PRRES Newsletter

October 2008

15th Pacific Rim Real Estate Society Conference 2009

The 15th PRRES Conference will be held in Sydney over 18-21 January 2009. Over 120 papers have been submitted in a wide range of areas of property research.

Highlights of the 2009 PRRES conference will include:

·Keynote addresses from Professor Bob Hargreaves (Massey University) and Barry Brakey (Future Fund)

·Industry Day, with presentations by leading property practitioners in areas of property investment outlook, REITs and sustainability

·Active sponsorship by API, PINZ, RICS, Colonial First State, Estate Master, IPD and Mercer

·Harbour cruise conference dinner

·Presentation of 2009 PRRES Achievement Award

·PhD Colloquium to support new property researchers

Property Case competition between student teams from various universities.

Free PRESS membership

Dear University Colleague

Attached please find an application form for student membership of PRRES.  If you could make copies of this form and provide a copy to any interested post-graduate student, PRRES would be most grateful.

As you will see, in support of post-graduate research, PRRES is now offering FREE membership to all FULL-TIME POST-GRADUATE RESEARCH STUDENTS (ie PhD or Masters by RESEARCH).  For other post-graduate students, PRRES is still making a great offer of membership at $AUS55, with 2 years membership for 1 year’s membership fee.

You might also draw to students’ attention the Post-graduate Colloquium which will be held at the next PRRES Conference (18th to 21st January, 2009 in Sydney, Colloquium on the 18th), reduced rate Conference fees for Post-graduate students and the PRRES Scholarships ( 2 valued at $AUS1500 each) to assist in attending the Conference. 

Graeme Newell

Application_For_PRRES_STUDENT_Membership.pdf Application_For_PRRES_STUDENT_Membership.pdf (74kB)

Photo of Graeme Newell receiving ERES Achievement Award 2008

Unfortunately there is no photograph of this prestigious event ….as yet….

Graeme explains “Before ERES, I smashed my head at Auschwitz when I fell; I blame Clive Warren for suggesting a short cut to get back to the train down a grassy slope and I slipped; landed on my head; smashed my glasses; cut into my eye; blood on the moon; should have been stitched but the thought of getting stitches in a Polish hospital around my eye did not excite me.  Bandaged up and had cuts on face covered with bandaids at conference...............so no photo ….took 3 weeks to clear up and now have a scar near my eye.” 

There must be another award in that story somewhere ……!

Exciting news of PRRES 2009 Property Case Competition

Business case competitions have made a strong presence on the international stage, and are a fast growing attraction for many students. They provide students with a real life business situation in the form of a case study. Based on the case given, teams are to conduct in-depth analysis and create a proposal/strategy on how to move the business forward. Business case competitions share a vision of fostering personal development of the students who take part. They allow opportunities to improve analytical, team-work, communication & presentation skills. Students are able enhance their problem solving ability & develop skills across various business disciplines, including finance, marketing, operations, management & problem solving.

Competition Format

Each team will consist of undergraduate students (full & part time) who studying a property related tertiary course. Depending on the number of teams competing, they will be divided into divisions with an equal number of teams per division. A draw will be conducted to determine the order of start and presentation times. A DVD of each recorded team presentation will be distributed to all participants at the end of the competition. The finalists will be representing the same case within 30 minutes of the finals announcement.  Faculty advisors are welcome to watch any team. After the team has presented, they are permitted to stay and watch the presentations of teams in their own division.  There will be between two to four people on each judging panel. The judging panel will be selected from business practitioners as well as conference delegates.

PRRES KL 2008 Revisited

Following the conclusion of the conference on Wednesday, I caught the train to the airport with several fellow Australians only to find that I was at the wrong side of the airport. The super cheap Air Asia flight that I had booked left from the other side of the airport, necessitating a short taxi trip. Despite the taxi fare, the flight was a fraction of the cost of other airlines, left on time and landed early on the Gold Coast the following morning!

David Parker PRRES Board and Past President

PhD Colloquium, PRRES Conference 2009, Sydney

Who should attend?

Any students who are currently studying towards a Doctorate degree in an area of property are welcome to attend the colloquium:

  1. Students who are well advanced in their research will present their initial findings and receive feedback which will be useful to them in writing up their thesis and in turning their research into property research publications;
  2. Students who have completed their initial research proposal and literature review should present their work and receive helpful advice to assist them with their research progress;
  3. Students who are in the preliminary stages of their research, or just contemplating a research degree will benefit by listening to the discussion, the proposals and the research outcomes of other students in developing their research proposals.

What feedback will I get?

Participants presenting their work will be given supportive and constructive feedback from senior property academics and fellow postgraduate students during the open discussion and question and answer sessions after each presentation. In addition, after the presentation, presenters who have submitted summaries and proposals will receive detailed comments from a designated property academic.

How to submit and present a proposal?

Students who wish to present their work should submit a research summary of not more than five pages (including key references) for review no later than 8 October 2008. These submissions will be considered by a panel of property academics. These research summaries will be used to determine the recipients of the PRRES scholarships for 2009.

Summaries should be sent as a Word attachment to Professor Graeme Newell, University of Western Sydney at g.newell@uws.edu.au. Students should indicate whether they wish to be considered for the PRRES scholarship.

  • The first page of the summary should include:
  • The name of the candidate
  • The academic institution
  • Name of supervisor(s)
  • Title of research

The summary should address the following themes as appropriate according to the stage of study:

  • The research issue
  • Why the research is important from the academic and practice perspectives
  • The theory and frameworks being used
  • The methodology
  • The anticipated contribution to knowledge
  • Progress to–date (including preliminary results and findings)
  • The next steps in the research process
  • One or two specific issues which you would like feedback from the panel.

Format of summary:

  • Microsoft Word document
  • A4
  • Times New Roman 12 point font
  • Single spacing
  • 2.5 cm (1 inch) margins
  • Harvard style referencing
  • No footnotes
  • Figures and tables integrated into the text
  • Use the file name: students surname­_colloquium

Research summaries submitted will be reviewed by an academic panel in order to ensure that they are of an appropriate standard. Candidates making submissions will be advised by 22 October that their submission has been accepted for presentation. The titles of the accepted submissions will be included in the colloquium programme, but full submissions will not be published. Students will give 15-20 minute presentations on their research, followed by supportive feedback from those attending the colloquium. Students who are presenting their work are required to bring 15 copies of their presentation slides.

PRRES actively encourages PhD students to attend this PhD colloquium to assist their PhD goals. It is done in a very supportive manner. Previous attendees have completed their PhDs and are now publishing their property research in PRPRJ etc, and developing their property careers.  I hope you can participate in this important initiative by PRRES to support our property PhD students. Contact me if further details are needed. g.newell@uws.edu.au

Routledge announced recently the introduction of a new journal likely to be of interest to PRRES members– Spatial Economic Analysis.  Details can be found at http://www.tandf.co.uk/journals/titles/17421772.asp

News of PRRES members

UWS, Sydney In May Professor Graeme Newell received the American Real Estate Society Distinguished Service Award for 2008, becoming the first non-US academic to receive it.  This was followed up in June when he received the European Real Estate Society (ERES) Achievement Award at the ERES conference held at Krakow, Poland from June 18-June 21.  The significance of Graeme getting this award can be judged on two points.  Firstly, the award is not given every year. Secondly, it typically goes to someone who on the ERES board, which Graeme is not. However, he has played a key role in bringing ERES into international prominence over the last 10 years that he has been working it.  The award was presented in front of 300 plus attendees at the ERES conference dinner in a salt mine 100 metres below ground.

Universiti Teknologi MARA, Malaysia - Dr. Ting Kien Hwa, a Board Member of PRRES, has been promoted to the position of Associate Professor in April this year. Dr. Ting is currently attached to the Department of Estate Management, Faculty of Architecture, Planning & Surveying, Universiti Teknologi MARA, Malaysia. Assoc. Prof. Dr Ting has been playing an active role in organizing the 14th Pacific Rim Real Estate Society Conference held in Kuala Lumpur early this year. His roles in the Conference include: Treasurer of the Organising Committee, Organising Chair of PhD Colloquium, Session Chair of REIT Forum on Issues and the Development of Malaysian REITs. Prior to his promotion, Assoc. Prof. Dr Ting has a short industry attachment last year with a leading property consultancy firm in Kuala Lumpur as Head of Research. Among the research assignments include the positioning of a multi-billion ringgit commercial development as a global property development project after taking into consideration global city hierarchy, regional competitive advantage, property market maturity and transparency.

UniSA , Adelaide  - Dr Geoff Page and partner Karen added some family history stuff to their recent trip to the 2009 ERES conference. Geoff family on his mother’s side has the surname of Meissner which comes from the town of Meissen In Germany. History has it the three Meissner Brothers immigrated to Australia from Silesia to escape military service and were part of the early German migrants into South Australia. Geoff took in the sights of Meissen, Dresden and Wroclaw before making it to the ERES Conference.  After the conference he took the train to Italy and joined up with Karen’s family to tour parts of Italy, Swiss alps, Germany and then back to Wales. Geoff did something different at the ERES conference and that was to wear shoes! The five weeks of travelling after the conference saw him in constant barefoot mode which gave many of the locals something to talk about. Geoff and Karen also indulged in lots of the local foods, beers and wines and enjoyed interacting with some local producers

International Property Research Conference: Update

Pacific-Rim Real Estate Society, PRRES
Sydney Australia: January 18-21, 2009 Click here for details

American Real Estate Society, ARES
Monterey, California: April 1 - 4, 2009

European Real Estate Society, ERES
Stockholm , Sweden: June 2009

Asian Real Estate Society, AsRES Los Angeles, USA: July 2009

PRRES Newsletter

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

Webmaster: Peter Rossini, UniSA
web@prres.net

Next edition April 2009

A big thank you to our contributors!