#RICSProvada New report urges action to tackle future challenges

A new RICS report to be launched at the Provada fair in Amsterdam on Tuesday warns land and building professionals to prepare for the onslaught of future change.

Built environment professionals must take concerted action to prepare for the unprecedented global change which the sector will face in the period up to 2030, according to the conclusions of a new RICS report ‘Our Changing World: Let’s Be Ready’.

Social and economic changes occurring worldwide will demand new skills, business models and responses to developing technologies over the next 15 years. For this reason RICS, in collaboration with PropertyEU, has invited leaders of the property industry in Europe to highlight future action and share their views on the future of real estate at Dutch real estate fair Provada. Leading property figures representing organisations such as ULI, INREV, ICSC and the Association of Institutional Property Investors in the Netherlands (IVBN) are expected at the Amsterdam event.

‘We all want to know what the future has in store for us,’ says RICS managing director for Europe, Russia & CIS Maarten Vermeulen. ‘Adapting to change is necessary for any organisation to remain relevant in a changing world. This is why I am delighted to see how our RICS Futures programme brings together a wide range of property professionals and organisations eager to adapt to change to remain relevant in a changing world,’ Vermeulen adds.

Demographics and urbanisation
The RICS report highlights significant changes in demographics, levels of urbanisation and economic power, all of which will affect how and where we live. The full impact of these changes is impossible to predict but RICS, as a global professional body, says that it must lead the built environment professions. In turn, they must be responsive and agile in order to meet the new challenges.

The report aims to stimulate debate among practitioners in the built environment by identifying the implications of rapid change. ‘As a body that represents many of the professional disciplines so integral to the built environment, RICS can play an important role as a catalyst to bring people and organisations together, support businesses and ensure professionals in the built environment develop and further build on the skills needed to remain relevant in the future,’ says RICS chief executive officer Sean Tompkins.
‘We recognise that we cannot achieve this alone, it’s about collaboration – this report is an open invitation for firms, organisations and individuals who want to help ensure our sector is fit for future generations.’

The report states that RICS will need to find new partners, identify expertise, build its knowledge base, engage markets and ‘develop a valuable professional offer in these new growth sectors’. It adds that action will be needed to explore the options to develop where the profession is likely to grow, reviewing pathways and competencies and creating a professional home for those in fields such as infrastructure; real estate and construction data; strategic management of assets such as workplaces; natural resources and cities; sustainability; and areas that are increasingly intersecting with the built environment sector, such as finance and technology.

Ethics, sustainability and war for talent
‘In Europe we have identified ethics, sustainability and the war for talent as the key areas to help our sector be able to adapt and succeed as business models,’ comments Vermeulen. The report’s authors sought the future views of surveyors from diverse specialisms and locations around the world. More than 400 people from Asia, North America, South America, Europe and Africa participated in a series of workshops, public forums and interviews.

‘The thing that has struck me during this work is the fast pace of change that we are seeing. Our sector will need to invest more in its people and in new skills. With the rise in use of tools such as Building Information Modelling increasing our capacity to collect and share data, new technology emerging in both our built and natural environments such as the Internet of Things and 3D printing, standing still is not an option,’ says Dan Cook, RICS director of strategy and one of the report’s authors. He adds that the changes the sector faces means surveyors globally will have to adapt their methods to stay relevant to the profession and society at large.

‘Professions like ours, educators and firms will need to change to embrace roles and skills that have not even been imagined today in the period to 2030,’ Cook says. Vermeulen adds: ‘Ethics, sustainability, boosting leadership, innovation, and commercial acumen will, no doubt, help our sector be able to adapt and succeed as business models, technology and societal expectations change.’

The report ‘Our Changing World: Let’s Be Ready’ will be launched on 2 June in Amsterdam during the Provada fair in the RAI exhibition centre. A special panel discussion entitled 'The Future of Real Estate' will be held at 13.30 - 14.30 in the International Business Lounge, Hall 10.