Can a property be valued without a site visit?

This question comes mostly from owners living far from the property, and it deserves a straight answer rather than a sales pitch. What a documentary file already gives: legal status (title, registered easements, co-ownership regime), planning status (zoning, permitted height and use), the area shown on the title and plans, and local comparables with their dates and price levels. From there, a desktop opinion of value is possible. It is enough to decide whether a project is worth pursuing at all. What only a site visit establishes: - Real and weighted floor areas. Gaps between title area and usable area are common: terraces, unrecorded mezzanines, added partitions, the true footprint of a basement. - Physical condition: cracks, damp, roof waterproofing, age of services, joinery. The same 100 sqm flat at the same address can be worth 20 to 30 percent less depending on condition. - The immediate environment, which no document records: facing windows, noise, a building site next door, the state of the common parts. - Occupation: sitting tenant, occupier without title, caretaker in place. An occupied asset is not valued like a vacant one. - Whether what stands on site matches the approved drawings. How we handle remote owners: the visit still takes place, without you, and it is documented so you can verify it — time-stamped and geolocated photographs, measurement record, a walkthrough video on request, and a debrief before drafting. A representative of your choosing may attend. The report is then walked through with you by phone. Where a valuation is produced without a visit, that must be stated in the report as a special assumption under RICS standards: the value holds only if the declared condition is accurate. A no-visit report that fails to say so should be set aside. One limitation either way: a property appraiser carries out no destructive testing, no structural assessment and no topographic survey. Cadastral operations, technical files and surveys are carried out by licensed chartered land surveyors; we are a consulting practice working in partnership with them.