PRRES Newsletter

April 2011

Message from the President

My best wishes to all members of PRRES for the 2011 academic year. We have already commenced our year with a very successful annual conference hosted by George Earl and his team from Bond University. Extending on my comments from the conference dinner, I would like to congratulate George and his team for a wonderful conference on the Gold Coast, Queensland. We genuinely appreciate your efforts considering the extreme difficulties caused by the flooding that had occurred in southern Queensland at that time.

Unfortunately, some of our colleagues at Lincoln in Christchurch New Zealand have also experienced natural disaster in the form of the recent earthquake. I can advise that I have received communication from Sandy Bond that all staff members escaped major trauma. My sincere best wishes to all in Christchurch in overcoming these difficult circumstances.

The Queensland conference was also memorable for Deborah Levy's PRRES achievement award. Deborah's contribution to our society has been most significant over many years. Deborah has been the driving force behind the introduction of the student case competition, a feature of our last three annual conferences which has added a new and exciting dimension to our activities.

At our recent PRRES board meetings in Queensland the board resolved to continue working towards several key strategic objectives. This year we will be developing more comprehensive strategies for the future of the website and the Journal. I can confirm that the society remains in a very sound financial condition. I would again like to emphasise the two significant achievements of our society in achieving an A ranking for our conference and a B ranking for the PRPRJ in the Australian Research Council (ARC) Excellence in Research for Australia (ERA) initiative. These are significant achievements and are largely due to the significant contributions of Graeme Newell, Peter Rossini, the editorial board of the PRPRJ and all of our recent conference organisers.

Finally, I would ask that all members support the upcoming annual conferences of our sister societies if possible. I look forward to seeing our members at these conferences later in the year and would ask that you all promote the details of our January 2012 conference to be hosted by the University of South Australia in Adelaide.

Associate Professor Greg Costello
PRRES President

18th PRRES Conference 2011 Gold Coast Round Up

Bond University’s Institute of Sustainable Development & Architecture was delighted to host the three-day 17th Pacific Rim Real Estate Society Conference on the Gold Coast with the support of Queensland University of Technology and the University of the Sunshine Coast in January this year. With the theme ‘Climate Change and Property: its impact now and later’ the conference was among the one of the most successful conferences with 165 delegates attending the main conference that included 110 delegates attending the Welcome Reception and 140 delegates enjoying the conference dinner.

Opened by Prof Robert Stable, Bond University Vice Chancellor & President the conference highlighted different aspects of the main conference theme of Climate Change and Property: its impact now and later with 116 thought-provoking academic paper presentations. These included Climate Change and Environmental Issues, Energy Efficiency and Property, Sustainability and the Built Environment, Specialist Property, Housing Markets and Housing Affordability, Commercial Property & Valuation, Property Management & CRE, Property Market Analysis, Property Rights/Legislation and Property Issues, Development, Education, Finance and Investment, and Legislation and Legal, Rural Issues.

Inspiring keynote presentations were delivered by Meg McDonald-CEO Carbon Trust Australia, Prof George Earl-Bond University’s Institute of Sustainable Development & Architecture, Govindan Nair-Lead Economist The World Bank (retired) and President of Hemispheres Solutions LLC USA, The Hon Tom Roper-President The Australian Sustainable Built Environment Council, Brian Stewart-CEO & General Council Urban Development institute of Australia, Stephen Butler-National Engineering & Operations Manager Mirvac, Prof Philip Follent-Head of School Soheil Abedian School of Architecture Bond University, Prof Brian (Tony) Ciochetti-Thomas G. Eastman Chair and Chairman Center for Real Estate Massachusetts institute of Technology, Prof Mike Hefferan-State President QLD Division Property Council of Australia.

Additional conference events included the PhD Colloquium with 35 people in attendance (24 PhD presenting students, 19 observers), the 3rd Case Competition with 6 Teams competing including Bond University’s Institute of Sustainable Development & Architecture, Queensland University of Technology, The University of Auckland, University of South Australia, University of Southern California, University of the Sunshine Coast with The University of Auckland  being awarded first place for 2011, congratulations.

For 2011, Industry Day had two themes, with the morning session providing presentations by international and local speakers on issues of Sustainable Development and Real Estate.

The speakers included:

  • Prof Tony  Ciochetti, the Thomas G Eastman Chair & Chairman of the Center for Real Estate at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in the USA,
  • Steven Butler , National Engineering & Operations Manager, Mirvac,
  • Dr George Quezada and Ass Prof Andrew Wilford, Bond University Institute of Sustainable Development and Architecture,
  • Prof Phillip Follent, Head Soheil Abedian School of Architecture, Bond University of Sustainable Development & Architecture.

The afternoon session provided a panel discussion addressing the proposition that industry players and peak bodies often suggest the academic research is irrelevant. The question posed was “What Makes quality research industry relevant?” One of the major conclusions from the floor was that in order that academic research becomes more relevant it must be more inter disciplinary.

The panel was comprised of;

  • Prof George Earl, Director of the Institute of Sustainable Development & Architecture (Facilitator)

  • Brian Stewart, COE UDIA Queensland

  • Prof Mike Hefferan, State president of the Queensland API

Over 15 countries were represented at this year’s conference with delegates attending from the United Kingdom, United States of America, New Zealand, Germany, Finland, Slovakia, Singapore, Thailand, Malaysia, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Fiji and all states of Australia.

Conference sponsors  included the Australian Property Institute – QLD Division who kindly contributed to the success of the Welcome Reception held at the Institute of Sustainable Development & Architecture, along with the support of PRRES Society Inc sponsors: Australian Property Institute [API], Estate Master Property Software and Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors [RICS].

Cecilia Weuffen on behalf of 18th PRRES Conference Organisation Team

2011 PRRES Conference Dinner Fund Raising

A total of $1,100 was raised at the PRRES Conference Dinner to help victims of the Queensland Flood of which $100 cash was spent on 4 x mature shade trees. Gold Coast City Council then donated an additional 20 trees which has provided the young students of Murphy Creek School with the beginnings of a new playground area. These trees will replace a number of trees that were washed away in the January floods.

The tree planting project was initiated by Bond University Environmental Science and Management PhD student Ms Amy White, who managed to raise an additional $1,000 for the school. “I witnessed first-hand the damage the floods caused in Brisbane, so when we heard about Murphy’s Creek School we wanted to help out.”

“We collected donations from the Pacific Rim Real Estate Society Conference hosted by the Institute in January and then contacted the Gold Coast City Council who kindly donated 25 new trees.” said Ms White.

Bond University Environmental students Amy White, Avalon Hicks, Craig Page, Loren Angel, Thomas Haehl, Chloe de Vries and Professor Tor Hundloe spent the morning touring the school grounds with school Principal Jo Sinclair-Jones who calmly spoke about the devastation of January 10 this year.

“The January flood was like an inland tsunami. It came without warning and has had a huge impact on our community,” said Mrs Sinclair-Jones.

“As a result over 10 per cent of our students have relocated from the area with their families, with some families still living in temporary accommodation”.

“There were many reports of community members found clinging to trees after being sweep away in the floods and sadly, two of our treasured staff members were tragically taken on that day”. “We are very grateful for the support these Bond students have provided ‘she said.

“These new trees will beautify our school grounds and provide shade for our students. The Institute has also provided a very generous financial contribution to help our school move forward again,” said Mrs Sinclair-Jones.

Thank you for your assistance and our ‘collective’ gift was gratefully received.

Cecilia Weuffen Marketing Officer Institute of Sustainable Development & Architecture Bond University

18th PRRES Conference PhD Colloquium

The PhD colloquium this year was a great success with a strong turnout of PhD students presenting on various topics at different stages in their PhD. It was an engaging and enjoyable day with various topics and a good turnout of academics who provided their support and shared their experience and wisdom.

A new session was developed this year which allowed new PhD students to discuss their ideas and possible methodologies and gain valuable feedback on how to approach their ideas and projects.

The PhD colloquium is a great event for PhD students or for those thinking about a PhD. Please encourage your students and potential students to attend next years' PRRES PhD colloquium at the University of South Australia, as it is an opportunity for presenting research and gaining meaningful feedback in a supportive environment.

Congratulations to the 2011 PhD Colloquium scholarship winners, Shuk Man Miranda Chiu for the paper Effects of Land Auctions on Private Housing market – An Empirical Study in Hong Kong and Melanie Thomas for the paper Housing preference and choice: Self-congruity and functional congruity influences on home purchase intention.

Dr Georgia Warren-Myers, Organiser PhD Colloquium

Deakin University, Australia

Email: g.warrenmyers@deakin.edu.au

18th PRRES Conference Case Competition

The 3rd Pacific Rim Real Estate Society Case Competition was held in conjunction with the 2011 PRRES Conference. Six universities sent teams of four property students to compete in this competition; Bond University, the University of South Australia, Queensland University of Technology, the University of Sunshine Coast, the University of Auckland and the University of Southern California.

Each team of four students is provided with a real‐life real estate related case study and has five hours to carry out an in‐depth analysis and prepare a proposal addressing the key issues of the business. Each team then makes a presentation on their strategy and is given the opportunity to answer and defend themselves during question time with a judging panel of academic and industry practitioners.

Every year the feedback from students is very positive as the case competition gives undergraduate students an opportunity to hone their professional skills and to tick all the boxes looked for by future employers. Being articulate, analytical, a considered problem solver and a team player all give students the competitive advantage needed in such a challenging industry. The PRRES conference also enables students to appreciate the wider world faced by both property academics and industry practitioners and to understand how each tie in with the other.

The 2011 winning team was George Culver, Lani O’Brien, Natasha Sarkar and Jasmine Yao from the University of Auckland which has now won the title 2 years in a row (2010 and 2011). Another 2011 finalist was the University of Southern California (the winner of 2009 title). George Culver, student from the University of Auckland explains their winning strategy. “One of the cases was based around The Tower Company, which developed and owned a significant amount of property throughout north-east America. The company had a strong focus on green development and aimed to lead the industry in sustainable building design. We presented a marketing campaign to improve the occupancy of Tower's existing developments and a financial analysis to show the market could support their proposed level of environmental specifications. We also recommended future development once occupancy targets had been met.”

All PRRES members are strongly encouraged to field teams in the 2012 PRRES competition at UniSA.

Connie Susilawati PRRES Case Competition convener

2012 PRRES Conference

The 2012 18th PRRES Conference will be hosted by the School of Commerce at the University of South Australia. The conference theme 'Property: Nexus of Place & Space' which focuses on the contribution of property to economy and to community, seeks to cover a wide range of  research areas including property development, property investment, property education, property management, valuation and property markets; urban, regional and rural.

Stop Press

The Pacific Rim Real Estate Society call for abstracts and papers for the 18th Pacific Rim Real Estate Society Conference

Pacific Rim Property Research Journal

I am pleased to advise that in March the PRPRJ was approved for inclusion in Scopus by the Content Selection & Advisory Board (CSAB). This is an excellent outcome for PRRES and PRPRJ and it will be noted in future copies of PRPRJ on inside covers well as in next editorial.

Scopus is a database of abstracts and citations and covers some 16,500 peer-reviewed journals in the scientific, technical, medical and social science fields. It was the citation data supplier used for the 2010 ERA evaluation.

Scopus, in their review of the PRPRJ, commented that the journal showed a convincing journal policy with good online accessibility.

In 2010 PRPRJ Volume 16 published 23 papers and included a special issue in memory of Professor Tom Whipple. Thank you to Assoc Professor Greg Costello for acting as Guest Editor for this special issue.

Published papers represented some 15 different universities or organisations and 28 authors. Of the 23 papers 74% were from Australian authors, 22% from New Zealand and 4% from Malaysia. Topics covered included property investment/REITS (35%), property education (17%), valuation (17%), housing (13%) and property development (9%).

The journal continues to encourage contributions from new and early career academics with 43% of publications from early career researchers and 36% from “new” PRPRJ authors.

The Best PRPRJ paper Award for 2009 was awarded to Chyi Lin Lee (2009), Downside beta and valuation based property returns Vol 15(2): 182-203.

Dr Steven Rowley (Curtin) won the 2011 PRPRJ “Red Pen” refereeing award.

Thank you to all PRPRJ referees and authors and to Lina Gong (UWS) and Hear Antoniades (UTS) for putting final copy of the journal together.

Professor Graeme Newell Editor, PRPRJ

News from PRRES Members

University of Auckland

The 2011 PRRES Conference was a very successful conference for the University of Auckland. Associate Deborah Levy was pleased and honoured to receive her 2011 PRRES Achievement Award. Senior Lecturer Dr Michael Rehm was voted back onto the PRRES board while Senior Lecturer Dr Olga Filippova was invited to join the editorial board of the Pacific Rim Property Research Journal. As well Property Case Competition students George Culver, Lani O'Brien, Natasha Sarkar and Jasmine Yao took out 2011 PRRES case competition for the second year in a row!

Property PhD student Jeremy Gabe took home the 2011 Best New Presenter Award for his refereed paper Market implications of operational performance variability in certified green buildings. Fellow PhD student Hasniyati Hamzah was given the opportunity to speak at the 2011 PhD Colloquium, where she presented on Economic behaviour of agents involved in the implementation of affordable housing policy: Evidence from a developing economy.

Assoc Professor Deborah Levy University of Auckland

Central Queensland University

Dr Garrick Small has recently taken up a position at Central Queensland University as an Associate Professor. We welcome Garrick back into academia and look forward to seeing him on the PRRES circuit again!

Dr Garrick Small Central Queensland University

University of Western Sydney

Atasya Osmadi had her PhD approved by UWS in early February. Atasya's PhD was on Islamic REITs in Malaysia; she attended PRRES conferences and has also published papers in JPR, PRPRJ and APJ. She is now back at University Science Malaysia in Penang as lecturer

Professor Graeme Newell University of Western Sydney

Prizes & Awards 2011

PRRES Achievement Award

  • Associate Professor Deborah Levy

2011 PRRES Meritorious Service Award

  • Dr Geoff Page

2011 Best Refereed Paper (Certificate) Selected from refereed papers

  • Tim-Alexander Kroencke & Felix Schindler for the paper Diversification Benefits from Securitized Real Estate for International Portfolios

Best Pacific Rim Property Research Journal Paper Prize

  • Chyi Lin Lee (2009), Downside beta and valuation based property returns Vol 15(2): 182-203.

2011 Best Innovative Paper (Certificate) Selected from refereed papers

  • Valerie Kupke, Peter Rossini & Sharon Yam for the paper An exploration of female home ownership patterns in Australia

2011 RICS Best New Researcher/Presenter

  • Jeremy Gabe for the paper Market implications of operational performance variability in certified green buildings

2011 PhD Colloquium scholarships

  1. Shuk Man Miranda Chiu for the paper Effects of Land Auctions on Private Housing market � An Empirical Study in Hong Kong

  2. Melanie Thomas for the paper Housing preference and choice: Self-congruity and functional congruity influences on home purchase intention

Dr Clive Warren PRRES Board

Book Review Associate Professor of Property (Retd) Maurice Squirrell

NEW URBAN DEVELOPMENT: Looking Back to See Forward Author Claude Gruen

Most books on urbanization are long on history and short on solutions. In this book, the focus is on positive and clear articulation of changes that provide opportunities for a strengthened economy following the recent role of USA housing in the Global Financial Crisis (GFC).

In his 2010 book, “New Urban Development – looking back to see forward” Dr Claude Gruen, a private urban economist from San Francisco, commences by carefully explaining the major events in the urban housing market of the USA that led to the bubble that burst during 2008?and precipitated the GFC. While much of this covers the financial climates of the times and the consequences for the mortgage system as it was allowed to develop a sizeable sub-prime portfolio, once the resultant crisis is established, the various, often linked, forces and factors emerging during the last century and leading to that crisis are laid out in detail.

These interesting passages set out the background since the ‘great depression of the 1930s to the time of the recent economic crisis, and, using economic logic and personal experiences over this period, Gruen examines consequences and suggests future courses of action and change as the complex matrix of forces and influences came together in the housing supply and demand relation in the largest market economy of the world.

While some of these issues seem to be USA related only, in most cases it is the nuances only that differ from those impacting on the Australian housing market and urban economy, and in nearly all cases “Lessons Learned” are there for Australia and her policy makers.

Issues covered in detail include: land use restrictions and owner entitlement, agglomeration economics, infrastructure provision and maintenance, planning and zoning, the viscous cycle of inclusionary zoning, filtration, gentrification, negative land values, negative equity, public-inspired constraints on development, effects of large-lot zoning, suburbanisation and sprawl, the no build alternative.

The final chapter “Urban Policies for the New Economy – Equipping America to Thrive in the New Economy’ commences with a knowing quote from President Obama’s Chief of Staff “A Crisis is too good an opportunity to miss”Gruen offers, with reasons, the following eleven changes for urban development policy.

Urban Policies for the New Economy - Suggested Changes for a Strengthened Economy

  • Plan and Zone to Add More Development Than Would Be Required by Estimated Likely Demand Growth.

  • Include Sufficient Zoning for Mixed Uses.

  • Mandate Default Maximum Densities for Zoning in Urban Regions.

  • Encourage the Feasibility of Developing Passed-Over Vacant or Underutilized Land.

  • The Costs of Public Services That Would Be Induced by a New Development Should be Charged to That New Development.

  • Repair and Expand America’s Infrastructure.

  • Using Taxation to Encourage Environmental and Congestion Improvements.

  • Take the burden of Social Housing off the Backs of Market House Producers.

  • Vest tenants of Redeveloped properties with Rent Differential Subsidies

  • Distribute a Portion of Sales Tax Revenue on the Basis of Population Rather Than Point of Sale.

  • A Private Alternative to Public Urban Redevelopment.

  • Put the Genies of Toxic Mortgages and Opaque Derivatives Transactions Back in the Bottle.

  • A fix-It, Don’t Stop-It Culture.

This is a book that should be read at all levels of Australian governments concerned with urban policy as well as planners, developers, investors and other property professionals, academics and graduate students

New Urban Development by Claude Gruen is published by RUTGARS University Press, September 2010. Retail price: US$42.95.

A 20% discount is currently (January 2011) available for Internet purchases: Google: ‘rutgers university press’, then ‘Books’, ‘New Releases’, ‘New Urban Development’, ‘20% Discount Offer’.

Associate Professor of Property (Retd) Maurice Squirrell

RMIT

PRRES Newsletter

Editor: Valerie Kupke, UniSA
valerie.kupke@unisa.edu.au

Webmaster: Peter Rossini, UniSA
peter.rossini@unisa.edu.au

Next edition October 2011