Estate Surveyors and Valuers: Issues and Challenges in the Application of Technological Innovations and ICT in Practice

Abstract

Abstract. Conducting real estate business before the pandemic was more or less through traditional that require physical presence of actors. This seems to be not yielding the desired result and comes with attendant challenges, hence a call for shift from traditional to ICT based and other innovations. This study dealt with the estate surveyors and valuers response to use of modern technology. It also identified the practitioners’ level of advancement in the use of modern technology, the use of various social media in the business of real estate, attendance of online/virtual training and seminars during the lockdown. The study adopted descriptive method of data analysis using simple tables and percentages. The findings indicated that while many practitioners were aware of use and existence of certain software in valuation, greater number have not in any way used same in the valuation exercise, many are also aware of the use of drone and its application to real estate but have not had access to the same. It was also found out that Whatsapp and Facebook were commonly used for marketing, the majority of the respondents were said to attend virtual/online seminar/training via Zoom, Whatsapp, Facebook and Google meet/Google classroom.