Issues Relating to the Creation of a Central Database to Support Statistical Property Valuations

The valuation of real estate collateral is a long-established area of the lending process that is currently undergoing increasingly dynamic development and in which the use of statistical valuation methods is becoming more and more common instead of on-site valuations. The legal conditions for this have been created by amendments to European and national legislation in the past year, but for the method to be truly widely used and operational and to ensure the accuracy of the resulting valuations, access to detailed, accurate, up-to-date and regularly checked data on real estate must be also created. As the databases currently available for Hungarian real estate are very fragmented, in our study, we propose to create a central database that would provide a uniform, up-to-date set of data, by harmonising the existing separate databases. Such a database would help create a level playing field in the market and automate data transfer in a cost-effective, fast and reliable manner. This would greatly facilitate the uptake of statistical valuation methods, supporting the further spread of digitalisation, increasing banking competition, speeding up administration and reducing the cost of lending for all parties.