Fiscal cadastral systems reform: a case study of the general valuation project 2000 in the city of Cape Town
Date
2008
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Abstract
In 2000, the City of Cape Town generated market values of approximately 550 000
residential properties in Metropolitan Cape Town, employing Computer Assisted Mass
Appraisal (CAMA). These valuations form the basis for local government property
taxation. A high level of risk and, hence, uncertainty, dominated the landscape of complex
change, such as that undertaken in Cape Town’s General Valuation Project 2000 (GV2000
Project). To guide policy and practice in complex situations, current research in the area of
fiscal cadastral reform focuses on formulating an appropriate framework for reform, with
CAMA as a primary element. This research identifies a suitable theoretical and
methodological framework for fiscal cadastral systems reform. This framework is informed
by theory which is tested in application on the case study of the GV2000 Project and
thereafter inductively extended. The main contributions of the research are in the
exploration of an appropriate philosophical paradigm for fiscal cadastral systems research,
the application of social systems theory in the consideration of the processes of property
valuation and taxation as sub-systems of a fiscal cadastral system, which in itself is part of
a larger whole (the cadastral system), and in the development of a methodological
framework for fiscal cadastral systems reform. The findings of this research are that critical
realism is a suitable theoretical basis for research in fiscal cadastral systems, that a social
systems approach facilitates a holistic investigating including both the natural and social
aspects of the system, that a pluralist multimethodological approach accommodates both
positivist and interpretivist approaches and facilitates the identification of a suite of suitable
and complementary tools for research and analysis of cases of fiscal cadastral systems
reform. A further research outcome is the inductive extension of what are understood to be
“best practices” in property valuation and taxation to an integrated, social systems, strategic
framework for reform of fiscal cadastral systems.
Description
Bibliography: p. 429-454
some pages are in colour
some pages are in colour
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Citation
Whittal, J. (2008). Fiscal cadastral systems reform: a case study of the general valuation project 2000 in the city of Cape Town (Doctoral thesis, University of Calgary, Calgary, Canada). Retrieved from https://prism.ucalgary.ca. doi:10.11575/PRISM/2284