The International Real Estate Society

Citation

Worzala, E. (2002), "The International Real Estate Society", Property Management, Vol. 20 No. 5. https://doi.org/10.1108/pm.2002.11320eaa.001

The International Real Estate Society

The International Real Estate Society

That old saying … Rome was not built in a day … is a reminder to us all that it takes time to build anything new and the International Real Estate Society is no exception. However, the papers published in this issue provide strong evidence that we are well on our way to building an international real estate community. As many of you already know, the International Real Estate Society is an umbrella organization that strives to connect six sister real estate societies: The European Real Estate Society, the American Real Estate Society, the Pacific Rim Real Estate Society, the Asian Real Estate Society, the Latin American Real Estate Society and the African Real Estate Society. A major goal of the International Real Estate Society is to promote the production and exchange of international real estate research and to support the growth of the real estate discipline through increased collaboration on real estate education around the world.

This issue of Property Management is a significant contribution to these goals as it is devoted to some of the best papers presented at the First World Congress of the International Real Estate Society that was held in July 2002. The conference focused on bringing together the real estate academics and practitioners to share their research ideas/findings. Many of the attendees from around the world remarked they were pleased with the tremendous amount of sharing and cross collaboration that went on over the three days of meetings. The manuscripts published in this volume are representative of the papers presented at the conference, focusing on a vast array of issues from changes in demographics and their impact on housing to environmental problems and their impact on real estate values. The more traditional work focusing on real estate finance and investment was also on the program as well as numerous papers on real estate education.

Additional events from the conference helped to further the goals and objectives of the International Real Estate Society. They included four excellent keynote addresses that highlighted many areas in real estate that need additional foundations to be able to compete with other more traditional asset classes. Dr Andrew Baum of the University of Reading focused on something near and dear to my heart and that is direct real estate investments. He sounded the call to "free the data" and make that extra effort to gather the "messy data" in order to understand our real estate asset class better. Time will tell if anyone with access to the data will heed his advice or if the traditional academic settings will shift and reward the researcher that goes the extra mile. Jon H. Zehner of J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. focused his talk on the indirect (securitized) real estate markets and concluded that they are beginning to be recognized as an alternative investment arena and Wall Street is influencing the markets at a global level.

Remarks made by Karl-Werner Schulte from the European Business School and President of the International Real Estate Society on real estate education can be found in this issue. He focused primarily on the need to build the foundation for understanding the asset class with a strong educational program focused on the multiple disciplines that affect real estate markets. Finally, Jim Gottstein, Law Offices of James B. Gottstein brought the discussion back to the local area and shared with the delegates some of the unique aspects of Alaskan real estate rich with natural resources and environmental concerns but also home to some indigenous people concerns where lessons could be learned for our developing economies around the world.

In all, 138 delegates attended the meetings from 14 countries. A total of 72 papers were given in 19 paper sessions while ten panel sessions comprising 40 panelists rounded out the schedule. Additionally, Art Schwartz arranged some fantastic social events including two awards luncheons, an Alaskan mountaintop dinner that included a ride on the tram and sunset viewing as well as another dinner on Friday night that was followed by a birthday celebration of delegates from around the world (USA, Fiji and UK) in the bar that culminated in an earthquake! Additionally, a few lucky delegates also managed to find a few black bears during their Friday evening stroll!

Awards were given at both luncheons. On Thursday, the Bert Kruijt IRES Service Award was given to Art Schwartz from the University of South Florida, the IRES Achievement Award went to Alastair Adair of the University of Ulster and a new award, the IRES Corporate Excellence Award was presented to the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors and received by Stephen Brown.

At the Friday lunch, Norm Miller, on behalf of the Homer Hoyt Advanced Studies Institute, presented the best paper award. Norm, Kerry Vandell and Jeffrey Fisher had the difficult task of reviewing close to 20 manuscripts and choosing the one that they felt was the best. This award went to Patrick Wilson and Ralf Zurbrugge for their paper entitled "Impulse response and the international inter-relatedness of real estate markets".

Finally, the University of Reading received a six pack of beer because they brought the most academics to the meeting (six, plus two visiting professors). In fairness, the European Business School should have received a case of beer, given they brought 24 delegates to the meeting but not all were academics and we could not find a case of beer!

The next official function of the International Real Estate Society will be to help the European Real Estate Society celebrate their 10th Anniversary in Helsinki, Finland from 1-13 June. Plans are underway to work with the group to have a role in the program dedicated to the goals and objectives of the International Real Estate Society that are to foster and support the growth of international real estate research and education. For more information please go to: http://www.eres2003.com/

Elaine Worzala