Stewart Company Tapped to Value Land for African Country
November 20, 2012
Stewart Company Tapped to Value Land for African Country
Stewart Global Solutions, a wholly owned subsidiary of Stewart Information Services Corp., was commissioned to design a Formula Valuation System (FVS) to value properties and estimate potential ground rent revenue in Lesotho, Africa, a nation of 1.9 million people, geographically surrounded by South Africa.
Stewart was issued a subcontract by Land Equity International (LEI) as part of its contract with the Millennium Challenge Corporation and the Government of Lesotho to integrate cadastral maps and land records, strengthen the institutional and human capacity of land administration and improve land valuation for purpose of ground lease administration in the country.
“Stewart Global Solutions is pleased to have played a part in this important work in Lesotho,” said Jill Urban-Karr, executive vice president of Stewart Global Solutions. “Improving land valuation and strengthening land administration is a key step in developing a viable economic system. We look forward to seeing the long term benefits of this project.”
Stewart’s senior project manager, Dr. Jerome Anderson, began the two-month project by reviewing the current valuation methods and collecting data on nearly 500 commercial and residential properties. Using the property data collected, Stewart built a fiscal cadastre and worked with local appraisers to design a valuation model for the land, testing the model against the pilot fiscal cadastre, and using the FVS to estimate the potential ground rent. Stewart also prepared a plan for the full implementation of the FVS.
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