News

Change around the corner for global real estate markets

International Property Measurement Standards Coalition (IPMSC) launches public consultation on new international measurement standard and appointment Board of Trustees

Prague, 13 February 2014 – The International Property Measurement Standards Coalition (IPMSC) has launched a public consultation on the new International Property Measurement Standard (IPMS) for office buildings. The consultation, closing on 21 March 2014, is calling for real estate (office) sector practitioners and stakeholders to contribute their expertise to the new standard. The new standard, produced by the IPMSC Standards Setting Committee, is the first of its kind and will provide a common language for measuring offices across international markets, benefiting real estate practitioners including investors, lenders, agents, valuers and occupiers.

An International Property Measurement Standard (IPMS) will ensure that property assets are measured in a consistent way, creating a more transparent marketplace, greater public trust, consistency in the reporting of property size, stronger investor confidence, and increased market stability. At present, the way property assets – such as homes, office buildings or shopping centres – are measured varies dramatically from one market to the next. With so many different methods of measurement in use, it makes it difficult for global investors, occupiers and tenants to accurately compare space.

Research by global property firm Jones Lang LaSalle suggests that, depending on the method used, a property’s floor area measurement can deviate by as much as 24%. IPMS will be adopted by all 28 coalition organisations with firms around the world already lined up to implement IPMS from June 2014. The Dubai Government are the first government to commit to its adoption, which will underpin valuations of commercial property and financial reporting through IVS and IFRS.

The new standard is considered one of the most significant developments in the real estate profession in recent history and will go beyond office measurement standardisation to include other property types, such as residential, in the coming months.

Strengthening public accountability of the IPMSC, the coalition can now announce the appointment of a Board of Trustees. Members from each of the 28 organisations are represented on the board. As part of this consultation, the RICS local chapter, RICS Ceska Republika, is opening up the process to parties interested in contributing to the consultation.

The IPMSC seeks further coalition organisations such as standards setting bodies, to come forward and join the coalition, with expressions of interest to the Board of Trustees. In addition, it is seeking practitioners and firms to become official ‘partners’ in the implementation of IPMS once it is launched. Expressions of interest can be made through the coalition website www.ipmsc.org/get-involved or through the local chapter, contactable at www.rics.org/uk/about-rics/where-we-are/europe/rics-czech-republic/.