FIABCI-USA and Principal Member the Appraisal Institute hosted a roundtable on international real estate market risks at the US Senate Building on January 15. The Roundtable welcomed representatives from the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE) including FIABCI Past World President Enrico Campagnoli who currently serves as the Chair of the UNECE Real Estate Markets Advisory Group.

The topic of the Roundtable was the UNECE Policy Framework for Sustainable Real Estate Markets and the position paper “The Evaluation of Real Estate Property & Market Risks for Real Estate Backed Financial Products.” FIABCI-USA President Sharon K. Young and FIABCI World President Judy Shenefield welcomed representatives from the UNECE, the FDIC, the US State Department, the Counselors of Real Estate, HypZert (German Valuers Association), the Center for International Private Enterprise, as well as Principal Members the Appraisal Institute and the National Association of Realtors. Past FIABCI World President Julian Josephs also participated and brought a group of Students from Academic Member Georgetown University.

The morning presentations and lively discussion addressed the financial crisis and what can be done to avoid such shocks in the future. The attendees agreed on the following impact statement as a beginning of their continued collaboration:

The evaluation of real estate market risk is an integral part of the safety and soundness of the entire global financial system. The development of a uniform international real estate market risk rating system is essential so that real estate market advisory professionals can use this critical tool to provide the public with appropriate risk assessments and help avoid system collapse.

We believe that the UN Economic Commission for Europe Policy Framework and the Real Estate Market Advisory Group working paper offer valuable insights in this regard. Specifically, we need to enhance real estate valuation processes and financial supervision activities relating to collateral valuation to include such real estate market risk assessments worldwide.