Hometrack Australia's new Assisted Valuation service minimises escalations and reduces lender risk.

Hometrack, a leading provider of automated valuation models, today launched Hometrack Valuer (HTV), the next evolution in assisted (or desktop) valuations that speeds up mortgage processing, minimises escalations to onsite inspections and reduces lender risk.

Brendan Darcy, CEO of Hometrack Australia, said, Hometrack Valuer represents a leap forward in electronic valuations. Using HTV, the Valuer seamlessly navigates a simple user-friendly interface that is rich with imagery and highly accurate housing data to produce an accurate and up to the minute valuation.

Hometrack Valuer skilfully fuses a range of cutting edge technologies and information services to provide Valuers with a unique online application. Valuers can view a property from multiple angles, measure the dwelling dimensions, compare sales history and attributes, and complete a report with minimal effort, all from their computer.

Delivering a valuation tool to minimise the risk of fraud is one of the key drivers behind the development of the tool, Darcy explained, All imagery and data is referenced from independent sources, and so is not susceptible to manipulation.

Darcy said, A continual challenge for lenders is escalations from offsite to expensive onsite valuations due to lack of information. Onsite valuations also add significant time to the Valuation process. Hometracks data covers 100 per cent of Australian residential properties, which dramatically reduces the need for escalations, saving considerable time and cost for lenders.

HTV was developed for Valuers from the ground up, in conjunction with one of Australia's largest valuation firms, the Opteon Property Group.

Nic Carr, Chairman of Opteon said, Opteon is committed to providing best practice solutions to our clients. Through our relationship with Hometrack, we have been able to broaden the range of solutions we can provide to our clients at the highest level. HTV applies state of the art technology to a professional process that enables a Valuer to provide a quicker, more accurate and cost effective solution than currently exists in the assisted valuation space.