Late last year, Opteon boosted the ranks of its senior property professionals with the appointment of Penny Wilson as Director – Infrastructure and Advisory.
Penny, who is a market-leading specialist valuer and Board Member of the Australian Property Institute, has expertise in commercial and specialised valuations that are used for market review, mortgage security, strata renewal, residential development, compulsory acquisition, and reallocation of unit entitlements purposes. Her insights are honed by her understanding of financiers’ risk appetite and financial covenants, which she gained working in the Commonwealth Bank’s real estate finance team. In her role at Opteon, Penny draws on her extensive experience to value and advise on complex or unusual assets, such as container ports, private hospitals, contaminated industrial land and residential development opportunities.
Since joining Opteon, Penny has enjoyed having access to leading prop tech and extensive data resources. “I’m still hugely excited about the data and tools that are now at my fingertips and what we can do with that information. For example, I’ve been working with Housing Australia to customise data sets of residential land values across Australia to evaluate its Housing Australia Future Fund submissions.” She added: “Another project we are working on involves customising a national dataset to offer financial institutions a deeper understanding of the risks around their security. It’s really satisfying to be able to leverage data to deliver value innovatively for our clients in this way.”
For many years, Penny has been actively involved in supporting professionals in the valuation sector through her work as a Director of the Australian Property Institute and as a member of its Finance Risk Audit Committee. She also regularly shares her knowledge more broadly. For example, she is presenting on “How to De-Risk the Borrower’s Finance Journey” at the National Finance Brokers Day in August. As she says: “Brokers are increasingly becoming commercial advisors so they need to understand the market’s shift in dynamics and risks metrics in a way that gets the best outcomes for their clients.” Penny has also co-written a soon-to-be-released article on strata renewals, which she hopes will help clients save time and money by explaining how they can prepare more targeted briefs for barristers and save on re-valuations.
Penny recently decided to step down from the Australian Property Institute’s Board and take on a position as a lecturer at Sydney TAFE in the Bachelor of Property Valuation course. “I think educating the next generation of valuers is a great way to give back to the sector because students benefit from hearing real time insights and information from people in the industry. I have long advocated for people interested in property careers to get a valuation degree because of the pathways it opens up. My own journey shows what’s possible. I’ve been a banker in institutional real estate, I’ve worked for government departments in property advisory functions and I’ve been a consultant at KPMG. All of those experiences have helped me get to where I am today. The paths are there for the taking because it’s a background that employers value highly.”
Beyond sharing her expertise with fellow valuers, Penny also relishes supporting the community. She’s been providing pro bono support to WINC – Older Women in Cohousing Inc. (a group of women dedicated to sourcing a property to build their own community of architectural designed sustainable homes) and looks forward to doing more in that space. “I am also delighted to be part of a business that supports affordable housing initiatives,” she said.
Outside of work, Penny spends a lot of time with her great love – Major. He’s an ex-racehorse she has rehabilitated and they are currently training for 40-80km endurance events.
Penny Wilson
Director – Infrastructure & Advisory
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DISCLAIMER
This article is produced by Opteon Property Group Pty Ltd. It is intended to provide general information in summary form on valuation related topics, current at the time of first publication. The contents do not constitute advice and should not be relied upon as such. Formal advice should be sought in particular matters. Opteon’s valuers are qualified, experienced and certified to provide market value valuations of your property. Opteon does not provide accounting, specialist tax or financial advice.
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