What's New

RICS Americas is pleased to announce the appointment of new Chairs to six RICS chapters in the United States and Canada. There are currently more than 20 RICS Chapters in the Americas region that are managed by RICS members, with support from RICS Americas staff based in New York and Toronto.

This is the unsettling question that rests in the minds of the public now that the valuation profession is being guided by a myriad of valuation standards published by multiple professional bodies. Serving the public interest is the basis of the RICS charter and also the foundation on which the RICS Americas Valuation Council was formed. The Valuation Council considers its work with assessing valuation standards to be one of the most important elements of serving the public interest.

“The new Board members will provide RICS with strategic counsel on business planning for the Americas region and support corporate strategy of the RICS worldwide organization. We are happy to welcome the accomplished new leaders who offer market intelligence from their region, insight on local market conditions and guidance on professional and ethical standards which drive RICS’ key roles,” stated Matthew Bruck, RICS Americas Managing Director.

RICS Americas, the New York-based regional branch of the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors, the world’s leading membership organization for professionals in property, land, construction and related environmental issues, has announced its new partnership with the University of Wisconsin’s James A. Graaskamp Center for Real Estate and the UW School of Business. RICS offers university partnership and accreditation to an elite group representing the forefront of the property profession....

RICS Americas, the New York-based regional branch of the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors, the world’s leading professional body for valuers across all asset classes, announced today that it has become the first International Sponsor of The Appraisal Foundation. "This is a major step toward closer collaboration among the world's leading valuation standards organizations. Together, we continue to demonstrate that valuation is a robust profession, capable of speaking to issues...

Property markets in the more dynamic economies of South America, Asia and Eastern Europe are outperforming those in the United Kingdom and Eurozone, according to the RICS Global Commercial Property Survey for the second quarter.

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.

The Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors Americas has announced the promotion of Jacob Opadeyi to a Fellow of the organization. As a FRICS, Prof Opadeyi has demonstrated significant career achievement in his field, showing leadership and a commitment to the RICS code in all his work.

RICS Americas is pleased to announce the upgrade of 13 qualified Members (MRICS) to RICS Fellowship (FRICS) status since April 2010. Most MRICS are eligible to apply for Fellowship as soon as they are elected.

The Commercial Division of the National Association of REALTORS® is offering a webinar entitled, Commercial Real Estate and the Current Environmental Crisis: Oil, Wind, Water and Air presented by Frank Parker, FRICS, CRE, Esq. He is a Professor of Real Estate (MBA) in The Carroll School of Management at Boston College. He previously also was an Adjunct Professor at Boston College Law School.

The Census Bureau releases May figures for new home sales on Thursday, June 22, while the National Association of Realtors releases existing home sales on Friday, June 23. As expected, new home sales in the United States jumped 15 percent in April to 504,000 on the back of the rush by buyers to take advantage of the home buyer tax credit. This takes it to the highest level seen since May 2008. Existing home sales also showed strong gains, increasing by 7.5 percent, taking it to 5.7 million...

Get a sneak preview of the June 22 RICS & IPTI webinar by listening to our latest podcast with speaker RICS Fellow Peter S. Brooks of Ernst & Young.

Ireland and the United States are set to see the biggest rise in distressed sales, according to RICS research published today. Real estate professionals expect the number of distressed properties coming onto the market in the second quarter of 2010 to increase across 19 of the 25 countries surveyed. Respondents in Ireland and the United States expect to see the fastest growth in activity, followed by Scandinavia, New Zealand and Hungary.

Elizabeth Belenchia MRICS discusses the creation of an Urban Infill Restorative Ecology project for a Sustainable Village in Spartanburg, South Carolina, and the leadership role an RICS member can play in local communities.

Using the five counties of the Los Angeles metropolitan area as a case study, this research by Peter Gordon and Huanghai Li of the University of Southern California explored whether there is a relationship between homeowners’ satisfaction with the provision of municipal services and different forms of local governance, looking in particular at whether income, privatization and place matter.

Randy Scheidt FRICS tells the Wall Street Journal that business owners are optimistic.

One in five property professionals globally believe that 90 percent of the commercial real estate stock will still fall short of meeting good sustainable standards by 2020, according to an RICS survey of commercial property agents released today.

RICS Americas and Real Capital Analytics today issued the first Commercial Real Estate Report, with news that the first quarter of 2010 saw a significant increase in transaction volume in North and South America, approximately $17 billion, up an impressive 68 percent from a year earlier.

Rob Nahigian, FRICS, SIOR, CRE of Auburndale Realty Co., has recently been invited to speak at a number of regional real estate events throughout the United States as part of the NAR Signature Series program. He was selected as a NAR Signature Series speaker during 2009 which is a grant program offered by NAR Commercial to commercial overlay boards.

In an exclusive RICS Americas Property World podcast, Andrew Mann FRICS, Managing Director for U.S. operations of Gardiner and Theobald Inc., explains the classifications of projects that utilize BIM, and how to produce the basic documentation for bidding on projects.

The commercial property upswing continued into 2010 with Latin America and Asia leading the way, according to the RICS Global Commercial Property Survey .

Scott Muldavin FRICS, of the RICS Americas Sustainability Working Group, visited China for eight days in March.

The Canadian Real Estate Association has announced the election of Karen Barry MRICS as the Canadian Commercial Council (CCC) Chair on the CREA Board of Directors.

The world’s top design, planning, construction and project management firms were selected to create the World Trade Center Memorial. The Memorial that will commemorate the tragedies of September 11, 2001and February 26, 1993 is currently one of the most extraordinary, challenging and historic development projects in the United States.

RICS Asia Chairman and RICS president-elect for 2010/2011 See Lian Ong visits the RICS Americas office in New York City to meet with Tom Justin, RICS Americas chairman. The two RICS leaders discuss the value of RICS membership, the challenges facing real estate and construction experts worldwide, and opportunities for property professionals from Asia to the Americas.