PariTOP: A goal programming-based software for real estate assessment

In Quebec's municipal taxation system, the tax burden is allocated according to the market value of properties. Determining the market values for housing inventories containing tens of thousands of properties is obviously a complex task with enormous implications in terms of the resources required and the quality of the resulting estimates. This article presents PariTOP, a decision-support system that uses mathematical programming in general and goal programming in particular to estimate the market value of large numbers of residential properties. PariTOP is the result of a partnership between the Communauté urbaine de Québec, an administrative unit that comprises 12 cities, and Modellium, a Canadian company that develops decision-support systems.