The majority of valuations in the largest commercial property markets in Europe fell within 10% of sale prices in 2008 despite a year of growing market uncertainty, according to the RICS Valuation and Sale Price Report published in November.

The validity of valuations has been thrown into question in light of the unprecedented drop in investment activity and more volatile pricing across the board. RICS acknowledged the situation ‘presented a real test to the skills of property valuers’. To assess their performance, the RICS report compared valuations against sale prices of commercial property in France, Germany, the Netherlands and the UK.

Capital values fell across the four major European real estate markets in 2008 with the UK which booking the sharpest decline of -26.3%, followed by France where capital growth of -6% was recorded. The falls experienced by the Netherlands and Germany were more subdued at -1.7% and -1.4% respectively.