Guest editorial

Citation

Sebastian, S. (2016), "Guest editorial", Journal of European Real Estate Research, Vol. 9 No. 3, pp. 218-219. https://doi.org/10.1108/JERER-08-2016-0031

ERES is setting new quality standards for the Annual Conference

The 23rd Annual Conference of the European Real Estate Society (ERES) was hosted in Regensburg, Germany, from June 8 to 11, at the IREBS International Real Estate Business School. Located in the heart of Bavaria, the UNESCO World Heritage city of Regensburg proved to be an environment that is both pleasant and intellectually stimulating.

Reflecting the growing emphasis placed on research quality globally, ERES feels that it is important that the annual conference is a forum for the presentation of papers to the highest possible standard. Therefore, this year, for the first time, ERES offered a refereed section with discussions, preceded by a thorough selection process. Of a total of 340 papers submitted to the conference, we were delighted that 84 were submitted to the refereed section, of which 46 were accepted; implying an acceptance rate of 55 per cent. The special sessions for the refereed papers proved to be an ideal venue for researchers seeking feedback from their peers and helped to bring ERES Conference to a new level. ERES and IREBS are grateful to the members of the scientific committee, namely, Shaun Bond, David Downs, Piet Eichholtz, Donald Haurin, Martin Hoesli, Gabriel Lee, Colin Lizieri and Joseph Oii.

Another innovation of ERES 2016 in Regensburg was the introduction of the Industry Related Day on the third day of the conference. This was especially dedicated to an exchange of research between the academic community and the real estate industry. The ERES 2016 concluded with the 12th IREBS Real Estate Symposium, which was dedicated this year to celebrating the 70th birthday of Professor Karl-Werner Schulte, HonRICS. With these innovations, and the attendance of delegates from the business sector on the last day of the conference, the total number of attendees at ERES 2016 was over 650 participants.

In total, 270 papers were finally presented in Regensburg. In terms of the breakdown of these papers, 101 (32 per cent) submissions were in the field of Economics and Housing, followed by Investment and Finance with 79 (25 per cent). Other topics included Corporate Real Estate, Ethics, Education, Development and Sustainability. Altogether, research of 556 authors from 51 countries was presented in Regensburg, which reflects the diversity of the real estate scientific community and the associated research output. The Africa sessions constituted a further focus of attention, and dealt with the investment potential of this continent from an academic perspective.

The conference also benefited from several insightful keynotes. On Wednesday, the first day of the conference, which is traditionally devoted to PhD students, David H. Downs from Virginia Commonwealth University gave a keynote on how to publish in leading real estate journals, and Marc Francke, from the University of Amsterdam, provided a keynote on “Advanced econometrics”. The opening keynotes on Thursday were led by Martin Hoesli, University of Geneva, concerning publishing trends in real research and comparing output in European journals with US equivalents. We are delighted that Martin Hoesli’s paper is published in this issue of the Journal. The second keynote on the opening day by Tadashi Matsumoto, OECD, concerned the “Emerging role of cities in sustainable development”. The keynote presentations on Friday, the industry-related day, were provided by Martin J. Brühl, RICS World President, on the “Future challenges for the real estate industry” and Thomas Zinnöcker, CEO Ista, on corporate governance in the real estate industry and Stephen Roulac on how “Place choice changes everything”.

Traditionally, the ERES conferences are accompanied by attractive social events. The highlights of 2016 conference were the welcome reception at the Old Town Hall hosted by the Mayor of Regensburg, the Gala dinner at the Princely Brewery, and the Sunset Cruise on the Crystal Queen on the Danube. As in the previous years, these events proved to be ideal venues for networking, establishing new friendships and strengthening existing ones.

Particular thanks go to the conference sponsors for their tremendous support, above all the Gold Sponsors: Argus, Association of the Bavarian Building Industry, BUWOG Group, CommerzReal, MSCI and Union Investment. Finally, I would like to thank the organizing team, especially Sandra Mück-Kullmann, Jessica Ruscheinsky and Daniel Weber for their outstanding dedication.