Tag Archives: RICS

Apr 23 2012

Some pretty cool buildings

As I blogged about last Friday I was at the RICS East Midlands Awards evening last week; they double up as the venue for the Estates Gazette to announce the Agent of the Year.

I was pleasantly surprised to see an amazing selection of projects – some of which I knew. Surprised because we are supposed to be in austere times. There were a record number of entries – 36. The quality of the submissions was very high and I didn’t envy the judges.

Having judged for the last few years for the Civic Trust Awards, I was delighted to see one of the buildings I looked at get a commendation. The Westfield Folkhouse Project in Mansfield designed by Lewis & Hickey (read Nick Riley’s blog here) is a great project and wins another accolade. I was also pleased to see Raynsway’s Passivhaus Office in Leicester be rewarded too. This is a very green building!

Maggies in Nottingham received a commendation too and the collection at the dinner (£1,250) was given to the centre. I love the architecture of the building.

But the evening was about four winners:

Althrop House in Northamptonshire for the Building Conservation Award
The Clay Cross Regeneration Scheme for Regeneration
The Repton School Theatre for Design & Innovation
The Hartsholme Academy in Lincoln for the Community Benefit

These projects were all really good, but one gets the honour of going forward to the National awards in November – and it was little surprise that Althrop won. It was a delicate project to re-dress damaged limestone, replacing stainless steel pins holding the facade tiling and replacing lead roofs. By all accounts this was a major undertaking – taking 20 months. The finished photographs look stunning.

It was good to see that we can still produce good new buildings and refurbish old ones to such a high standard.

Apr 20 2012

Estates Gazette – Agent of the Year 2012

I blogged about my firm being nominated for the East Midlands Agent of the Year 2012 here. We were up against some pretty stiff competition – two national agents and one local one.

We won! And we’re over the moon. The award is the latest in a series of awards for us in the last 6 months – we won the East Midlands Property Dinner Agent of the Year 2011 last September and more recently the Most Active Agent Award – also from the Estates Gazette. Our awards cabinet will need extending soon!

It’s a great accolade for the Directors and staff to get this sort of external recognition. The Estates Gazette is the national property magazine – and is hugely respected. It’s the prize to win – this is our fourth time in eight years! If you voted for us – thanks – it was much appreciated! We couldn’t have done it without your vote.

Last night we collected the award from Lisa Pilkington at the packed RICS / EG Dinner in Nottingham. We had a great night – as you might expect. However, I was on the lemonade, as this morning I am sitting as a final APC assessor for the RICS in Coventry. I need to be wide awake for the next cohort of candidates…

But I’ll be assessing with a smile on my face (as if I would ever do anything else)!

Next week, I’ll blog about some of the buildings that won RICS awards. Some i know and have been to. It was an impressive array!

Feb 22 2012

Salary Levels 2011/12 – the surveying profession

The latest salary survey of Surveying professionals has been published by the RICS and McDonald & Compnay (recruitment specialists).

It makes sobering reading – but is perhaps not all that surprising. Some of the headlines are:

Average Annual Salary – £48,329 (£50,250 in 2010)
£13,461 was the average bonus enjoyed by around 32% of the respondents
The average value of being qualified to MRICS level is £13,000pa
25% of respondents expect a salary reduction in 2012
81% of respondents are happy with their current employer

So, the averages are considerably above the national average wage. of £26,200pa. But behind Air Traffic Controllers at £55,552pa.

Of course, averages hide a lot, so whilst interesting these figures don’t really tell us very much. There will be huge differences in salary levels within the profession.

Perhaps the real headline here is the anticipation of further salary cuts. This means that the respondents to the survey do recognise that this is a pretty tough market (which I guess is why 81% are happy!). The problem, of course, is that the salary bill is the area of a consultants business which can make a huge difference to profit or loss. It is difficult to cut down on other things – our fixed costs are much more difficult to shift – electricity, gas, insurance et al.

We also see some other factors too – price cutting on fees to almost suicidal levels. This doesn’t help anyone. I am not against competition – but what is the point in doing work at a loss? We are seeing a fair amount of this at present with some firms simply ‘buying’ work.

So the immediate future still looks to be quite challenging. The key will be flexibility – of both employer and employee? To ride this storm out, the days of upward-only salary reviews seem to have gone!

Feb 6 2012

Small is beautiful?

You might remember that am an licensed assessor on the Assessment of Professional Competence for the RICS. I sit a couple of times each year to quiz students on their competences – and decide if they are worthy of the letter MRICS.

It is always interesting to compare the quality of candidates. You can usually tell those who work for the big firms – they have a fairly formulaic approach, they are well prepared and have been coached. There’s nothing wrong with that. Candidates from smaller firms are usually different – not quite the opposite of their counterparts in the big firms, but not far off. As candidates are judged on their stated (and pre-agreed) competences each have an equal chance of passing.

But sometimes I am frustrated by the process itself. I think we are in danger of producing almost robot like candidates. It’s a bit like our schools where we teach to test. Whilst that might be good if you work in a narrow field, it’s not always what we need in the profession. We don’t necessarily produce all-rounders and this is, I think a great pity.

When I have done work with Nottingham University one f things that always strikes me is their need to have students to think. It is about students trying to find solutions. The formulae don’t work in this environment.

I do think that we need to go back to having more rounded surveyors, ones who can think independently and find solutions – rather than rote learners. Our world is changing, there’s little point in us teaching the next generation of surveyors just one set of skills = they are going to, more than ever, need to be multi-skilled.

Unfortunately for the current crop of students the choice of whether a big, medium or small firm might be rather academic – it’s basically wherever there is a job…

Jan 31 2012

We need a policy for that?

Twice last week I came across the world of Policies.

A few years ago, when it was fashionable, I toyed with the concept of my firm becoming registered for BS5750, now ISO9001. It was becoming a ‘badge’ which many people had latched onto – those procuring work had an easy question – “are you registered for BS5750?”. So because we were being asked we thought we needed to do it. I had, in fact, come across it many years before – my fathers business was engineering and they had been registered for many years.

Whilst it fit the engineering world it certainly didn’t sit comfortably with the world of a multi-disciplined surveying practice. We eventually came to the conclusion that it was forms for forms sake. It was a system which got in the way of what we did, rather than help it. We have discipline in lots of ways (mostly driven by our professional Institution) – but these are measured and relevant.

Then last week I heard mention of writing a Policy for some work that my son was doing. He works in a school and they divide the work out on an amicable basis, depending on who has time and who has the skill set. It’s a low tech solution, but works in a small team. But someone had suggested to him that he should write a Policy so that they made sure that the division of work was fair, that work was capable of being prioritised an that the right people were employed. The suggestion came from someone in the NHS.

Whilst it is not for me to criticise the NHS (I might need them one day!) I do wonder if we have created such a complex animal that it need rules and processes for everything. I figure that it probably does.

But we don’t always need a process, a policy or a set of forms. Sometimes we just need to speak to each other and agree on who is doing what?

Jan 20 2012

Valuation – an art or a science?

I think I know the answer to this. It is a (black) art. But it does have a bit of science (maths) behind it. It is not a precise science.

When I was doing some research last year with the University of Nottingham, I was surprised about how they scrutinise quite scientifically their work. They test, test and test again. They want to find precise answers. It is a very scientific approach.

Valuation is not.

My Institution have announced that in 2013 they will issue a re-written Red Book. The Red Book is our bible – which applies mandatorily to much of the valuation work I undertake. It is prescriptive to the extent that it covers the process of valuation and sets out some key principles. It is useful in setting a standard.

But the latest changes could be interesting. There is a suggestion that the Banks are unhappy that we didn’t spot the crash – or at least alert them to the fact that the market was over-heated. It looks like the ‘new’ Red Book will ask for more commentary and more scenario building. Future value prediction could be asked for. And this is what I am worried about.

I am not a mind reader. A valuation is a snap-shot. It is an opinion on a given date. There are lots of assumptions. Quite a lot of our reports are taken up with them. Some clients ask me why the reports are 20 pages long – they want the 2 pages with the description and ‘number’ on. The rest is academic! When I started out, we used to provide a 2 page ‘valuation certificate’. I’m not suggesting that we return to those days, but our reports are going to get longer. The only true value is when a property sells – willing buyer, willing seller et al. On other occasions we are giving an opinion.

My concern is that we are moving away from opinion. As I have said before, people pay me for my opinion – not my doubts. Somehow, I think such change might raise lots of doubts?

Dec 15 2011

Mary Portas – predictable and fluffy…

I blogged before that we knew the self-styled Queen of Shops was going to publish her answer to the doom and gloom on Britain’s High Street. Her advice to the Prime Minister was apparently free. It was published this week – by way of a list of 28 groovy ideas to get us all spending our hard-earned wonga at the shops again.

Much of it looks to me to be a bit blindingly obvious. Some is naive – allowing shifts between Use Classes more easily is a recipe for Planning disaster.

But the one that made me smile was number 18, “Encourage a contract of care between landlords and their commercial tenants by promoting the leasing code and supporting the use of lease structures other than upward only rent reviews, especially for small businesses”.

A contact of care? With a pink bow? And chocolates?

There is a serious aspect to what she says – she regurgitates the ‘leasing code’ – which has existed for some time. The Code sets out some basic ‘rules’ and tries, admirably, to suggest best practice. If you are so minded you can download it here.

I mentioned the final interviews I carry out for the RICS here – one of the questions we often ask candidates is their knowledge of ‘the Code’. But the supplementary question is to ask where they have used it. Almost without exception they haven’t (although the ‘correct’ answer is to say you have had regard to it!)

What, in essence, we are supposed to do is offer ‘menu pricing’ – in other words (as an example) you can have upwards and downwards rent reviews if you pay more rent at the start… Not many (none?) go for that one.

There was a time when upwards only rent reviews were seen as a bad thing – but that was in the days of 25 year leases – with reviews every five years. Today the average lease length is currently 7.6 years and even then we often see break clauses. The argument has therefore ‘gone away’.

To that end I would suggest that Ms Portas is somewhat out of touch with what is actually happening in the market. And that is worrying if the PM is listening to her?

Dec 1 2011

The RICS APC Autumn session 2011

It seems like only 5 minutes since I was at Cheltenham Racecourse doing final assessments of candidates seeking their professional qualifications (the letters MRICS are what they are after!). I remember the last session well – I got food poisoning at the lunch – which helped with my weight loss, but did little for my appetite!

I find the assessments useful on three levels – it helps me keep up to date with changes in the profession, it lets me see the general standard of surveyors coming through and it does help my firms own candidates as I can ‘guide’ them better through the process.

I read a really interesting article on the BBC’s website at the weekend about the myths of an Oxbridge Interview. Mary Beard, a University Teacher is about to hang up her boots – she sets the record straight about the interviews students are put through. Amongst the amusing anecdotes (I love the question “would you rather be an apple or a banana”!) was a statement that rang true with me. She said, “my priority is to get the kids to talk themselves into a place, not talk themselves out of one“.

And this is something we try to tell our RICS candidates. They should enter the interview in the knowledge that they have passed. They just need, for one hour, to talk themselves into membership. So often they talk themselves out. In my experience because often they haven’t grasped what we are after.

In essence we are ‘testing’ that they have reached a standard we require. It a measurable test of competency. We know that they are not going to have been able to value a £1m shopping centre or negotiate a rent review on a football stadium – you tend to need grey hair to do that. But we do expect them to have been involved in jobs, to have observed, to have taken part. More importantly to have given their work some thought. We want them to have reasoned opinions.

We need people who can think, process and give reasoned advice. If they have done the background and been paying attention, this should not be difficult…

May 3 2011

RICS assessment day

I am in Cheltenham today; carrying out final assessments for the RICS. There are normally four candidates seen by the panel, but today we have only three – so I get a lie in…

I enjoy assessing – it gives me a chance to keep up-to-date with current practice and legislation. It also helps me to help my own firms candidates – by giving them some insight as to what is expected of them at interview.

We know it is a fairly pressurised environment, but all candidates should come into the room assuming the have passed. In theory they have at that point if they have done the required hours of competency based tasks. They have also been ‘signed off’ by two members of the Institution. What tends to catch people out is that they have perhaps exaggerated the work they have done – 29 days of experience in February 2011 is not a good start! The common reason for referral (you don’t ‘fail’ in this uber-PC world) is that the candidate couldn’t demonstrate that they had achieved the competency level.

We know that every candidate is nervous – and we take account of this.

Interestingly the RICS give feedback to assessors on the last session sat. Last Autumn 70% of all candidates passed, 746 on their first attempt. There are no quota’s – but as a generality I have found that we tend to pass three out of the four we see ( We have referred three out of four – that was a bad day!). You hope that all of the candidates will pass…

So, I look forward to meeting the three candidates today. It will be a long day for me – but it will be longer for them! And they have to wait for three weeks before they hear the result.

Apr 20 2011

Another Qualification – of sorts!

Last week one of those card envelopes arrived at home. In it was a nice new certificate.

The RICS have introduced a Valuer Registrations Scheme – which I have had to join. The RICS have been trying to raise the standard of valuation for some time and the new scheme is intended to demonstrate this. We are now required to ensure openness and transparency and ensure our reports are clear.

It now means I am now an “RICS Registered Valuer”. I am not sure that the advice I give will be any different to last week, but the Certificate is nice. I will get it put on the wall.

There is a serious side to all of this – I am normally opposed to any form of additional regulation. I hate layers of bureaucracy. I am sufficiently ‘old school’ to believe that my professional qualifications were hard earned and should be protected. Unfortunately there are still some rogue valuers out there – who can see a fast buck. They can be influenced by ‘fees’ rather than a duty to give an honest opinion.

This new regime is intended to improve standards – and so that must be a good thing. It also means that there will be some monitoring of work done. It is supposed to be an assurance of quality.

If you need a ‘Registered Valuer’ let me know!