate evaluation process.  -0-