$75,000 difference in valuations

Last year Blue Chip provided an Auckland couple with a registered valuation for an apartment it was selling them in the Beaumont Quarter complex on the fringe of Auckland's CBD. It was priced at $377,000.

The valuation was carried out by Auckland valuer PRP Auckland Ltd and signed off by its director Tony Kidd. It was dated April 23 and valued the apartment at $375,000 (including $10,000 chattels).

To support that figure it listed six other sales, all in the same development. In all cases the comparisons were for apartments which were being sold for the first time.

Five of them were sold by Blue Chip and one was sold directly by the developer, Melview Developments, to a buyer. No mention was made of any properties outside of the development.

The investors commissioned their own valuation on the apartment from Seagar & Partners, something Blue Chip discouraged them from doing.

This was dated June 28 and provided price comparisons with 10 other properties. Six of these were in the Beaumont Quarter and four in other developments. It valued the apartment at $300,000 (including $3000 chattels) $75,000 less than the Blue Chip valuation.

Kidd said he could not comment on specific valuations because they were confidential but he was happy with the valuations his firm had carried out.

He believed some people's concerns may be based on the fact prices in the apartment market had "become quite volatile" over the past six months.

He said valuations his firm provided would have been accurate at the time they were done but values may have since fallen.