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Member Articles
RICS Americas member expertise is diverse and wide ranging, stretching across the property life cycle - from land, construction and property to investment and valuation. In this section, members give their viewpoint on topical issues and provide insight into projects they have been involved in.
Member Articles
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| 09/21/10 Gaming and Real Estate: An Overview of U.S. Gaming Industry Louis W Frillman, FRICS, MAI, CRE, President, GVA Marquette Advisors Lou Frillman summarizes the multi-faceted gaming business in markets around the U.S. and describes features that drive its financial performance. Read more. |
07/12/10 The Green Trifecta Assessing Value Potential in Green Development Theddi Wright Chappell, CRE, MAI, FRICS, AAPI, LEED AP As any real estate market participant will confirm, one of the most challenging aspects of ‘going green’ is how to prioritize the decisions that must be made to successfully achieve long term goals. Read more. |
| 05/20/2010 Ontario's Proposed OHST Conversion Possible Public Sector Construction Cost Impacts Paul Westbrook MRICS, Hanscomb Limited Paul Westbrook, MRICS, outlines how the upcoming change to HST may result in a reduction in the cost of construction for public and private sector builders while highlighting that safely navigating through the transition period may well require some additional planning. Read More. |
05/18/2010 Real Estate Capital Markets & Securities: Forecast Solutions to CMBS & RMBS Distress Lawrence Souza, CCIM, CRE, FRICS Efficient real estate and securities capital markets require strong public and private sector cooperation, disclosure of government and corporate financial conditions, and institutional and individual investor confidence in financial and political institutions. Read More. |
| 05/18/2010 Impact of Deleveraging in Real Estate Loan Portfolios within Banks, CMBS, RMBS, and GSEs Marc R. Thompson, CRE, CCIM, FRICS Senior Vice President at Bank of the West, Walnut Creek, Calif. Marc Thompson predicts that real estate investors will experience weakness in income property prices over the next five years due to the long process of clearing the market of distressed and foreclosed real estate debt. Most banks with large real estate loan positions on its balance sheets will be managing their existing positions in real estate collateralized loans. Read More. |
11/18/2009 Real Estate Receivers in the Credit Crisis and How Commercial Agents Will Benefit From Working with Them Stan Mullin FRICS, SIOR, CRE, CCIM We know our economy is in the grip of something entirely different than in the recession in the late ‘80s and early ‘90s (in 1989 alone, 534 banks failed). That recession was limited to a collapse in the real property market. Our current economic troubles are a credit problem and credit is the financial “air we breathe” and no one is unaffected. Read More. |
| 8/5/2009 The Valuer’s Challenge Steve Crosson MRICS Valuation professionals are trained in the application of the three approaches in forming opinions of market value. All three are based upon observable data, i.e., sales and lease transactions together with offerings to sell and lease. The valuation body of knowledge heavily stresses the importance of demonstrable support for conclusions reached. Without such tangible evidence, your opinions are unlikely to be seriously considered. It is in such a situation that valuers find themselves today. Read More |
5/14/2009 Applying Internal Controls Skills on Construction Projects Alexia Nalewaik MRICS The professional quantity surveyor (QS) can use construction auditing skills at various stages of the building life cycle to reduce costs, linking construction with the financial bottom line by bringing lessons learned from previous engagements. Construction projects represent considerable financial risk for both the owner and the contractor, which can be managed and transferred through smart procurement, selection of delivery method, and continuous oversight. Controls serve a particular purpose for each project phase and react to the ever changing list of risks in that phase. Read More |
| 4/23/2009 Spring in New York – Positive news from the financial sector promotes fears of a “Blackthorn Winter”? Guy Benn MRICS There is an old superstition in England that when the blackthorn plants come out in blossom in early spring it is a sign that any warm weather is premature and that there will be a further cold winter spell, “a Blackthorn Winter,” before summer comes. Over the last 2 weeks in New York we witnessed a raft of positive press from some of the world’s biggest financial institutions pursuant to the publication of positive first quarter results. Although tempered by some significant negative news (Chapter 11 filing by GGP, further losses and jobs cuts at UBS etc) it was perhaps the longest unbroken stream of good news we’ve seen in the last 12 months and undoubtedly a welcome relief. Read More |
4/16/2009 The Jamaican Construction and Real Estate Industry and the Impact of the Global Economic Crisis Dean Burrowes MRICS A major government program designed to enable people to afford a home is The National Housing Trust, a statutory body funded from the combination of corporate and individual contributions. This organization was set up in 1976 to address the housing shortage at the time by making loans to borrowers at a rate lower than the commercial institutions, which enabled these borrowers to purchase, build or improve their homes. The Trust is the largest provider of residential mortgages in Jamaica and since its inception the trust has made 81,434 loans benefiting 92,810 people at a value of J$31.4 billion while at the same time J$1.53 billion has been expended to construct housing units for sale. Read More |
| 4/10/2009 Relativity to Index Value: A methodology to enhance forecasting trends and Basel II regulations to increase management of risk positions in real estate loan portfolios. Marc R. Thompson FRICS The proposed Basel II regulation identifies speculation risk and regulates growth in mortgage loans using a time and quality of property calibrated relative index methodology in appraising real estate for use by regulated financial intermediaries and within Mortgage Backed Securities (RMBS and CMBS). This relative index methodology, if fully implemented world-wide, would have prevented the large scale of this boom-bust cycle through appropriate regulation of debt growth and reduction of speculation risk in debt portfolios. Read More |
03/24/2009 Valuing Vineyards Tony Correia MRICS Perhaps one of the first questions regarding the value of wine was posed by the ancient Persian poet, mathematician and astronomer, Omar Khayyám (1048–1123), in the 71st quatrain of his famous “Rubaiyat.”...Wine is and has been the ubiquitous libation of choice for many generations of many cultures. And it has often been suggested the greatest advances in civilization and culture have come from those societies that produced and enjoyed this profound elixir. Today, wine is produced by most countries in the world and the global marketplace allows almost anyone, anywhere, the luxury of sharing in this bottled poetry. Read More |
| 03/20/09 Adaptive Property Re-use Danny Kaye MRICS In an economic downturn, asset owners must evaluate ALL potential uses for the property under their ownership and management. Simply putting a property on the market in its existing use may not be sufficient to capture economic value of the property. One growing alternative, where many quantity surveyors are able to add real value for owners in their property management decisions, is the concept called “adaptive re-use” of property. RICS Member Danny Kaye of Totum discusses the adaptive re-use concept. Read more |
03/20/09 The U.S. Construction Industry 2009 & 2010, the Lean Years Julian Anderson FRICS The bursting of the housing bubble was greeted with shock, as surprising as it was immense. In truth there should not have been shock at all. Rather, as with all “bubbles”, the shock should have been that the bubble lasted so long and was inflated so far...What has taken commentators breath away is how far the housing industry has sunk since its peak in 2006, the extent of the carnage that has overtaken the financial markets and the toll that this has in turn taken on the broader economy. Read more |
| 03/05/09 Global Investment Trends Steve Williams FRICS From CityScape Intelligence: The question everyone is asking is where is it going to end, where is the recovery? The only optimism is that with low interest rates, transportation costs down, generous rescue packages for the banking industry and ... huge injections of public sector stimulus capital into infrastructure, opportunities will appear in the economic debris. Read more |
02/25/09 Sales Looking Bleak Barden Prisant FRICS It seems the New York minute has been supplanted by the New York second. At the time of writing this article, it is likely that assets of all types in the US will have appreciated or depreciated (more likely the latter) to a startling degree. Contemporary art, with its bleeding edge, real-time focus is an appropriate topic for this issue of The Arts Surveyor. Read more |
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02/11/09 Richmond’s Medal Finish Toby Maillinder MRICS The design brief was as ambitious as the client was clear. The Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympic Speed Skating Oval would not only be functional and flexible as a venue and future legacy building, but it would also be an icon of design – beautiful, sustainable and poetic. Not to mention, delivered on time and on budget. Read more |
| 01/28/09 Environmental Stewardship Elizabeth Belenchia MRICS The phenomenon called “Sustainability” was identified in the 1980’s to describe renewable natural resources, full integration of architecture, landscape architecture, urban design, industrial design, urban planning, engineering, graphic design and interior design. The goal of intergenerational equity insuring health, diversity, ecological integrity and environment would factor into valuation of assets and services. Read more |
01/28/09 Looking for Trouble? Steve Williams FRICS Report Exposes Devastating Losses in U.S. Commercial Real Estate. Based on the latest data from RICS-Americas’ member firm, Real Capital Analytics, vital clues as to the scale and nature of troubled properties are coming to light. The research firm, founded by RICS-Americas member, Bob White, has published “Troubled Assets Radar” - the first accurate barometer of the scale of troubled property assets in the USA. Read more |