Editorial from the President of the International Real Estate Society 2015

Citation

Sotelo, R. (2015), "Editorial from the President of the International Real Estate Society 2015", Journal of European Real Estate Research, Vol. 8 No. 1. https://doi.org/10.1108/JERER-01-2015-0001

Editorial from the President of the International Real Estate Society 2015

Article Type: Guest editorial From: Journal of European Real Estate Research, Volume 8, Issue 1

As President of the International Real Estate Society (IRES) of 2015, it is a pleasure to write this editorial for the Journal of European Real Estate Research. In reflecting the global nature of real estate research, education and practice, it is important to understand IRES not as an institution, but as a network of the sister real estate societies, notably the African Real Estate Society (AfRES), the American Real Estate Society (ARES), the Asian Real Estate Society (AsRES), the European Real Estate Society (ERES), the Latin American Real Estate Society (LaRES) and the Pacific Rim Real Estate Society (PRRES). The Middle East and North Africa Real Estate Society (MENARES), the youngest of the societies within IRES, is still on the path of developing a comparable established track record.

Academically, my home university in Weimar, membership of the Society of Property Researchers, Germany, and my long association with ERES, as a board member and past President, are collectively important influencers in shaping my personal perspectives on real estate research. Historically, within the German-speaking academic world, two branches have emerged within business administration of which real estate has been a sub-set. On the one hand, those who argue that business administration is an art and not a science, developed an interdisciplinary approach and founded several business schools outside universities at the end of the nineteenth century. The Bauhaus movement can be seen as part of this perspective. On the other hand, the alternative position is based on the belief that business administration, like economics, is a social science. This branch became more important with the globalization of research and the implementation of more rigorous methods of quantitative analysis.

There are many questions connected with these different perspectives, in particular whether the purpose of real estate research is to give advice to practitioners? How do we measure industrial impact? Are we able to forecast? If we use an interdisciplinary approach: how do we know which discipline should be used in which circumstance?

Also, there is the discussion concerning general finance a debate that is encapsulated by the two recipients of the Nobel Prize in 2013: one, Eugene Fama, believes in efficient markets, while, Robert Shiller, only partly. Likewise, practitioners in finance are often far removed from the position of traditional academics in economics. Also, how do regulators, pressure groups and advisors value empirical research that produce evaluations years after new regulations are introduced?

IRES, together with the sister societies, provides the forum in which these and other questions are debated. It provides the platform to discuss different ideas and concepts between academics and practitioners, through, for example, special panel sessions at the annual conferences of various sister societies. While societies may adopt differing perspectives, concerning relationships with industry and more rigorous academic research, it is important that both understandings of real estate research learn from the other way of thinking. In this respect, it is an honor to serve as the President of IRES during 2015 and contribute to these debates.

Sotelo Ramón - President of the International Real Estate Society 2015