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PRRES Newsletter

April 2008

Pacific Rim Real Estate Society Conference

The conference provided a major international forum for the presentation and discussion of the latest property research and practice by researchers, academicians and practitioners. The activities of the conference included parallel sessions, post graduate research sessions, a gala dinner and keynote addresses by YB Bhg Datuk Ong Tee Keat, the Deputy Minister of Higher Education Malaysia and Mr Michael Smith, Head of Real Estate, Goldman Sachs, Asia Pacific.

The post graduate sessions were held at the Faculty of Built Environment, Universiti Malaya on the 20th January with participation from post graduate students from various universities in Malaysia discussing diverse research topics in the built environment discipline. The opening ceremony was officiated by Yg Bhg Datuk Ong Tee Keat who also gave a keynote address on the first day. To cement the working relationship between the partnering universities and ISM, a memorandum of cooperation (MOC) signing ceremony was held between the Institution of Surveyors Malaysia (ISM) and Universiti Tun Hussein Onn Malaysia. This then adds another member university to the partnering university collaboration that was initiated earlier in June 2005. The minister graciously witnessed the ceremony.

Mr Michael Smith of Goldman Sachs Asia Pacific delivered the second day keynote address entitled ‘Securitisation of Asian Real Estate’. The parallel sessions, held on the 21st to 23rd January 2008, had presenters addressing a wide range of topics which included sustainable development, valuation, property education, corporate real estate, housing, facilities management, property performance, property finance, property investment, property marketing and REITs. Eminent speakers also included professors from universities of the Asia Pacific region.

To mark the last day session, a REIT forum was held on the 23rd January 2008 which followed a presentation from Mr Lim Ye Jhen, General Manager, Hektar Asset Management Sdn Bhd. The panels of the forum included Mr Elvin Fernandez, Managing Director of Khong & Jaafar, Dato’ Mani Usilappan, Adjunct Professor of Universiti Malaya and Universiti Tun Hussein Onn Malaysia and Professor Graeme Newell, University of Western Sydney, Australia. The moderator of the session was Dr Ting Kien Hwa from University Teknologi MARA.

The conference had a total number of 133 delegates from 15 countries which included Australia, New Zealand, UK, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Singapore, Switzerland, South Africa, Uganda, Germany, Greece, Finland, Austria and Malaysia. Although Australia had the most presenters of papers the number of papers from the Malaysian delegates was encouraging, totalling 17 out of over 80 papers delivered throughout the conference.

The organizing committee would like to extend their appreciation to those who have given support (especially sponsorship) to make the conference a reality.

Yasmin Mohd Adnan
PRRES Conference Convenor
February 2008

Full proceedings from the 14th PRRES conference are now online.

Video recordings of the presentations at the 14^th PRRES conference, including the opening ceremony and plenary sessions are available, courtesy of the Universiti Tun Hussein Onn Malaysia

Pacific Rim Property Research Journal Editor’s Report

PRPRJ has been published since 1989; 2007 was our 13th volume
25 papers were published in the four copies of PRPRJ in 2007, comprising over 500 pages
Publications were mainly from Australia (65%), Malaysia (13%) and Taiwan (9%)
Areas covered were property investment/LPTs (22%), housing (22%), valuation (13%), property markets (13%) and property companies (13%)
18 universities/organisations were represented amongst the 40 authors
61% of authors had not published in PRPRJ before
30% of authors had not published before
Richard Reed and Larry Murphy were appointed to the editorial board of the PRPRJ

PRPRJ encourages PRRES members to submit their papers for consideration for publication in PRPRJ. Email copies to Graeme Newell at g.newell@uws.edu.au; we try to get referees’ reports back to you within 6-8 weeks.

Professor Graeme Newell
Editor, PRPRJ

Vale to Bob Fraser

It is with sadness that we announce the passing of our valued friend and colleague Bob Fraser.

Bob passed away on Thursday 20th March 2008 after a long illness. Bob was well known through the PRRES community being one of the early founders of our organization. He was an unforgettable character and we mourn his passing.

Greg Costello & Sandy Bond
Curtin Business School
Perth, Western Australia

Congratulations on PhD completions!

We congratulate the following 2007 conferrals.

Geoff Page DEduc (Flinders University) Geoff’s thesis examined the professional socialization of valuers from the perspective of the valuation profession and from the perspective of graduates and educators. Geoff comments that his studies reinforced the need to provide graduates with a big picture understanding right from the beginning of their studies and for this to continue.

Roselina Shakir PhD (Curtin University of Technology) Roselina’s thesis was entitled Malaysian Property Firms-Performance and Behaviour. She comments “My findings corroborate the belief that the typical Asian corporate governance system is evident in Malaysian firms and confirms the significant effect of family firms and large block owners on firm performance. “

Sharon Yam PhD (University Tun Hussein Onn, Malaysia) Sharon’s research topic was corporate social responsibility as a marketing tool in housing development. She comments on her work, “For me, perseverance is the one thing that I learn most from it! Of course, I have learnt to appreciate CSR more nowadays! “

Graeme Newell PhD (University of Western Sydney) Graeme’s thesis was entitled The Strategic Role of Commercial Property in Institutional Portfolios. He comments “It enabled me to reflect on how my property research has come together over many years into a substantive and coherent research contribution across a range of research methods.”

Patrick Rowland PhD (Curtin University of Technology) Patrick’s thesis was entitled The Allocation of Responsibilities for Leased Properties. He says “It may have taken more than a decade but I was only working on it when there was nothing more interesting to do!”

Valerie Kupke PhD (University of Adelaide) Valerie’s paper covered the impact of job security on home ownership. “The tea and sandwiches after the ceremony went down a treat!”

News of PRRES Members

Universiti Malaya, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia - Professor Dominique Fischer (as of July 2007) and Professor Graeme Newell (as of January 2008) have been appointed recently as Visiting Professors within the Department of Estate Management, Faculty of the Built Environment.

Lincoln University, Canterbury, New Zealand - John McDonagh has been awarded the Best Corporate Real Estate Paper Prize at the PRRES Conference in Kuala Lumpur. The prize is sponsored by Emerald and John’s paper will now be published in the Journal of Corporate Real Estate.

UTS, Sydney - Garrick Small is taking a break from UTS in 2008 to work for Estate Master and its sister company HillPDA; a change of pace which he is enjoying.

UniSA, Adelaide - In 2007 Rob Kooymans retired from UniSA after 19 years of service to the university. He is enjoying his retirement immensely. Dr Tony Lockwood has been recently appointed to the lecturing staff within the property discipline.

UWS, Sydney – Dr Chyi Lin Lee has been appointed recently as lecturer in property at UWS; he has just completed a PhD on LPTs from the University of Melbourne. The property group at UWS, in conjunction with the API, received a UWS Community Engagement Excellence Award for 2007.

PhD Colloquium, PRRES Conference 2008, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

Professor Newell’s talk touched on various issues of PhD study particularly on choosing PhD topics, choosing supervisors, time management and other important points on research strategy; all of which were very well received by the PhD students.

The preparation by the students was excellent as evidenced by the comprehensive presentations which attracted interesting questions followed by in-depth discussion which provided useful feedback to the students.

The PRRES Postgraduate Awards were won by :

Hui Hon Chung (University of Nottingham Malaysia) “On the role of real estate markets in Malaysia’s 1997-98 financial crisis: economic history revisited”
Hairulnizam Hashim (Universiti Teknologi MARA, Malaysia) “Trading Volume Determinant Factors of Global Real Estate Investment Trusts over the Period of 1991 to 2007”

It is hoped that more foreign students will be able to participate in future Colloquiums so as to increase the interaction and networking among international students. The Colloquium was able to achieve the objective of providing an excellent platform for postgraduate students to meet with potential supervisors, mentors and examiners.

Dr. Ting Kien Hwa
Coordinator
PhD Colloquium

PRRES Conference 2008

New Property Course ushers in new era of Property Education in Victoria

Starting a new property course from the ground up presents an ideal opportunity to ‘get it right’ the first time, as well as developing innovations for property education. The Deakin University property course is being delivered via a flexible delivery mode where the students are exposed to a combination of face-to-face lectures and off-campus lectures. For example, internet lectures are held using ‘Elive’ which is new cutting edge interactive 2-way software that collectively incorporates PowerPoint lectures, whiteboard and audiovisual teaching. With ‘Elive’ students are able to raise their hand and ask questions to all students or the lecturer during the lecture whilst they are located off-campus or on-campus. In addition many of the Deakin University subjects are available over the summer semester which shortens the time required to complete the course.

Deakin University has close industry contacts since the course has been developed over many years in consultation with all the professional bodies including the API and RICS. The range of new units includes a strong focus on sustainability (e.g. SRP112 Sustainable Construction) as well as covering both introductory and advanced property development subjects. The property valuation subjects are supported by a large range of industry data sources. The demand for quality property graduates in Victoria has been very high in recent years and this new 3 year course has been designed to meet this demand. Early indications are that the timing and design of the Deakin University course has been ideally suited to Victorian property students, industry employers, professional bodies and the property market itself.

Dr Richard Reed
Professor of Property and Real Estate
Deakin University

Email: r.reed@deakin.edu.au