Guest editorial

Citation

Taltavull de La Paz, P. (2011), "Guest editorial", Journal of European Real Estate Research, Vol. 4 No. 1. https://doi.org/10.1108/jerer.2011.35904aaa.002

Guest editorial

Article Type: Guest editorial From: Journal of European Real Estate Research, Volume 4, Issue 1

The Journal of European Real Estate Research, as the official journal of the European Real Estate Society, is proud to be maturing and entering its fourth volume. Globally, the European Real Estate Society has a been to the forefront in promoting real estate research since the mid-1990s and is pleased to be a key component of the International Real Estate Society (IRES), a federation of regional real estate societies whose main aim is coordinate, transmit and disseminate knowledge.

The existence of regional real estate societies has played a key role in the dissemination of research and real estate knowledge worldwide. Success has been achieved through three key concepts: coordination, spread and collaboration. The regional real estate societies have coordinated multiple activities based on research delivery, education and industry-applications with a focus on impact and collaboration through working in international teams. Expansion at both regional and global levels over the last decade has probably been faster in the real estate discipline than any previous time period and comparable to the most progressive disciplines.

The regional real estate societies were founded from mid-1980s onwards, to coordinate and expand the number of researchers interested in real estate in each region. Leading the way was the American Real Estate Society in 1985 with the creation of sister societies covering the rest of the world in subsequent two decades (ERES1994, PRRES1994, AsRES 1996, AfRES 1997 and LARES 2000) with the Middle East and North Africa Society founded in 2009. Within this structure the role of IRES is to encourage communication and co-operation regarding real estate research and education; encourage and assist in establishment of real estate education and research programmes, and connect and facilitate faculty exchanges a world-wide basis.

The impact of this broad and well-traced plan has been an extraordinary and the rapid expansion in the number of academic centres researching and teaching real estate internationally. This is evidenced by the number of researchers, doctorates and industry delegates presenting papers in the annual conferences of each respective society. For instance, in the European Real Estate Society, the number of research and industry papers rose from close to 50 in 1994, to around 200 in 2001 and more than 300 in 2010 and the number of doctoral papers alone reached 75 in the Milan conference 2010.

Another aspect which has contributed to the success has been the link between the academic process and industry interests. The real estate industry has been invited to take an active part in this process resulting in a fruitful symbiosis and collaboration between the academia and the firms, where academic activities are shared with the industry and industry support academic initiatives. This has promoted the transfer of knowledge in real estate across the world and has contributed to the existence of global real estate companies.

Academic journals have been a key vehicle for new knowledge dissemination. As the societies developed new real estate journals have appeared to support the publication of high quality research output. The partnership between Emerald and the European Real Estate Society in developing this journal provides a prime example of such development. I would, therefore, call upon colleagues to actively support their regional journal as a primary outlet for their cutting-edge research activities.

Paloma Taltavull de La PazPresident of the International Real Estate Society 2010