Case-based reasoning and retail rent determination

Rents at review are commonly assessed by making comparisons with properties similar to the subject premises under assessment. Subjective adjustments are made where the location, physical and lease term characteristics of subject and comparable properties differ. The methods employed in such determinations have severe limitations. This paper reviews the various computer-assisted techniques employed in the valuation domain and selects a case-based reasoning approach (CBR) for the determination of retail rents at review. In exploring the application of CBR to retail property valuation five separate approaches are developed, namely; nearest neighbour, pure inductive, inductive (Q Model), inductive (Prototype) and inductive (Prototype and Q Model). The validation of the models demonstrates that CBR is an effective approach to comparable selection in the determination of retail rents.