EDITOR’S COMMENT As one part of the world seemingly votes for chaos and whatever the opposite of collaboration is, here in the UK and in our small but mighty world of real estate, the foundations of something quite different are being built.
Three of the industry’s membership bodies – the British Property Federation, the Investment Property Forum and the Association of Real Estate Funds – have started discussions that could see them merged into a single body.
About bloody time.
Individually, each of those bodies is great. They all have their strengths, they have all achieved some tremendous things over the years, but the one thing that we hear all the time – particularly from within Whitehall – is that there is no single voice for the real estate sector. Too often there are competing voices, all trying to shout loudest when sat at the table and all failing to get themselves coherently heard.
A merger could be the perfect solution.
Take the individual strengths of each of these three bodies, bring together the parts of this sector that they each represent and maybe we will actually be able to land the right messages about the real estate industry. We might finally be able to showcase the purpose and worth of this amazing business, to show it as an income-generator, a problem-solver, a talent-attracter and a force for good.
It is early days, of course. At the moment the merger is merely an idea. The boards of all three bodies have agreed they should talk about it, but ultimately it will be members who choose whether three should become one.
But the reasons for most certainly outnumber the reasons against.
The BPF, IPF and AREF have been collaborating for a long time, particularly since Covid, and they and many more work together through the Property Industry Alliance, but they still each have individual goals, priorities and membership demands. The broad scope of the real estate industry is one of its greatest strengths but is also what makes it so confusing and so misconceived by so many people who are not part of it.
And with the sector changing so dramatically over recent years, with the emergence of new asset classes and the increasing importance of real assets within the built environment conversation, there are voices that just aren’t being represented through these three powerful bodies. With a single, louder and deeper voice, could a new body reach these corners of real estate that have not yet been infiltrated? Could a combined entity become a true voice of the whole built environment?
It’s certainly worth a go, isn’t it?
I’ve been banging on about the need for a single united voice in our sector for I don’t know how long, and I believe this could be a game-changer. It could be the move that allows us to change the perception of the sector, that finally showcases it as the most exciting place in which to build a career, no matter who you are or where you come from.
The question now, I suppose, is who else could or should be sucked into this proposed single industry body? CREFC, Revo, the British Council for Offices? Should the RICS be included to provide a voice for our surveyors within this single, more powerful and hopefully more coherent body?
Imagine the power that could have. A proper, industry-wide, properly funded body with meaningful membership fees, a fully invested, diverse (and inclusive) membership body that agrees on what is needed to continue to drive this industry forward. That could be immense.
And imagine if you also had alongside that your industry expert, your voice of reason, your sometimes annoying conscience, your truth teller and bear poker – that’s us here at EG, by the way – helping to shout that message even louder through everything that we do.
Now that would be something quite special, don’t you think?
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