Recently in RICS Category

I was out and about this week (winging around the country), so forgive the slight break in transmission.  Sadly I missed the event at the RICS the other day to launch the new Joseph Rowntree Forum report on sustainable urban neighbourhoods.  I was sorry to not have been there, as I understand it was an interesting debate, with highly topical findings.  

Apparently the wondrous Terrie Alafat of CLG spoke up at the event, implying there would be new policy initiatives coming along on housing.  Our mole reported that she used the phrases "something like housing enterprise zones" and "TIF2".  Needless to say I put Dr Evans straight onto the scent, and we will report back.  

There was also continued discussion about the private rented market and institutional investors which seems to be gaining momentum, as we've observed before. All of this is grist to the UKR mill, of course, and it is indeed very comforting to know you have tapped into a zeitgeist. The JRF Report identifies seven steps to achieving sustainable urban neighbourhoods:  
· agree the spatial framework;
· facilitate public-private development partnerships;
· mobilise public undesignated land;
· attract private funding for infrastructure;
· open up housing markets;
· endow community stewardship;
· learn from what works.

Now here's an abstruse sort of a thing: when is an external space an internal space? Or, put another way, how can the gross internal area of a building be greater than its gross external area?  
 
Architects may sometimes confuse their clients when they talk about "outside-inside spaces" to describe the quality of external space connecting with the interior of a building. But we all know what "internal" really means, right? Well, probably not!
 
Bear with me here.  Those of us in the world of property may well claim to understand the RICS definitions of gross internal area (GIA) or gross external area (GEA) - even if one's eyes do glaze somewhat.  Or at least you may have thought you did, until the definitions were overturned by a judgement recently made in court following a dispute between Alan J Smith OBE and the Duke of Northumberland (and Northumberland Estates) about the service charges applied to the Red Box Design Group (my rather wonderful architects in t'north) offices in Newcastle. Your Dukeship really should have picked on someone his own size, I reckon.  And I don't know whether doors are rapidly opening and shutting down at No 12 Great George Street but this may well have general industry impact, in respect of the definition of gross internal area, important for mixed-use developments. 
 

Every so often, you do something outside your comfort zone. It makes you rather anxious. And then you find it was one of the best things you ever did and you're glad.

Following the lovely Toby Turner's seminar on social media last Thursday morning, I now find I have a whole new group of BFs with whom I am in correspondence. And it is rather wonderful. A very nice man called Andrew Waller of Remit Consulting has been in touch to kindly say: "What do you mean, you think you were in the wrong place! You made some of the most relevant and interesting observations."

And then, even better: "You are spot on with the opportunity to use Facebook to engage with the local community and that's exactly what Hammerson do when they start planning a shopping centre." Then Andrew sent me the RICS paper that he'd put together on the role of social media in property development and, blow me down, if Hammerson isn't one of the case studies. Nice to be on the money, but I was only speculating about the potential.

So this has got me thinking more in respect of the new service lines I'm developing for UKR... and now I learn that at the RICS seminar on social media that took place on Monday, people (er, Twitterers, mainly!) were able to follow the presentations and key quotes by searching for #ricssm on Twitter during the afternoon. (Now, I won't be joining the Tweeters or Twitterers, or whatever they're called today, as I never really got the hang of Twitter and I was at an event in Ashford, but I am expecting my NBF, Andrew Waller, to give me a full report.)