Editorial

Citation

French, N. (2006), "Editorial", Journal of Property Investment & Finance, Vol. 24 No. 5. https://doi.org/10.1108/jpif.2006.11224eaa.001

Editorial

Last week (at the date of writing) I was sitting at a dinner table at the European Real Estate Society (ERES) meeting in Germany (a special issue of which will follow in the next volume) when my managing editor turned to me and informed me that next year will be my 20th anniversary of being editor of the Journal of Property Investment & Finance. Twenty years! It just does not seem that long and yet so much has happened in that time.

The Journal of Property Investment & Finance is now published six times a year. It is also online and it is available as part of an electronic subscription to a suite of Emerald property journals. We can now track how many times each issue is viewed and, more specifically, which articles are viewed the most. This allows us to tailor the journal to meet the demands of the readership. Indeed, the educational briefing was introduced as a direct result of this analysis. It was clear that readers were looking for articles that revisited the fundamentals of property investment and valuation. The electronic world is something that we could never have envisaged 20 years ago.

When I first became involved in real estate academia, the term “real estate” was the preserve of the Americans; the Journal of Valuation (the previous title of this journal) was the only 100 per cent property dedicated journal in the UK; ERES did not exist and I was a humble lecturer with aspirations of changing the way in which the property profession was considered by academics. I wanted to develop forums for discussion and an environment where property academics could publish their peer reviewed work. The expansion and improvement of this journal over the years has contributed to the latter aspiration and its success has led to other property journals joining the Emerald stable. Likewise, new journals have been developed by our competitors, so that we now have a healthy portfolio of outlets for our publications.

Over the same time period, there has been an explosion of real estate societies. In Europe, I helped to establish ERES (based on the original model, The American Real Estate Society) and around the world sister societies have been spawned in Asia, Africa, Latin American and The Pacific Rim. Things are looking healthy and very different to 20 year ago.

My only concern is that all around the world, and particularly in the UK, there is lack of new blood. Where is the next cohort of “bright young things” that will look at what is here now and decide that they need to improve things over the next 20 years? Something needs to be done to encourage new academics in our field. If we do not meet this challenge, who will teach the next generation of property professionals?

Nick French