Conference report: The cutting edge 1997

Citation

Plimmer, F. (1998), "Conference report: The cutting edge 1997", Property Management, Vol. 16 No. 1. https://doi.org/10.1108/pm.1998.11316aaa.001

Conference report: The cutting edge 1997

Conference report: The cutting edge 1997

The Property Research Conference of The Royal Institute of CharteredSurveyors

The annual property research conference organised by The Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) was held last year in Dublin, Republic of Ireland, and hosted by the Dublin Institute of Technology on 5-6 September.

Traditionally, this is a conference at which papers are presented based on recent or on-going research into the investment, development, property markets and land use aspect of our built environment and only four of the 72 listed speakers were from organisations other than academic institutions.

Similarly, reflecting the UK base of the RICS, only 15 of the listed speakers were not from the UK. Of these, Australia, the USA and the host nation of Ireland were well represented.

The conference was chaired jointly by John Ratcliffe of the Dublin Institute of Technology and by Alastair Adair, both of whom addressed the delegates and it was John Ratcliffe who welcomed the delegates to Dublin and to the conference.

The first of the keynote addresses was delivered by Colin Lizieri of the University of Reading who took as his theme the changing market for business space: occupier requirements, market response and valuation impacts. He reported on an RICS-sponsored research project which considered the economic changes and their effect on business space, the changing structures of firms and the nature of work, and the resultant impact of these on the property market, particularly on the diversity of lease lengths which now pervade the market. He suggested that because valuation techniques have not adapted to reflect the current diversity of lease forms, non-standard leases are being negatively appraised and yet it is the non-standard leases which are now the norm. This is having an adverse effect on the supply side of the equation.

The second keynote address was given by Alastair Adair of the University of Ulster and he took as his theme Barriers to Data-sharing: Problems and Prospects for the Profession, based on RICS-sponsored researched. Having reviewed some of the published work on issues associated with data-sharing and the recent use of IT to resolve data problems, Professor Adair weighed up the importance of data availability and the fact that its absence hinders the work of the surveyor, that it is held in an unsystematic fashion and that its ownership can confer a competitive advantage. He identified a shift in the attitude to data-sharing and called for the RICS to take a more proactive role, in particular, a top-down monitoring role to produce data in a standardised form, but he recognised that the surveying profession lacks an information culture. He identified two barriers to open access ­ the perceived commercial advantage and the ownership/legality issue. He also discussed the two main encouragements to open access ­ those of advances in IT and the expectation of the client. However, he concluded that "access to more structured information is desirable in terms of market efficiency."

As in previous years, the papers were grouped in themes, such as What will our cities look like? Can we analyse the property market? How do we decide what to build? Can computers compete with valuers? and Valuation and Investment. The themes run concurrently, so that it is not possible to hear all of the papers although delegates are generally able to gather printed copies of the papers for later consideration.

One recurring theme throughout many of the papers was the urgent need for surveyors to look beyond their own traditional narrow and property-focused areas of training and experience to the broader issues which affect the property world today. Such issues as housebuilder behaviour (Chris Leishmann's paper), the effect of preceding valuations on valuation outcomes (Deborah Levy's paper). the influences which affect the behaviour of valuers undertaking mortgage valuations (Nigel Almond) and the perceptions of landed property taxpayers (W. J. McCluskey and Frances Plimmer) were discussed.

Many other speakers called for the professionals to look beyond their traditional horizons because the property market does not operate within a vacuum and because it is increasingly recognised that there are subtle influences which affect how we behave and how our clients and the general public act and react. It is the recognition and the investigation of these influences and their effect on the activities within the property world around us which are singularly lacking because it is only by doing so that we will be able to understand fully what is happening with the property world and provide thorough and balanced advice to our clients.

While it may be right to say that we surveyors traditionally do not possess the skills to undertake this work, it is vital that we work towards acquiring such skills. If we fail to do so, we will find other professions carrying out the work and being in a position to speak with authority on what is currently our expertise, i.e. the factors which influence the activities within the property world.

The papers presented at the conference can be accessed on the Web Site of the RICS at http://www.rics.org .uk/research/conferences/

Frances Plimmer

(The RICs Cutting Edge Conference for this year will be held on 4-6 September at De Montfort University, Leicester.)