New professional standard brings clarity in an increasingly complex health sector

August sees the RICS’s latest professional standard for the valuation of medical centre and surgery premises come into effect and it’s set to bring a welcome level of clarity for property surveyors in practice in an increasingly complex health sector, according to Eddisons’ trading valuations professionals.

It has been 15 years since the RICS last published a guidance note on valuations best practice in this sector. The nature of primary healthcare and how it operates within various local and national aspects of NHS frameworks and funding streams has evolved dramatically, if not revolutionised, since 2010.

One of the latest announcements affecting the sector was a cash injection of £102 million of capital funding for GPs to use in modernising facilities by making upgrades to the bricks and mortar fabric of their buildings.

The new RICS professional guidance has been drawn together by a range of property, legal, lending, investors and NHS interests - among other professionals with interest in the sector - all of whom are stakeholders in what is a growing part of the economy that’s seeing the public and private sector increasingly coalesce in the delivery of healthcare services.

With health at the heart of public debate, the RICS put a draft version of its new guidance out for public consultation in the autumn of last year before producing the final version this spring.

As Mark Searby, one of Eddisons’ trading valuations directors, observes the political focus on NHS reform centering on digitalisation and the added value AI can bring in delivering healthcare at the primary level, plus Net Zero and Decarbonisation targets faced by healthcare operators in the public sector - see surveyors in the health sector having to be agile in their valuations practice.

He explains, “In reconciling fixed, often legacy, assets with the fast pace of change in the business practices of modern healthcare, it’s reassuring to know that there is considered and contemporary professional guidance in the matter of valuations.

“Clients in the health sector can be confident that, as surveyors, we are working to a consistent standard. Also, that in reaching our conclusions, we are sharing common approaches and benchmarking as set out by our professional body in working to its most up-to-date guidance.”

For more information on Eddisons trade-related valuation services, see our Trading Valuations sectors page.