IPMS: Change Around The Corner For Global Real Estate

FMAlertPosted by Heidi Schwartz

The new International Property Measurement Standard (IPMS) for office buildings, produced by the IPMSC Standards Setting Committee, is the first of its kind. The goal of the standard is to provide a common language for measuring offices across international markets, benefiting real estate practitioners including investors, lenders, agents, valuers, and occupiers. The international standard will ensure that property assets are measured in a consistent way, creating a more transparent marketplace, greater public trust, consistency in the reporting of property size, stronger investor confidence, and increased market stability.

At present, the way property assets are measured varies dramatically from one market to the next. With so many different methods of measurement in use, it makes it difficult for global investors, occupiers, and managers to compare space accurately. Research by global property firm Jones Lang LaSalle suggests that, depending on the method used, a property’s floor area measurement can deviate by as much as 24%.

“Less than a year after the coalition met for the first time at the World Bank in Washington, we now have an international standard. This standard will undoubtedly have a profound and lasting benefit for the global real estate industry, financial markets, and society as a whole, ensuring transparency and consistency are at the very heart of this global industry,” Ken Creighton, Chair of the IPMSC Board of Trustees and RICS Director of Professional Standards.

IPMS will be adopted by all 28 coalition organizations with firms around the world already lined up to implement IPMS from June 2014. The new standard is considered one of the most significant developments in the real estate profession in recent history and will go beyond office measurement standardization to include other property types in the coming months.

As of 07 January 2014, the IPMSC is comprised of:

  • American Society of Farm Managers and Rural Appraisers (ASFMRA)
  • Appraisal Institute (AI)
  • Asia Pacific Real Estate Association (APREA)
  • Asian Association for Investors in Non-listed Real Estate Vehicles (ANREV)
  • Asociacion Professional de Sociedades de Valoracion (ATASA)
  • Italian Real Estate Industry Association (ASSOIMMOBILIARE)
  • ASTM International
  • Australian Property Institute (API)
  • Building Owners and Managers Association International (BOMA International)
  • China Institute of Real Estate Appraisers and Agents (CIREA)
  • Commonwealth Association of Surveying and Land Economy (CASLE)
  • CoreNet Global
  • Council of European Geodetic Surveyors (CLGE)
  • Counselors of Real Estate (CRE)
  • European Council of Real Estate Professions (CEPI)
  • International Consortium of Real Estate Associations (ICREA)
  • International Federation of Surveyors (FIG)
  • International Monetary Fund (IMF)
  • International Real Estate Federation (FIABCI)
  • Japan Association of Real Estate Appraisers (JAREA)
  • National Society of Professional Surveyors (NSPS)
  • Open Standards Consortium for Real Estate (OSCRE)
  • Property Council of Australia (PCA)
  • Property Council of New Zealand (PCNZ)
  • Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS)
  • Seocovi SP (SECOVI)
  • South African Property Owners Association (SAPOA)
  • The Appraisal Foundation (TAF)

Billy Davidson, Vodafone Global Property Director said, “Vodafone occupies space for a wide range of uses all around the world. Like many other corporates, we have had to develop our own means of benchmarking these property assets. I am certain that IPMS will save corporate occupiers time, money, and effort across their property portfolios and will enable us to compare space between companies far more easily than today.”