Before satellite imagery and digital tools could map a remote South Island property, reading the land needed to be done through firsthand observation and careful attention to detail.
Mr Paterson’s career has spanned more than four decades and has included government restructures, a global financial crisis, a pandemic and some of the most complex land negotiations in New Zealand’s recent history.
But being elevated to a life member of the New Zealand Institute of Valuers (NZIV) late last month is what he considers the ‘‘pinnacle’’.
‘‘It was a great honour and a huge surprise,’’ Mr Paterson said.
‘‘When you start your career in the profession, you never think that you’re going to end up being a life member.
‘‘For me, when I see some of the other members who have made life membership, I just think it’s so fantastic to be aligned with those sorts of people.’’
Mr Paterson, the Dunedin-based quality assurance rural manager for Quotable Value, said he had essentially worked for the organisation since 1981.
Hailing from a farm in Southland, his three older brothers all went to study at the University of Otago, whereas he instead opted for Lincoln University.
‘‘I made a decision that I was going to do something different.
‘‘It was only after the first year at Lincoln that I thought valuation was going to be my career.’’
His current role was as part of a quality assurance team who monitored the work that went out to local authorities.
The scope of a rural valuer was broad; they needed to understand farm economics, environmental law, land use history, soil types, water rights and market forces that could shift global commodity prices or a government policy change.
Mr Paterson had a decade-long involvement in New Zealand’s high country pastoral lease tenure review process.
Thousands of hectares of South Island high country were subject to review, with some land freeholded and ecologically sensitive areas returned to Crown stewardship.
Governments changed mid-process and farmers sometimes faced losing large areas of operational land.
‘‘Some properties took two or three years to work through.’’
It was among the work he was most proud of.
‘‘You had to keep the farmers on side through all of it.
‘‘The rules kept changing. You had to meet their objectives while working within whatever framework was current at the time. That put enormous pressure on everyone.’’
Life membership was awarded by unanimous vote of the NZIV council and ratified by its membership — Mr Paterson is the first life member from Quotable Value who remained in active practice.
Mr Paterson said he loved the work and considered himself very lucky to have had a range of opportunities and projects that made him want to stay in the business.
He was approaching the point of semi-retirement and would start working three days a week from July, which would be a big change.
Attaining life membership would not have been possible without the support of both Quotable Value and his family, Mr Paterson said.
‘‘Without that support, I wouldn’t have got that recognition, I don’t believe.’’
