According to the coalition agreement of this government and some information in the media, a property tax will be introduced under this government. It is expected to be linked to a new valuation of real estate. Since we all want this tax (if it is indeed introduced) to be as low as possible, I think it is necessary to ensure two things: - that property is valued as realistically as possible (if some tycoon pays a pittance for his ridiculously low-valued villa, the rest of us will have to pay more) - that property valuation costs as little as possible (the cost of the valuation will, of course, be borne by the taxpayer).
In order to determine the market values of real estate as cheaply and fairly as possible, I propose the following procedure: (1) To start with, the assessed values should be as they are now. (2) If someone thinks that a foreign property is undervalued, he should say how much the property is worth or how much he would buy it for (he must make a binding offer). Then the owner of the property should be asked either to accept the new valuation of the property, or to sell the property for the price proposed as the new valuation. However, in order to avoid anyone getting suckered by inflating the valuations of foreign properties, the valuation of the foreign property (and the related binding offer to buy) should be backed by a deposit (say 10% of the offered price) which would be left to the property owner if he decides to sell and the proposer of the new valuation withdraws from the binding offer to buy. (3) If someone thinks that his property is overvalued, he should say how much it is worth, but he thereby undertakes to sell it to the first highest bidder. If the owner accepts the valuation under point 1 or 2, he is of course not obliged to sell the property to anyone.
In this way, the market would ensure that all properties would be valued at market price within a very short time. It would systematically eliminate the possibility of valuers making some ridiculously low valuation for the property of some bigwig. Apart from some administration, such a valuation would cost practically nothing.