Report on the Pacific Rim Real Estate Society Conference

Citation

Graeme Newell, P. (2000), "Report on the Pacific Rim Real Estate Society Conference", Journal of Property Investment & Finance, Vol. 18 No. 6. https://doi.org/10.1108/jpif.2000.11218fac.002

Report on the Pacific Rim Real Estate Society Conference

Report on the Pacific Rim Real Estate Society Conference

23-27 January, 2000Sydney, Australia

The 6th annual Pacific Rim Real Estate Society (PRRES) conference was held in the 2000 Olympic city, Sydney, over 23-27 January. The conference was jointly organized by the University of Technology, Sydney and the University of Western Sydney.

Over 125 participants attended this conference from 15 countries including Australia, New Zealand, China, Fiji, Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, the USA, the UK, Germany and The Netherlands.

Over 80 property research papers were presented in a wide range of areas including valuation, property investment, property finance, property development, corporate real estate, property markets, property management, IT applications, indigenous land rights, housing policy, international property markets and property education.

Excellent keynote addresses were presented by:

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  Professor Neil Crosby (University of Reading, UK) "Future directions and challenges for valuation research."

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  David Parker (Suncorp-Metway, Brisbane) "An institution perspective on property research."

The property industry session, with presentations by three leading property practitioners, provided insights into a range of areas of future collaboration between the property industry and property researchers.

PRRES also appreciated the strong support from a range of conference sponsors including the Australian Property Institute (API), Cougar Consulting, MCB University Press and the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS).

Acknowledging excellence has always been a priority in PRRES. This year, Associate Professor Maurice Squirrell from RMIT received the PRRES Achievement Award for his contribution to property education and research in the region over many years. In particular, Maurice has been one of the leaders in the development of property education in the Australian university sector, as well as establishing strong property industry linkages into the property degrees. David Higgins from UTS, received the API sponsored new researcher award for his research into office property market dynamics (Figure 1).

Figure 1. David Higgins (centre) University of Technology, Sydney, receives his New Researcher Award from conference organiser and immediate past president of PRRES, Associate Professor. Angelo Karantonis, UTS (left) and Ian Dalgarno, National President of the Australian Property Institute, sponsor of the prize (right )Source: PRRES photographs coutesy of Peter Rossini, School of International Business, University of South Adelaide, Australia

A major highlight of the conference was the launch of the PRRES monograph "Property into the Next Millennium", generously sponsored by the RICS. This monograph, edited by David Parker, contained ten papers by leading property practitioners on how the "people" and "money" aspects of property would change in the new millennium. Papers covered retailing, demographics, career management, property education, property investment vehicles, property markets and the impact of IT on property. An excellent monograph, with many insights into the changing property industry that are relevant at an international level. Copies are available from the RICS.

The conference dinner on Sydney Harbour was a highlight, as was the multi-million dollar fireworks display on Sydney Harbour to celebrate Australia Day. Conference delegates also took the opportunity to explore the Olympic city (Figure 2), as well as visiting the Olympic Stadium.

Figure 2. A group of intrepid delegates on the Sydney Harbour Bridge climb

Angelo Karantonis (UTS) did an excellent job organising the conference in his usual efficient and effervescent Greek manner. Similarly, John MacFarlane (UWS) had the daunting task for putting the conference papers into a coherent format. Both did a brilliant job!

The conference also marked the end of the period of Angelo Karantonis as the PRRES president, with John Loh from Malaysia taking over as PRRES president in 2000 (Figures 1 and 3). Rowland (Curtin University) was elected as president-elect at the conference. The newly elected PRRES board of directors has representation from Australia, New Zealand, Fiji, Singapore, Malaysia and Thailand.

Figure 3. John Loh, Williams Talhan Wong, Malaysia (centre) the newly elected president of PRRES, 2000 enjoys a break between presentations with John McFarlane, University of Western Sydney and a colleague

Overall, a great conference and a wonderful start to the Olympic year and the new millennium.

The 2001 PRRES conference, originally scheduled for Fiji, has now been transferred to Adelaide in South Australia, to be conducted by the property team at the University of South Australia over 21-24 January, 2001. Adelaide is a beautiful spacious city and the gateway to the Barossa Valley which is one of the premier wine areas in Australia. Adelaide is easily accessible for international attendees. At great expense, PRRES has organised the West Indies to play Zimbabwe (25 January) and Australia to play West Indies (26 January) at one-day cricket at the Adelaide Oval at the conclusion of the conference. Tickets to these one-day cricket matches would be a fitting way to finish off the conference and can be organised.

Both refereed and unrefereed papers will be presented at this international conference. Full conference details and presentation requirements can be obtained from Geoff Page (email: geoff.page@unisa.edu.au). The University of South Australia team will be presenting an excellent conference, building on the previous PRRES conference they ran in 1992. A call for papers will be circulated shortly by email, giving full conference details including timelines for abstract and paper submission.

We look forward to seeing you in Adelaide in January 2001.

Professor Graeme NewellExecutive Director, PRRES