Modus Asia Edition 10.11

MODUS 10.11 ricsasia.org

10.11 // space saving The shrinking size of our homes and offices p14 NEW development We speak to Swire Properties’ CEO p28 start-up success 10 surveyors who set up on their own p38

The small issue

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The small issue

at the sparkling event.

Contents// :10.11 //

‘small’ singapore

Having been a member of RICS for almost 40 years, I was delighted to see the establishment of an RICS Singapore Board earlier this year. RICS has been present in Singapore for some decades, and this long-term partnership has seen many members in both the private and public sectors contributing towards the rapid development of the built environment that has transformed ‘small’ Singapore into a great and distinctive global city. With the establishment of the RICS Singapore Board, I hope to see the continued contribution of RICS and its members towards Singapore’s focus on affordable quality homes, sustainable development, green buildings, liveable cities and best built environment, as well as the sharing of our experience and success stories in these areas with other cities in Asia and worldwide.

Tan Kim Chwee FRICS Principal Associate (Estates), Housing and Development Board, Singapore

Regulars

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feedback Your views on RICS and Modus, and the latest global poll

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intelligence Global property and construction news, plus opinions, reviews and reactions

Features

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law advice Planning for an event of force majeure

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business advice How to use CRM technology effectively at work

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shrinking spaces The trend for smaller homes and offices

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10 minutes with…

Lance Taylor FRICS of Rider Levett Bucknall

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vietnam Opportunities in this fast-growing nation

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interview Guy Bradley, CEO of Swire Properties

beyond brics A look at emerging CIVETS economies

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Information

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10 of the best New residential projects in Asia

Keeping score The Constructability Score in Singapore

starter for 10 Surveying start-ups around the world

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rics news News and updates, plus the President

events Exhibitions, training and conferences

the measure From small to large measurements

Contributors // Kit gillet Based in China, Kit writes for publications around the world including The Wall Street Journal, the Guardian, Forbes, CNN and Architectural Record. He interviewed Guy Bradley for this edition of Modus Asia.

katie puckett Katie is a freelance journalist who writes regularly on everything to do with buildings, large and small. She investigated the trend for and psychology behind shrinking spaces for this issue.

oscar bolton green Oscar is a young London-based illustrator who has worked for clients including American Express and Rolling Stone magazine. He illustrated this month’s start-up firms feature.

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Feedback//

Join the debate :email your feedback to editor@ricsmodus.com

A lifetime’s work Modus is so attractive and lively, and so different from the rather dreary products of the past. As someone who became a Fellow in 1963, I can remember a quaint little publication with a blue cover. I migrated to Australia in 1957 as the third valuation surveyor to do so, and found a country almost devoid of leases and only zoning for planning. A shock after trying to administer the complexities of the TCPA [Town and Country Planning Act] 1947 for the district valuer! Eventually I founded the Adelaide office of Jones Lang Wootton, and handled the earliest EMAC centres for Arndale and offices for Hammerson. When I retired, I decided to write a very folksy book to wean the general public from its obsession with residential into investing in commercial property. It is a curious mixture, but it was well received by the architectural and planning professions. There were many home truths beneath the bland surface. I am now 89 and it would give me a warm feeling if a copy might be lodged in some library of RICS as a morsel of history. Please can you advise me if this is a worthwhile idea? I am the last founding partner of JLW [now Jones Lang LaSalle] still alive in Australia.

Arthur Comport FRICS, Australia I am pleased to say the RICS Library already holds a copy of Mr Comport’s book, along with a selection of other members’ memoirs.

Some are off site at the moment following a refurbishment, but in London we currently have a small display on the history of surveying.

Cathy Linacre, RICS Head of Reference Services rics.org/library

A topical read I have been reading Modus for some months now and felt I should write to express my thanks on the well thought-out and topical issues you and your team produce each month. I am not a member of RICS but an office manager of a small firm of chartered surveyors in the North East of England. Not being a member of the Institution does not quell the need to keep up to date with the topical issues affecting the industry. Modus is more than a magazine of surveying news; it includes information which can be applied to running a surveying practice. Very relevant in this time of austerity when all firms and surveyors need to keep a focus on being seen as an authority in their field and the customer service they provide.

I found the Efficiency issue very insightful, the Happiness issue – ‘10 reasons to be positive’ uplifting and now the Home issue – particularly significant, as we are a residential surveying firm. Modus is a breath of fresh air

and I look forward to each edition. I urge other members to pass the magazine around the office to members of staff, they may well be interested in reading it over lunch or on a break. It is vital for staff in surveying firms to keep up to date with the industry as well as surveyors. Modus certainly goes a long way to help with this in our case.

Helen McSkimmings, Newcastle, UK

Get in touch // :Online ricsasia.org twitter.com/RICSnews :email ricsasia@rics.org editor@ricsmodus.com

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The MODUS team// For Sunday

Modus Asia edition is the official publication of the Royal

For RICS

Editor Victoria Brookes // Art Director Christie Ferdinando

Institution of Chartered Surveyors in Asia: Room 2203,

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Views expressed in Modus are those of the named author and are not necessarily those of RICS or the publisher. The contents of this magazine are fully protected by copyright and may not be reproduced in any form without the prior permission of the publisher. All information correct at time of going to press. All rights reserved. The publisher cannot accept liability for errors or omissions. RICS does not accept responsibility for loss, injury or damage or costs that result from, or are connected in any way to, the use of products or services advertised. All editions of Modus are printed on paper sourced from sustainable, properly managed forests. This magazine can be recycled for use in newspapers and packaging. Please dispose of it at your local collection point. The polywrap is made from biodegradable material and can be recycled.

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ricsasia.org MODUS 01.11

p14 shape of building changing the p26 The technology of RICS Asia g Chairmen Think aheaD p36 ng and outgoin the first time Q&a The incomi on water for Putting a price valUe aDDeD

The fUTUre iSSUe

finance

skyscrapers have always been status symbols. but the power behind world financial markets is now shaping our cities’ skylines, says kathy pain Illustrations by Nick Reddyhoff

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I

n the 21st-century phase of urbanisation, city skylines around the world are testament to a series of profound changes that are causing buildings to grow taller. Globalisation has brought about a confluence of complex technological, economic, political and socio-cultural processes that are giving rise to a new era of skyscraper cities.

What is driving this trend in far-flung world regions, and does sky-building have a limit?

Cities have historically been distinguished from smaller towns by their higher order, economic and political functions. They are important social centres for production and consumption but, as urban sociologist Saskia Sassen first pointed out in 1991, certain cities have taken on a new economic role as globalisation has gathered

City skylines// speed, giving a small elite of ‘global’ cities – specifically at that time New York, London and Tokyo – key specialist functions as servicing centres for the new world economy.

Data on advanced business services collected by the Globalization and World Cities (GaWC) Research Network since the year 2000 shows that the worldwide servicing power of New York and London remains as strong as ever.

The big surprise during the past 10 years has been the increase in the number of cities catching up with the ‘big three’ in developing such global functions. Associated with this surge forward of globalising cities has come a much more evident predominance of ubiquitous international skyscraper landscapes. Yet as urban landscapes are becoming

superficially more homogenous, some important process distinctions between skyscraper architecture and globalising cities remain. These beg another question – to what extent is skyscraper-building simply a consequence of global city formation, and to what extent is it an active contributor to this?

New York, US The desire to build tall goes back centuries, to the city-building feats of ancient civilisations.

However, New York is widely regarded as the place where the modern era of skyscraper building was born. New York’s wealthy business entrepreneurs of the 1920s and 1930s created a series of iconic buildings that continue to reflect the powerful personalities, financial success and competitive instincts of their creators. This was the

Building safety//

architecture of commerce for a newly developing city that was famously open to international migration, skills, innovation and the free reign of neo-liberal capitalism.

The 241m (792ft) neo-Gothic Woolworth Building, completed in 1913, is a physical memorial to the once-famous international retail business empire. The fact that it remains one of the top 20 tall buildings on Manhattan Island almost a century later is a strong indication that its height was not originally determined simply by a shortage of space.

The egotistical nature of building so much taller than surrounding properties has been replicated in other global cities, if not the Gothic architecture.

Mies van der Rohe’s 1957, 157m (516ft) Seagram Building on Park Avenue, on the other hand, has an ongoing influence on >>

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e 0Th 4.11 // fU TU re SU iS e

ciTy liMiTS Why our urban skylines are getting taller p14 20 UnDer 30 We meet the rising stars of surveying p30 carefUl MOve Community redevelopment in Hong Kong p40

The Tall iSSUe

form follows

ricsasi a.org

MODUS 04.11 ricsasia.org

With an interactive digital edition, you can: • View and search pages • Print or download the whole issue • Zoom in on text and images • View archive editions of Modus Asia edition • Email pages to a friend/colleague • Help reduce your carbon footprint by choosing to receive only a digital version.

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The Tal l iSS Ue

out of control?

in booming construction markets, building standards are confused and poorly policed – at the expense of safety Words by Michael Willoughby

F

irms in the UK are accustomed to adhering to stringent safety standards – but in emerging markets around the world, the situation can be very different.

Just last year, for example, disasters resulting from poor safety and illegal construction methods in China and India killed more than 100 people and injured many more. In Shanghai in November, unlicensed welders accidentally set fire to a 28-storey building, resulting in almost 60 deaths. Just a day later, an illegally erected apartment block in New Delhi collapsed. The basement of the building caved in, killing 66 people.

China and India have shown extraordinary construction growth over the past decade, centred on major cities. In India, the boom has been fuelled by the emergence of a new postagricultural middle class, accompanied by a huge population shift to urban areas. There is currently an estimated shortage of some 25m homes, and, according to the McKinsey Global Institute, up to 900m sq m of new commercial and residential real estate will need to be built by 2030 to meet demand in the 68 cities that will have more than a million residents – housing 40% of the country’s population.

In the rush to build, progress and bureaucracy collide. Developers cannot start work without a fistful of permits meeting regional bylaws. But it can take municipal corporations months to issue the documents, with developers making trip after trip to town halls. With huge sums of money at stake, they are often tempted to buy their way through the process. And the victims of this ‘institutionalised corruption’ are the measures intended to oversee architectural drawings, create safe high-rises, protect the environment and construct fire-safe buildings.

Once building gets going, it is governed by regional codes, variants of a national code first introduced in 1970 and last revised in 2005.

However, unlike in developed countries, there is almost no policing. Local corporations do not employ building surveyors or building control officers, and accreditation bodies do not exist. While there is a concept of quality control, responsibility for assuring standards are met falls to someone on the contractor’s team, usually the structural engineer. It is they who present documents to the corporation >>

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To register your interest, email ricsasia@rics.org

Intelligence// :news :reviews :opinions :reactions

Image Jan Siefke

:congress center, hangzhou, china The eastern coastal city of Hangzhou has more than tripled its GDP in the past eight years, largely due to a boom in its pharmaceuticals, IT and electronics industries. With a population fast approaching 9m, Hangzhou is also considered a major logistics base for China, and the recently completed Congress Center has been developed as the focus of a new business and administration district of the city. The 22,000m sq complex features six high-rise office buildings arranged in a circle, with sky bridges connecting all upper floors. Inspired

by Hangzhou’s location in a famous tea-producing region, the designers of Congress Center’s inner courtyard, Peter Ruge Architekten in collaboration with Professor Wang Xiaosong of DBH Stadtplanungs GmbH, used patterns found in tea cultivation pathways and planting nets for the design of the façade.

Intelligence//

Opinion

it’s been key for RICs to come in early in vietnam Paul Mason MRICS Chair of RICS Vietnam Working Group

Image Alamy

R

ICS opened its first representative office in Ho Chi Minh City last December, and almost a year on this latest expansion of the global organisation into Asia has been a resounding success with both local Vietnamese professionals and foreign firms. RICS has been following Vietnam’s emerging property industry for a number of years, and over the past decade has had plenty of interest in establishing a presence. A lot of careful planning went into opening the representative office, from both the headquarters in London and from local professionals, so it’s good to know that we’re now able to offer advice to individuals, firms and authorities in Vietnam, while helping to attract the country’s new generation of real estate professionals.

Vietnam has made incredible progress in the past decade after opening its market in the mid-1990s – comparisons with China’s rapid growth and opportunities for property professionals are common, but the country is unique for itself. It’s also a very practical country. Most people on the street have a great awareness of the value of land, an asset that is right at the front of their new economy.

When I arrived in Vietnam 18 years ago there was no grade A or B office space – now there is an incredible amount of modern development. Many foreign firms have concentrated on Ho Chi Minh City, the largest city, but the sheer scale of investment and construction that is now happening in the capital, Hanoi, is mind-boggling. In fact, the residential market has become two or three times larger in Hanoi than in Ho Chi Minh City – which is one reason why RICS is setting up a committee to look at a possible second representative office in Hanoi.

The biggest challenge for RICS is in localising professional standards and qualifications, so right now we’re busy forging grassroots relationships with the government and local authorities and businesses, as well as promoting the Associate qualification, which will help local experienced surveyors start on the first steps to joining RICS. It has been very important for RICS to come in early and set the right expectations and framework in a new developing market. The Vietnamese authorities were cautious at first – this was understandable, as they have had experience of foreign organisations promising much but under-delivering. However, RICS would like to demonstrate that we are here for the long term, building the property profession for the next generation.

Of course, it is not easy setting up in a developing market and many existing challenges won’t change overnight, but I believe that Vietnam’s people and foreign companies alike will reap the benefits of RICS’ continuing presence in the country.

Paul Mason MRICS is managing director of Cushman & Wakefield in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam.

China // Small boom China’s property boom is shifting from Beijing and Shanghai to smaller cities, as government measures have failed to curb the rapidly rising prices in cities outside the country’s largest urban areas. The National Bureau of Statistics showed property prices increased year-on-year

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growth potential The property market in Vietnam has seen huge progress in the past decade

Asia // Best for business in 67 of 70 cities in May, with prices in Beijing and Shanghai up by 2.1% and 1.4% respectively.

However, in Guangzhou, prices increased by 5.1%, while prices in Dandong and Lanzhou were at 9.7% and 7.7% respectively.

Many believe the government should do more to rein in prices.

Hong Kong and Singapore are the most popular cities for international business, according to a study by CB Richard Ellis.

The firm analysed office locations of 280 of the world’s largest international companies in 232 cities, and found that 68.2% had offices in Hong Kong, and 67.5%

had a presence in Singapore.

Other top locations included Tokyo, London and Shanghai.

Meanwhile, research from Knight Frank has shown Hong Kong is the top performing global city in Q2 2011, and prime property here recorded the strongest annual growth.

Japan

Emergency homes More than 120,000 houses were destroyed by the tsunami in March, leaving around 450,000 people homeless in the aftermath. To help some of the victims still without a home, architecture firm Shigeru Ban has developed a rapid-response housing complex made from shipping containers. The first phase of the scheme will provide 188 temporary houses to people in Onagawa, one of the regions worst affected.

$50tn

(US$) The estimated amount to be spent on global infrastructure over the next 25 years, according to RICS

Singapore

Bishan plan Renowned architect and urban planner Moshe Safdie has been appointed as the lead designer of Bishan Central, a 540-unit residential complex in the district of Bishan. Two 38-storey towers will be linked by three ‘sky gardens’, with shared garden and leisure spaces for residents. ‘Bishan Central is a new interpretation of residential living,’ said Fine Wong Heang, CEO of CapitaLand Residential, who will develop the 12,000m sq site. ‘The strong architectural form of the condominium will be a new landmark in the Bishan area, transforming its urban landscape.’

:One big question How is your local commercial property market performing?

Asia

Investment increase Southeast Asia is becoming increasingly attractive to property investors, who are keen to look for safe havens from the debt crises, according to research from DTZ. Last year, 92.6% of property investments in Thailand, Malaysia and Singapore came from within the ASEAN region. Investors are attracted by rising incomes and increasing urbanisation, which is fuelling property developments, as well as a boom in infrastructure projects and the growth of real estate investment trusts.

Hong Kong The key issue for companies is the sheer lack of available office space at any price. Although office rents are reaching unaffordable levels, companies cannot find the space to meet their needs.

David Faulkner FRICS, Colliers International, Hong Kong

China Due to the restriction on acquiring residential properties imposed by the municipal government to curb the overheated property market, investors are buying commercial properties instead.

Alfonso Chu, Synergis Management Services Ltd, Beijing

Malaysia The office market has remained resilient during the global economic downturn and, although short-term supply is likely to outstrip demand, long-term prospects remain positive.

Ross Wheble MRICS, Jones Lang Wootton, Kuala Lumpur

Philippines Firms are starting to locate in nonCBD locations, particularly Bonifacio Global City, and more business activity is expected as FDIs try to find their way into the country.

Paul Vincent Chua, Colliers International, Makati City

Thailand With a more stable political environment, overall investor sentiment has remained positive during Q2 2011 and there is a healthy demand across all sectors for income producing assets.

Eilidh Callum, CB Richard Ellis, Bangkok Source: RICS Global Property Survey Q2 2011

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Opinion

the gap between big and small economies continues to narrow Simon Rubinsohn RICS Chief Economist

S

mall is Beautiful is an economics text written in the 1970s from a rather idealistic perspective, focusing on what the author viewed as the need to move beyond market-led economics. The narrative certainly did not capture the imagination of policymakers nor, for that matter, voters, with the next three decades seeing the most intensive phase of globalisation across both the political and economic landscapes.

Over this period, interrelationships between large and small countries, developed and emerging, have become ever more tight-knit, with relatively minor events in one part of the world having ramifications for economies far removed from the source of the upheaval.

Global financial markets have increasingly played a key role in embedding these linkages.

While in the immediate aftermath of the credit crunch there was some speculation that this process might begin to reverse, the evidence available to date would suggest otherwise.

Whether it is the US administration’s struggle to effectively map out a credible fiscal policy, the ongoing sovereign debt crisis in Europe, or

India

Vida vision To cope with the ever-growing number of people moving from rural areas to the city, a developer in an as yet unnamed city in southern India is considering the construction of a vast new township that would house up to 40,000 people. The 400,000m sq scheme, designed by VIDA Global Design, an international consortium of architects, would feature landscaped green spaces to help reduce surface water run-off, and aspire to LEED Gold certification by using sustainable construction methods. If given planning permission, phase one is expected to complete in 2013.

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the insatiable demand from emerging economies for raw materials, the impact continues to ripple out across the globe.

Put another way, globalisation is just not going to go away, however much some would wish for a simpler world. And this underlines a huge issue for the West. While much of the so-called developed world now appears to face the prospect of a ‘lost decade’ in the wake of the credit crunch, emerging economies are continuing to enjoy rapid growth.

It is true that extraordinarily accommodating monetary policies pursued by the major central banks are presenting some emerging countries with a few challenges, and a number have real estate issues of their own to address.

But none of this can get away from the simple fact that the gap between the developed and emerging world is set to continue to narrow, and at a more rapid pace than would have been the case had the West been able to steer a rather different course over the past decade.

And, whether it is trade, finance or real estate, economies and markets are set to become ever more integrated. rics.org/economics

news bites Height fight

After a disagreement with China, Nepal is setting up three surveying stations to re-determine the height of Mount Everest. China believes Everest should be measured to the highest point of rock, while Nepal thinks the snow on the summit should be included, which adds a further 3.5m. The process will take two years.

Lease green

A new website has been launched to help UK and Australian businesses find energy-efficient commercial buildings.

Sponsored by CRE Australia, listings are free, but businesses are encouraged to make a donation.

Visit leasegreen buildings.co.uk.

Indian surge

Residential property prices in Mumbai have increased by 40% in less than two years, according to research from Jones Lang LaSalle, with some properties selling for up to US$2,000 (£1,300) per square foot. However, it is predicted that prices could fall by 10-15% by the end of the year.

Retail rise

Consumer confidence and strong labour market conditions are underpinning retail demand across most markets in Asia, according to Jones Lang LaSalle. Hong Kong’s retail property market in particular is growing rapidly on the back of a strong luxury retail sector.

Intelligence// Brazil

Olympic unveiling Global consultant AECOM has unveiled its winning design for the 2016 Olympic Park in Rio de Janeiro. The design for the 1.18m m sq area is split into an Olympic Games mode and a legacy mode, both of which impressed the competition judges. The project will involve building permanent and temporary facilities, and preserving green areas. Aecom will now work with architects Wilkinson Eyre, DG Architecture (Rio), Pujol Barcelona Architects, IMG Sports and Expedition, and employees from Davis Langdon, who are currently working on the London 2012 Olympic Park.

China

Luxury heights

1,000m The estimated height of Saudi Arabia’s Kingdom Tower, to be designed by architects AS+GG

Taiwan

59%

The percentage of enquiries to CBRE Bangkok’s office this year that involved business expansion

Hong Kong’s luxury residential prices are at a record high, according to research by Colliers International. The demand in the high-end market is continuing to grow, with sales of properties more than HK$20m (US$2.5m) increasing by 11%, although total residential sales slowed in the second quarter of the year. Colliers International believes a large proportion of the increase stems from mainland Chinese buyers. The luxury rental market is also seeing a record high. Average rent in the luxury districts has increased by 4.1% to HK$47.30 (US$6) per sq ft per month, leading some tenants to move towards smaller units as rents continue to rise.

From port to park The derelict port station of Kaohsiung is to be transformed into a new urban district around a cultural and historical park.

Dutch architecture firm De Architekten Cie won an international competition to turn the 150,000m sq site into an area that will reconnect the city centre to the disused port, while preserving parts of the rail infrastructure as historical monuments. The firm’s masterplan includes constructing mixed-use urban blocks and commercial buildings, as well as restoring industrial and rail station buildings along a linear park.

The project is expected to complete in 2015.

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Intelligence//

Opinion

The Klang Valley MRT project is radical in scope and scale See Lian Ong RICS President

Image Alamy, Corbis

W

ork has begun on the ambitious Greater Kuala Lumpur/Klang Valley Mass Rapid Transit (MRT) line, which will serve four million passengers a day by 2020. Initial planning called for an additional three lines to increase the rapid rail network in Kuala Lumpur from 15km to 40km per million people, increasing the use of public transport from 18% to 40%.

A newly launched Land Public Transport Commission will coordinate the development in conjunction with project delivery partner Gamuda-MMC JV, which conceived the initial proposal. Once completed, the MRT will be operated and owned by the national infrastructure company Syarikat Prasarana Negara.

Groundwork for the first phase began in July and is scheduled to complete in 2016, but initial feedback on the estimated RM36.6bn (US$12.2bn) project has indicated a possible escalation in construction costs. Members of the public have pushed for the project to go underground, especially in the residential hubs. Residents here object to the planned elevated MRT tracks running alongside major roads just metres from homes, which will impact on their residential comfort and the value of their properties.

For the planners, however, having elevated rail tracks is one of the most cost-effective solutions, as most of the road and highway buffer zones are government reserve

land, which will reduce land acquisitions. Elevated rail tracks are also simpler and faster to construct, and building underground would involve higher costs, including longterm maintenance costs hidden from the overall projected funding. Residents are now proposing that the government offset the cost of building underground by adding shopping facilities to the plan, next to the MRT stations.

Given the scope and scale of the project, opposing feedback is not wholly unexpected. With the creases ironed out, the project will contribute hugely to Malaysia’s economic growth as well as providing a plethora of jobs.

lofty ambition Elevated rail tracks are simpler, faster and more cost-effective to construct than undergound lines

See Lian Ong FRICS is RICS President.

China

Green first Jones Lang LaSalle has been awarded LEED Platinum for its new office at Three Pacific Place in Hong Kong – the first Hong Kong real estate company to achieve the US Green Building Council’s highest LEED level for commercial interiors. Only 55 projects have been awarded platinum in the Asia region, and the firm also gained the highest number of points of any LEED certified commercial project.

‘We are delighted to be the first firm in the Hong Kong real estate industry to achieve LEED Platinum,’ said Gavin Morgan, deputy managing director of Jones Lang LaSalle Hong Kong. ‘The steps the team has taken have paid off tangibly, resulting in a 13% reduction in energy consumption per square foot.

Improving the air quality has also helped reduce staff absenteeism through sickness by a third.’

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10.7GW

The capacity of all the photovoltaic cells produced in the world last year – up from 7.1GW in 2008

China

Books :reviews

Skyscraper shift

Saudi Arabia (RICS Global Real Estate Weekly)

Holy expansion

(RICS Global Real Estate Weekly)

Japan Construction spending fell in May for the third successive month China 72% of 10m new affordable housing units were started by July

Rising

Falling

In the next five years, China will have more than 800 skyscrapers – four times as many as the US – and much of the construction is now moving away from the richer east coast towards the country’s interior. Highlighting this trend is the city of Guangzhou, where a 600m-tall skyscraper named ‘Diamond Mansion’ will be built alongside 10 other skyscrapers under construction. Meanwhile the western city of Chongqing is building two 500m-tall towers, and a 606m-tall tower will be built in Wuhan, the largest city in central China. By comparison, the tallest building in the US is the Willis Tower, at 442m-high.

Islam’s holiest site, the Grand Mosque in Mecca, is undergoing a huge expansion scheme to raise its capacity to host more than 2m pilgrims, the kingdom’s state news agency has announced. Costing around US$21bn (£13bn), the project will add 400,000m sq to the mosque’s area and will include the construction of pedestrian bridges and shaded areas to protect worshippers from the sun. More than 6m Muslim pilgrims visit the mosque each year, and Saudi Arabia is investing billions in modernising the ancient city with high-rise office towers and residential blocks.

Order from ricsbooks.com

An essential resource for anyone involved with real estate valuation at any level, this provides fresh ideas for new approaches.

18892 // £45

12.5m

Jakarta City Council’s planned limit on the city’s population by 2030

2m

Brazil plans to build another two million affordable homes by 2014

Practical advice on what organisations can and should do to manage work-life balance.

17875 // £80

A down-to-earth guide to tackling the management challenges facing small and medium-sized surveying practices.

17937 // £29.99

Advice on expanding your business, managing staff and projects, and understanding the legal and financial aspects.

18280 // £45

10.11 // MODUS ASIA 213 5

spac

shrinking

D

r Mike Page never intended to create a small house for its own sake – he just wanted to develop an easily transportable exemplar of carbon-neutral living. But when the University of Hertfordshire’s 27 cubic metre Cube House was exhibited at the Edinburgh International Science Festival in April, it caused a sensation. More than 2,000 people took the tour in two weeks, and Page has been inundated with sales enquiries from around the world. ‘We weren’t saying everyone should live in a house this size, but it turns out a lot of people want to,’ he says. ‘Since April, the video has had 750,000 views, and we’ve had enquiries from Australia, America, Canada, Brazil, Japan…’

What Page has inadvertently tapped into is the growing popularity of ‘micro homes’ – fully functioning houses a fraction of the average size. Cities such as

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Tokyo are seeing an increasing number of homes measuring just a few feet across that allow young people to move out of their parents’ houses but not out of the city centre. The Small House Society in the US, meanwhile, extols the virtues of living mortgage-free in a home small enough to fit on the back of a truck.

Page is not only an engineer but also a reader at the university’s psychology department, and is now planning to use the Cube to conduct an experiment into what it’s like to live in such a small space. It’s an increasingly important question because, aside from the growing minority of people who are choosing micro homes, all of us are living and working in shrinking spaces as cities become more crowded, and land and property prices continue to rise. In developed countries worldwide, the trend for ever-larger homes fuelled by post-war prosperity seems to have reversed. Meanwhile,

Downsizing//

:Tumbleweed XS House 6m2, plans US$99, build it yourself for US$16,000 or buy readymade for US$39,000

Proving that not all tiny houses have to look minimal, this is the smallest design from the Tumbleweed Tiny House Company – a miniature, all-American log cabin, complete with a tiny bedroom in the pitched roof. Tumbleweed houses are built on wheels, so they do not require a building permit and don’t have to comply with minimum size building standards. But with hardwood floors, full insulation and doubleglazing, they’re not necessarily a cheap option.

Their creator, Jay Shafer, says he has only built a dozen of his designs himself, but has sold more than 500 sets of plans.

aces

with rapid urbanisation and rising land and property prices, we’re downsizing at home and at work, finds katie puckett

when people leave their homes to go to work, they are finding less space in the office, too, with rationalisation programmes condensing space by 30-40%.

Of course, ‘small’ is a relative concept, particularly when it comes to houses – the average British or Japanese dwelling would fit several times over in even a relatively humble American home. But even the ‘McMansions’ of the US appear to be shrinking, according to the National Association of Home Builders, which blames the recession for turning the tide of increasing floor space. In 1950, the average American family lived in 91m sq, growing steadily to a peak of 210m sq in 2006. In 2010, it dropped for the first time, to 196m sq. At the other end of the scale, modest Japanese homes have also been getting smaller since the early 2000s. The Japanese government’s most recent housing and land survey in 2008 showed the first drop

in dwelling size since 1968, with the average home now measuring 94m sq, compared to 95m sq in 2003.

Britain already has the smallest houses in Europe, and they are shrinking. In most EU states, basic rules govern quantity of living space and ceiling heights, but in England and Wales, although there are plenty of rules affecting build quality, floor space and ceiling heights are not subject to any legal minimum. And new homes are much smaller than older ones, but with the same number of bedrooms. A policy paper from the Royal Institute of British Architects in 2007 found that the average new home in England and Wales is smaller than it was in the 1920s at just 76m sq, compared to 92m sq in Japan and 115m sq in the Netherlands.

So what impact will our shrinking place in the world have? On a practical level, smaller homes can hamper family life. In 2009, the UK’s Commission for >>

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:Home Dwelle.ing 43m2, £75,000 Architect Ric Frankland originally designed a gatehouse for a Manchester school but, inspired by tales of people living in sheds in recession-hit Britain, he crossed it with some flatpack eco-homes he was working on and the ‘Dwelle.ings’ were born. The houses are designed to meet level 5 of the Code for Sustainable Homes and PassivHaus standards, with components sourced from recycled or renewable sources wherever possible. But they’re not a hair shirt option – specifications are high throughout, and the doubleheight living space and 10m3 of storage make them feel surprisingly spacious. The prototype won five architectural awards in 2010, including the People’s Choice Award.

Architecture and the Built Environment interviewed the owners of 2,500 private new homes and found that these smaller spaces did not provide enough room for everyday activities, leaving more than half with too little storage space, nearly the same number with too little furniture, and a third without enough kitchen space for basic cooking appliances such as a toaster or microwave.

But micro-home dwellers are actively seeking such simplification. Greg Johnson, one of the founders of the Small House Society, spent six years living in a tiny house in Iowa City with just 13m sq of living space on two storeys. While conceding that it’s not suited to everyone – ‘it definitely requires a minimalist lifestyle’ – he believes that we all need to scale down. ‘There is a pervasive aspect of our society that involves hoarding, compulsive shopping and excessive materialism. This needs to change,’ he says. ‘We as individuals and as a nation are spending more than our means, and this has resulted in a financial crisis like none before.’

Far from feeling claustrophobic, he loved the sense of space. ‘One thing I really like about having a one-room house of any size is that there can be windows on all the walls. It also means that your line of sight goes much farther in any direction. It creates a feeling of being less cramped – a small one-room house with windows feels more open and spacious than a large home where the interior walls limit your vision.’

Jay Shafer of the Tumbleweed Tiny House Company in California is another of the society’s founders, and has been building houses like the one Johnson lived in since 1997. While many of his customers are motivated by environmental concerns – he says the average American house produces 18 tonnes of greenhouse

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gases every year – the greatest advantage of a small house is the financial freedom it offers. ‘Now, instead of working for a mortgage or rent, I spend my life living,’ he says. ‘Life itself seems more meaningful in a tiny house because everything in it is necessary.’

But his homes are not necessarily cheap or easy to build, with materials typically costing US$200 per square foot. ‘Small house design is way harder than designing a big house, and up front it will invariably be more expensive per square foot,’ he says. ‘The most expensive parts of the house are generally still included, such as heating, plumbing and appliances, while it is the cheapest part – volume – that is cut. Of course, in the long run it’s that volume that adds undue costs, as it takes a lot to heat, cool and maintain unnecessary space.’ The environmental aspirations of small homes also boost the price – the Cube cost £52,000, much of that accounted for by items such as an air-source heat pump and the photovoltaic panels on its roof.

On the other hand, building less house means you can afford better-quality materials, says Ric Frankland, a Manchester-based architect who has designed a range of micro homes called Dwelle. ‘My door handle is a really nice design, it’s stainless steel and it’s not cheap – but I only have one door so I can afford to be extravagant,’ he says. ‘I don’t think people need a great deal of space to live in, it’s the type and quality of space that’s important.

By bringing the size of the building down, you make that quality of construction and design affordable.’

But can it really be healthy to live long-term in such a constrained space? Page is still making the final adjustments to the Cube before the subjects of his psychological experiment move in, but he is already

Downsizing//

:Cube house 27m3, £52,000 Designed by engineers at University of Hertfordshire, this 3m x 3m x 3m home provides everything that a single person – or two extremely compatible people – would need to live a self-contained, carbon-neutral life. Somehow, it manages to provide a lounge with a table and two chairs, a small double bed, a full-size shower, fully equipped kitchen, washing machine and composting toilet, with a 2m standing height throughout – although if you want to go up the space-saving staircase, you have to remember to start with the left leg or you’ll trip up when you get to the top.

anticipating the findings: ‘I can guarantee that there will be massive differences, like everything else in psychology. Some people will say, “You must be crazy, how could I live in such a small space?” where others will say, “How nice and cosy.”’

In fact, small spaces play a positive role in human psychology, believes Abraham Thomas, the curator of a 2010 exhibition at London’s Victoria & Albert Museum, which asked seven architects to build small spaces in which to live, work and play at full size within the gallery. ‘I was interested in the power of small spaces for contemplation and reflection,’ he explains. ‘As children, we create little dens in which to play, and we carry that on through adulthood – the classic example is the shed.

We seek out small spaces as refuges or retreats where we feel cocooned.’ But while this may explain the cult appeal of the micro house, he’s not sure the effect would work long term: ‘It’s there as a complement to general living, functioning as punctuation in daily life. Otherwise I think the effect is lost somehow.’

The psychological impact of smaller spaces is difficult to separate out from a much bigger social change, as technology breaks down spatial boundaries altogether.

Figures on commercial offices from Jones Lang LaSalle reveal that US companies now allocate far less space per employee, down from 500-700ft sq in the 1970s to little more than 200ft sq today. By 2015, it is predicted to be as low as 50ft sq. But in the latest designs, space savings are achieved not by cramming more desks into a smaller area, but by completely rethinking layouts to support more flexible, mobile working patterns.

At office design consultancy DEGW, chief executive Despina Katsikakis believes that companies are only just

catching up with how working practices have changed since laptops became widespread almost 15 years ago.

‘The more technology becomes mobile, the less time people spend working in one location, and we’re seeing a serious case of underutilisation of office space,’ she says. She finds the highest utilisation rate is typically 40-50%, but taken across a 24-hour period, that means an office building is used less than 10% of the total available time. In a traditional office, there was an 80:20 ratio of individual space to areas for group working.

New office designs are reversing that, so the desk space assigned to each employee is much smaller, but they have access to a much greater area than ever before.

At RICS headquarters in Parliament Square, London, a 2008 refurbishment yielded a reduction in space allocated to office use by 15% – while increasing the number of desks. ‘Even in a complex, part Grade II-listed building there were significant gains in space to be found,’ explains project leader Rob Smith of CBRE. ‘The removal of partition walls and the use of modern desk and integrated storage systems enabled us to house staff in a more logical way on fewer floors, while retaining >>

‘Instead of working for a mortgage or rent, I spend my life living. Life itself seems more meaningful in a tiny house because everything in it is necessary’

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Downsizing// a healthy desk-to-floor plate ratio. At the same time, RICS adopted more flexible working practices. For example, senior staff – who tend to travel more – gave up their desks and now log on at vacant workstations.

While occupational density increased, perceived density was reduced. This freed up the ground floor for venue space, smoothed the flow of people around the building, and simplified security management which, given RICS’ location, was a key priority.’

Peter Hogg MRICS, partner and head of public sector consultancy at EC Harris, says he has helped companies to cut their office space by anything up to 67%. ‘People were used to there being two or three kinds – offices, open-plan areas, meeting rooms – but now there are many different styles of workspace designed for what different people need in order to do their work well,’ he explains. An organisation in outer London consolidated from satellite offices to one central workplace and implemented agile working methods, which saved 900,000 miles per annum in commuting between different sites. ‘If you think about the time and cost saved, and the environmental benefits, that’s a substantial result,’ says Hogg.

The psychology of smaller spaces is also impossible to separate out from a sense of greater transience.

Smaller homes can often be moved more easily, and their occupants are unlikely to be able to remain in them for long if their lifestyle changes. Within the modern office, spaces are more likely to be demountable so they can be quickly rearranged, says Hogg, and people who don’t have their own desk can be more easily moved around the building. ‘If people have a significant amount of space, and it’s allocated so that individuals have a proprietorial claim, with photos of their kids on the desks, then it becomes very hard to change the way they use the space because it’s very personal,’ he says. ‘If people don’t have that sense of propriety, it’s much easier. Psychology is very important, and organisations underestimate it at their peril. We advise clients to be in no doubt that if you

:Archipod 2.9m diameter, 2.5m high, £15,000

Drawing on his 13 years of experience at prefabrication specialist Yorkon, designer Chris Sneesby wanted to create an eco garden office that would allow people to work more sustainably from home.

An alternative to the traditional garden shed, its unusual shape is intended to appear to take up the least possible space, while its widest point is at seated-head height so that it feels surprisingly big inside. It’s also very quiet, with highperformance insulation and cedar shingles, and filled with natural light from the roof dome.

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move to this kind of environment you’re taking stuff away from people, and they will perceive that they’re losing space. You’ve got to show them what you’re giving them, in terms of making it easier for them to do their work and to succeed.’

Katsikakis compares individuals’ new relationship with space to living in a city centre rather than a suburb – in central London, people may live in small flats but they share vast parks with other people, rather than their own private garden. ‘We are reducing the space for individually assigned desks, but not per employee.

We’re giving employees access to the whole office, so the space for the individual has increased exponentially.’

And when you consider that we can work from home, from another country – from anywhere we like – space doesn’t seem to be shrinking at all: ‘We are connected to the world, we are physically somewhere but we are virtually everywhere.’

:Mahindra Nano house 7.2m2, £197 This home may be tiny, but it was created to fulfil a grand ambition: to solve the world’s housing crisis and provide a warm, safe, affordable alternative for the 2bn people living in slums around the world. The winning corporate entry in Harvard Business Review’s competition to design a house for US$300, the Nano house from Indian automotive company Mahindra has bamboo walls, fibre roofing and a mud floor and can be built anywhere from local materials.

Law advice//

Planning for

force majeure Illustration by Mitch Blunt

In Article 117 of the People’s Republic of China (PRC) Contract Law, force majeure is defined as ‘an objective circumstance that cannot be foreseen, avoided or overcome’. If a contract cannot be adhered to due to an event of force majeure, liability is partially or wholly exempted depending on the effect of the event, unless the law provides otherwise. However, it is important to note that if an event of force majeure occurs after a party has defaulted on its performance, it is not exempt from liability.

Under English common law, if a party seeks to be excused for non-performance of contractual obligations caused by external circumstances, the contract must expressly contain a force majeure provision. Force majeure is not a term of art, therefore it is necessary to include a reference to it in the contract. English law recognises force majeure based on an objective construction (parties to a contract may define particular events by including an exhaustive or illustrative list of recognised force majeure events, such as wars, strikes or extreme weather) and the parties can agree on the consequences should one of these occur.

The standard construction form published by the former Ministry of Construction in the PRC is a useful reference.

It allows parties to specify events of force majeure in particular conditions, recognising that in some circumstances it may be difficult to determine whether or not a particular event is covered by the general statutory definition.

In regard to consequences, any damage to the works as a result of a force majeure event shall be borne by the project owner. Therefore, in the PRC is it common for construction contracts to provide an exhaustive or illustrative list of agreed force majeure events, and it is crucial that standard force majeure clauses are tailored to the relevant jurisdiction and specific transaction background.

The International Federation of Consulting Engineers (FIDIC) suite of forms is popular in the PRC for use in projects involving international contracts. Introduced in 1999, the new FIDIC forms expand the definition of force majeure to ‘an exceptional event or circumstance that is beyond a party’s control’. This broad definition widens the application to commercial impossibility. In such an event, either party may terminate the contract within the 84-day period, and the contractor would be reimbursed on the same terms as in the case of a ‘normal’force majeure event.

difficulties can arise if the force majeure and its consequences have not been carefully defined in the contract

However, in PRC law, force majeure and commercial impossibility are distinct concepts. Article 26 of the Supreme People’s Court on Several Issues concerning the Application of the Contract Law (II) allows parties to modify or terminate a contract when‘in the event after the formation of a contract, there are substantial changes to the objective circumstance which were unforeseeable by the parties at the time of entering the contract, and such changes were not caused by force majeure or categorised as a commercial risk, and the continuous performance of the contract would result in obvious unfairness to one party or the purpose of the contract would be frustrated’. Here, the change of circumstances cannot have been caused by a force majeure event.

Should a force majeure risk materialise, difficulties can arise if the force majeure and its consequences have not been carefully defined, or if model clauses are adopted without careful consideration to ensure that it does not conflict with any applicable legal provision.

Pett Yap is a member of the Singapore and Hong Kong Law Society, and a special counsel at Baker & McKenzie, Shanghai. bakermckenzie.com

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Profile//

‘

I joined the company in 2003 when it was still Bucknall Austin. I led the global merger with Rider Hunt and Levett & Bailey in 2007, and was appointed chief executive. I also sit on the global board.

The merger was a huge exercise, but we already got on well and had spent time together. I also looked at how other large corporations, such as KPMG, managed mergers. We are now the largest independent quantity surveyor in the world, but the logistics of overseeing such a large company are actually easy: think small. I make sure the people in charge of local operations are good and that they ask for help when they need it.

My role now is to ask, what next? I look at new regions to target, such as India, the Gulf states and South America. We are already blossoming in China. And although we are now a huge company with more than 100 offices, we try to keep a local outlook, which helps keep people with you.

In China, for example, everyone who works for us is Chinese. My role is also to keep improving our service – there is always room for improvement. I think the best way of finding out how we’re doing is to telephone a customer. I am also on the road a lot too, probably for about a week every month, mostly in Saudi Arabia, India and China. I love going away but prefer coming home. I actually don’t care where I am as long as I am working hard.

I got into this business because, even from a young age, I liked buildings. They encourage certain behaviour and I think of them as emotional landmarks. I like knowing why they’re there and what’s going on inside them. I never considered becoming an architect – I was badly behaved at school and actually wanted to be a rugby player. But I ruined my ankle and then found work as a setting-out engineer after studying in London. By the first recession, in the ’90s, I had started to run projects. This current recession has been the single greatest opportunity of my career because we have had to learn how to do more with less. We are very cost aware and I think that’s our key differentiator. We will continue to grow because we’re not overly dominant in any one market – it’s a bit like spread betting.

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We work closely with RICS to improve industry standards and ways of working.

Our chair David Bucknall also chairs the Quantity Surveyor and Construction Professional Group Board, which provides a direct link to industry and helps us to contribute and share our insights. It was when I moved into my leadership role at Rider Levett Bucknall that I realised just how far-reaching the influence of RICS is, in the UK and globally.

Some projects never end. We’re the retained consultancy for Sydney Opera House and we run a planned maintenance programme there. Theatres and programming have changed since it opened in 1973, so we have to keep looking at new ways forward. It’s a project we never really left. I always like to have a project that I’m quite involved in. I took on one at Edgbaston Cricket Ground where we helped them to find a new partner for a mixed-use scheme at their ground when their first partner pulled out. If they hadn’t found one, they would probably have lost their Test match status, which would have ruined the club. I worked for free for two years to raise the profile of the opportunity, found another developer, secured a loan from Birmingham City Council and got a grant from the English Cricket Board for new flood lighting. I had a tear in my eye when I watched the third Test against India. The only sad thing was that Sachin Tendulkar didn’t get his 100th century.

We’re now working with LOCOG [London Organising Committee of the Olympic and Paralympic Games] as project manager, which involves cost consultancy, health and safety and a lot more. I’m very proud to be a part of it. Did I apply for tickets?

Yes, and I got them for the rowing. I saw it in Athens and loved it.

’

‘The logistics of overseeing a large company are actually easy: think small. I make sure the people in charge of local operations are good and ask for help when they need it’

1o minutes with…

lance taylor Chief executive, Rider Levett Bucknall Interview by Hannah Booth Photograph by Victoria Birkinshaw

Lance Taylor FRICS has been chief executive of Rider Levett Bucknall since the firm’s merger in 2007

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BEYOND BRICs

While the spotlight is on the big-hitting BRIC economies, the growing CIVETS present opportunities for property and construction firms Illustration by Francesco Muzzi

COLOMBIA

VIETNAM

gdp growth (2010)

gdp growth (2010)

gdp growth (2010)

4.3%

6.1%

6.8%

population

population

population

44.7

245.6

90.5

million

million

million

urbanisation

urbanisation

urbanisation

1.7%

1.7%

3%

Construction growth rate is expected to record 6.5% up to 2015.

The construction market is set to grow by £113bn by 2020.

Spending on construction is expected to reach US$1.4bn (£900m) in 2015.

£78m – the cost of BD Bacatá,

Jakarta’s total apartment stock is expected to reach 120,000 by 2011, according to Colliers International (from 75,000 in 2010).

70% of Vietnamese people live in

annual rate of change (2010-2015)

two mixed-use skyscrapers under construction in the capital Bogotá, expected to complete in 2013.

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INDONESIA INDONESIA INDONESIA INDONESIA

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annual rate of change (2010-2015)

annual rate of change (2010-2015)

either semi-permanent or temporary wooden houses without proper housing facilities.

CIVETS economies// Share of construction spending by development states in 2005-2020

Developing countries 35% Developed countries 65%

egypt

INDONESIA INDONESIA INDONESIA

2005

Developed countries 45%

2020

Developing countries 55%

turkey

SOUTH AFRICA

gdp growth (2010)

gdp growth (2010)

gdp growth (2010)

5.1%

8.2%

2.8%

population

population

population

82

78.7

49

million

million

million

urbanisation

urbanisation

urbanisation

2.1%

1.7%

1.2 %

Residential construction spending will increase to US$606m (£370m) by 2015.

Construction spending will grow by £51bn to 2020.

The construction industry is expected to grow 3-4% year-on-year from 2011-2014.

Egypt plans to invest US$110bn (£67.5bn) in the power sector by 2020, with the target of 20% of power to be generated by renewables.

US$1bn – the cost of RMJM’s 372,000m sq Varyap Meridian

Over the next three years, around US$120bn (£73.6bn) will be spent on new power stations, roads, dams and other infrastructure.

annual rate of change (2010-2015)

annual rate of change (2010-2015)

residential and business scheme for Istanbul, to be completed in 2012.

annual rate of change (2010-2015)

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Words by Brendon Hooper

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Images aaphoto.vn

Vietnam//

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FPT City, Danang One of the most successful architecture firms in Vietnam is Skidmore, Owings & Merrill (SOM).

Better known for its super-tall skyscrapers (the firm designed Dubai’s Burj Khalifa), SOM has four masterplan projects in the country. Its most recent masterplan win is for a new sustainable city to be built on the edge of Danang, a port near the centre of Vietnam. Named FPT City, the design has been commissioned by national IT company FPT to house many of its 10,000 employees and their families, with expansion space for around 20,000 more. At the heart of the plan is SOM’s vision for a campus for FPT University, which will specialise in computer and telecoms training for employees.

FPT also plans to provide ‘smart infrastructure’ such as high-speed broadband to every business and household.

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O

nce a war-ravaged land, Vietnam has become a fast-developing market in a very short space of time. The country’s GDP grew by 6.5% in 2010, and has averaged an astonishing 7% over the past decade, leading UK Trade & Investment (UKTI) to call it a ‘late-starting East Asian miracle’. In 2009, Davis Langdon ranked Vietnam as the world’s fourthfastest growing construction market, while Business Monitor International predicts the industry will grow by 8.5% to US$8.5bn (£5.2bn) this year.

As many of the world’s construction markets struggle with recession, firms and individuals alike are attracted by the unending strong signs of growth coming from the country. John Harris, an associate director in project management at CBRE, moved to Ho Chi Minh City last year. ‘I had been in Dubai for two-and-a-half years and was looking for a more interesting place to live,’ he explains. ‘I used to work in Hong Kong and wanted to come back to Asia, but Vietnam cropped up again and again in conversations, so after reading about it, the potential for the move was obvious.’

Harris, who thinks Ho Chi Minh City is ‘the most beautiful in Asia’, is mainly involved in project managing office fit-outs and pre-acquisition survey work in Vietnam’s largest city. Setting up in the country was easier than in the Middle East, he says, but more difficult than in advanced markets such as Hong Kong.‘Getting a trade licence takes two months here, compared to four days in Hong Kong and about eight months in the UAE.’ With strong long-term growth prospects and an improved legal framework, it is easy to see why a 2010 survey by UKTI found Vietnam to be the top investment destination outside the larger BRIC economies for the third year in a row. ‘There is a lot going on here in the way of project development, land reforms and industrial growth, which offers so many opportunities for surveyors,’ says Craig Wallace MRICS, manager in valuation, consulting and research at DTZ in Ho Chi Minh City. Wallace

transferred from London to the firm’s newly opened Vietnam office last year. ‘There are some great prospects for disciplines such as valuation, agency and development consultancy.’

But, despite the seemingly endless growth and increasing opportunities in the construction sector, concerns remain over the country’s high inflation and shortage of credit, as well as persistent problems with corruption and a lack of transparency – one area where RICS members are keen to have a positive influence in raising standards.

There are around 50 chartered surveyors in Vietnam, with half involved in commercial property, a third in quantity surveying and construction, and the remainder in project management, building surveying, geomatics and dispute resolution. Last December, RICS established a representative office in Ho Chi Minh City, where the majority of members are based. Industry and construction accounts for nearly half of the city’s 12% GDP growth, and demand for professional standards is high. ‘Like most places today, Vietnam’s property market is currently very challenging for investors, developers and individual owners,’ says Paul Mason MRICS, Chair of RICS Vietnam.‘Financial pressures are creating an increased awareness of, and need for, quality advice, and we’re seeing more clients who wish to take advantage of the professional services we offer here.’

Growth potential David Lockwood FRICS, general director at Turner & Townsend in Ho Chi Minh City, believes Vietnam is an ideal place for RICS to expand. Not only in order to promote ethics and standards in a growing market, but also to help develop forthcoming generations of local professionals – particularly as around 70% of Vietnam’s population is under the age of 35.

‘Many locals in the industry are seeing the value of being part of a large international professional body that encourages structured and continued learning throughout one’s working career,’ he says. ‘They see that being a member of RICS will improve their chances of career progression not only in Vietnam, but perhaps one day overseas.’

Previously a closed market, the Doi Moi (open door) reforms of 1986 opened up the Vietnamese economy to the rest of the world, setting in motion a period of rapid industrialisation. In 1991, industry and construction accounted for 23% of the country’s GDP – by 2008 this figure had grown to nearly 40%. In 2007, improved political stability and the government’s encouragement of foreign investment allowed Vietnam to join the World Trade Organization. Since then, economic progress has been remarkable – even after the global downturn of 2008, the country reported growth of 6.2%.

Three factors are driving this strong growth. First, although Vietnam is still a communist country, the state is beginning to account for a smaller share of GDP, leaving more space for the private sector to grow. Second, political stability has enabled foreign investors to operate securely, when they may have previously invested in neighbouring countries such

Vietnam//

Image HOK

as China and Thailand. Third, a growing labour force moving from rural areas to cities is proving attractive for major industries, leading to rapid urbanisation and a boom in infrastructure and housebuilding.

According to the World Bank’s Doing Business report, Vietnam has overtaken China and India as a place to invest and grow business. Continuing reforms from the communist government, such as placing more emphasis on long-term foreign investment, are helping to boost infrastructure projects. And last year, Nguyen Phu Trong, the newly elected General Secretary of the Communist Party of Vietnam, announced a plan to turn the country into a modern industrialised state by 2020, much of which will involve spending around US$50bn (£30.3bn) on upgrading infrastructure and increasing domestic electricity production.

Lockwood, who was in the first‘wave’of expatriates working in Vietnam in the mid-1990s, says it is generally not too problematic for foreign firms to enter the market, so long as their activities are in line with the social, political and cultural aspirations of the country’s 2020 vision for modernisation. Over the past 15 years, he has seen substantial changes in the property market. ‘In the mid-1990s, foreign investors largely led commercial and residential developments, while local firms provided only the land as part of the investment capital,’ he says.‘With the emergence of Vietnam’s export-driven economy, many local developers were able to gain finance and acquire real estate as a means to raise profile and make handsome returns.’

But with high inflation, high interest rates and a recent credit squeeze, current conditions are making it difficult for local commercial and residential developers to obtain finance. So international firms are once again gaining a foothold in selected projects, sometimes by taking equity positions or taking over distressed assets currently under construction. The market is becoming more mature, with both local and international developers producing higherquality projects. ‘The main concern at the moment however, is where the demand is going to come from for these developments,’ explains Lockwood, ‘as there seems to be an oversupply of residential units and office space in the two main urban centres of Ho Chi Minh City and Hanoi. This will mean that only more market-oriented developments with unique selling points will succeed.’

Good practice Alongside the construction boom, problems with corruption and transparency persist. A World Bank report in 2009 stated that widespread corruption still represented a serious problem in Vietnam, noting that 48% of companies say they expect to give gifts in order to get a construction permit.

Last year, Vietnam was ranked 116 out of 178 in Transparency International’s Corruption Perceptions Index, although some areas are vastly improving. For example, the country is ranked 43 out of 163 by the World Bank for registering property good practice, while neighbouring Laos is at 163.

‘Transparency is the big one, and that’s a moral dilemma for properly trained guys like us,’ says Harris. ‘In the end we must resist pressure to do things that try to circumvent good practice. It’s a case of “If you want us on the job, we’ll do it the right way or not at all.” However, in my experience, strict adherence to building regulations is improving, and safety generally is too.’

Lockwood agrees that safety standards are improving all the time. ‘Safety is of paramount concern to the authorities, who are not only aware of the human cost, but also of the negative publicity accidents can generate,’ he says. ‘Additionally, new laws are ensuring that only suitably qualified and experienced firms and individuals are responsible for checking and approving construction works.’

Despite the professional challenges and differences to more developed markets, Vietnam will remain an enticing prospect for some time to come, particularly as the Vietnamese authorities and private firms alike are very receptive to foreign influence, so long as local practices are not infringed.

‘It’s important to remember to blend in and embrace the culture, no matter how difficult, different or slow it may be at times,’ says Lockwood.

‘When facing a challenging situation, I’d advise using the local expression “khong sao dao”, which means “nothing to it!”’ ricsasia.org

Keangnam Hanoi Landmark Tower, Hanoi Vietnam’s tallest building is due to be completed this year in the Cau Giay district of Hanoi, a new business zone that encourages major companies to set up in the capital. A complex of apartment residences and office towers, its total floor area is expected to exceed 579,000m sq, giving it the fifth-largest floor area of any single building in the world.

Designed by a consortium of architects including Heerim, Samoo, Aum & Lee and HOK, the complex has been funded by South Korea-based construction firm Keangnam, which is investing more than US$1.05bn (£611m) in the project to create a five-star hotel, offices, apartments, retail outlets and a convention centre.

The central tower topped out earlier this year at a height of 336m.

Building success

Guy BRADLEY MRICS, Swire Properties’ new CEO (CHINA), talks sustainable development and signature property developments Interview by Kit Gillet Why is China such an important market for the real estate sector? // China, with such significant growth in its economy, is an important market for all business sectors – and real estate development is no exception. We have two major mixed-use developments going into operation this year – making three in total – and two more in the pipeline within the coming four years. These are big investments, and our priority is to deliver these projects and offer quality shopping, working and leisure experiences to the cities in which they are located.

Given Swire Properties’ strength and experience in developing and managing world-class retail-led, mixed-use projects, our focus will remain on this in first- and second-tier Chinese cities, but we may look at adding a residential component if the right opportunity came along.

What are your aspirations in your new role as CEO? // I have been with the Swire group of companies for more than 24 years, and in that time have been attached to various divisions and managed businesses all over the world – in Papua New Guinea, Japan, Hong Kong, mainland China, the US, Taiwan, Vietnam and the Middle East. My priority now is to lead our China team in the development and delivery of the projects we have on hand in the near term, as well as to build a world-class team, with PRC experience, capable of executing effectively in the China market. If we can demonstrate success with our existing projects, it would be nice to find one or two more – but these are big bets and we always focus on quality over quantity.

How important are environmental concerns for Swire Properties and the Asia region in general? // We place great emphasis on sustainable development, and environmental considerations are embedded in our day-to-day decisions and operations.

Sustainable development is a global issue and should be one of the key concerns for all, including us. It is particularly crucial for many Asian countries as they go through rapid urban development. We need to >>

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成功之道 太古地產新任行政總裁 (中國區) GUY BRADLEY, MRICS 談可持續發展和重大房地產發展項目 為什麼說中國是房地產業的一個 重要市場？ 中國的經濟發展迅速，對所有 行業而言都是一個重要的市場， 在房地產發展方面也不例外。我 們今年將有兩個大型綜合用途發 展項目投入使用，令大型項目總 數增加到三個，而且未來四年還 會完成另外兩個大型項目。這些 項目投資巨大，我們的首要任務 是將這些項目交付使用，為所在 的城市提供優質的購物、工作及 休閒體驗。 在開發和管理世界級、零售 主導的綜合用途項目方面，太古 地產擁有豐富的經驗和重大的優 勢，我們會繼續在中國一線和二 線城市發揮所長；但另一方面， 如有合適的機遇，我們也會考慮 發展住宅項目。 作為新任行政總裁，您對自己有 何期望？ 我服務太古集團已超過24年， 曾先後在多個部門任職、管理全 球各地的業務運營，包括巴布亞 新幾內亞、日本、香港、內地、 美國、台灣、越南及中東等。我 眼前的要務是領導中國團隊發展 和交付近期的現有項目，以及組 建一個世界級團隊，這個團隊不 但要擁有中國市場經驗，而且要 具有出色的執行能力。如果我們

能通過現有的發展項目展示我們 的過人之處，將有助於我們再物 色多一兩個發展項目。這些都是 巨大的投資項目；但我們始終重 視質量多於數量。 一般而言，環境問題對於太古地 產及亞洲地區有多重要？ 我們非常重視可持續發展，我 們的日常決策和運營都會將環境 問題納入考慮因素。可持續發展 是一項全球性議題，是包括我們 在內的任何人必須正視的問題之 一。這對於正在迅速城市化的許 多亞洲國家更是如此。我們需要 找到長遠的解決方案，以一方面 支持經濟和社會發展，另一方面 又不能影響環境的可持續性。 太古地產在1996年參與創 立了香港環保建築協會。該協 會制定的“建築環境評估法” （BEAM）在當時是全球第二個 同類型計劃。我們在2003年出版 了第一期《年度環境、健康及安 全（EHS）報告》，以通過報告 向我們利益相關方通報EHS方面 的最新情況、認清未來的挑戰， 以及闡明我們的未來目標。該報 告在2008年易名為《可持續發展 報告》，以反映我們在可持續發 展方面的整體戰略及實踐。 我們還與湖南大學、清華大學 等中國主要學術機構展開研究項

Interview//

‘Sustainabilityis particularly crucial for many Asian countries as they go through rapid urban development’

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Interview// identify solutions that create long-term value in terms of economic and societal growth without compromising the sustainability of our environment.

Swire Properties was a founding member of the HK BEAM Society in 1996 – the group set up the Building Environmental Assessment Method, only the second such scheme to be established around the world at that time. We published our first annual Environmental, Health and Safety (EHS) Report in 2003, to update our stakeholders on our EHS performances, identify future challenges and articulate our goals for the future.

In 2008 it became the Sustainability Report, to reflect the overall strategies and practices the company has on sustainable development.

We have also collaborated on research projects with leading institutes in China, including Hunan and Tsinghua Universities. Our research with the latter has produced remarkable results – up to 20m kWh of electricity has been saved on our portfolios over the past three years, which is equivalent to a reduction of 14,000 tons of carbon dioxide emissions or the equivalent annual carbon dioxide absorption of 600,000 trees.

When we look at sustainability, our focus is on the creation of long-term value, value that benefits the community and the environment as a whole – for major corporations it’s also essential to acknowledge and fulfill corporate social responsibility. But sustainable development certainly has much more to offer to a business.

Do you think there is a shortage of talent in the real estate industry? How does Asia compare to the West? // Finding and retaining the right talent in Asia, and specifically in China, to meet the needs of our business is challenging, as there are ample career development opportunities on the Chinese mainland for talented individuals. This is something we address by offering competitive packages as well as long-term professional development and career advancement opportunities, in the hopes that this will make Swire Properties a preferred employer. We try to create a culture that makes our staff want to stay with us for the long term.

Where do you see the biggest growth potential for Swire Properties? // We probably see retail as the area that best combines high growth potential with our brand and the expertise we bring. Just look at the transformation of Sanlitun, with the Village becoming a hugely popular shopping destination for Beijing’s trendsetters. Just as in Hong Kong where developments such as Pacific Place and Island East [pictured] have defined the Swire Properties brand, so we are looking to new projects such as TaiKoo Hui in Guangzhou and Sanlitun Village in Beijing to showcase our transformational quality and vision and drive us forward.

At the same time, I would not rule out a luxury residential project in China, as long as the key conditions were right. We have a very strong reputation for quality design and build in residential sector in Hong Kong and we can develop that in mainland China too. swireproperties.com

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目合作。我們與後者的合作研究 取得了重大的成果：過去三年為 我們的發展項目節省超過2,000萬 千瓦時電力，相當於減排14,000 噸二氧化碳，等同於60萬棵樹一 年的二氧化碳吸收量。 在可持續發展方面，我們的著 眼點是創造長遠價值，令社群和 環境整體受益，對於大型企業而 言，肯定和履行企業社會責任同 樣重要。可持續發展還能為企業 帶來更多的裨益。 您是否覺得房地產行業人才匱 乏？亞洲和西方的情況有何不 同？ 在亞洲、尤其是在中國，由於 就業機會充裕，要物色和挽留合 適的人才、以滿足我們公司的需 要，確實很有挑戰性。為解決這 方面問題，我們提供優厚的待遇 及長遠的職業發展和晉昇機會， 致力令太古地產成為優秀人才的 首選雇主；此外，我們還銳意打 造讓員工樂於長期效力的企業 文化。

您認為太古地產在哪方面最具有 發展潛力？ 我們認為零售業可發揮我們的 品牌和專業所長。從三里屯的轉 型便可見一斑– 三里屯Village 已成為北京的購物熱點，並深受 領導北京潮流文化的消費者的歡 迎。香港的太古廣場及港島東奠 定了太古地產品牌地位；我們正 密切注視廣州的太古匯及北京的 三里屯Village等項目，它不但展 示了我們在推動轉型方面的卓越 表現及遠見，更會推動我們不斷 向前發展。 同時，若情況合適，我也不排 除在中國發展豪宅項目。在香港 提供優質住宅設計和建造方面， 我們擁有良好的聲譽，在內地發 展這些項目，我們同樣能得心應 手。 swireproperties.com

Business advice//

Strengthen your

customer relationships Illustration by Cristobal Schmal

If you’re still using spreadsheets to track clients and prospects, now may be the time to consider a dedicated customer relationship management (CRM) system. Not only can it help generate more business and make your practice more profitable, but it also provides a fantastic collaboration tool.

So what is a CRM system? It’s really a means of enabling your team to address a wide constituency, whether existing clients, prospective customers, project teams or members of an organisation. So why not just store all that information on a spreadsheet or database? There are some key differences: Information becomes shareable – a CRM system can be used to collect and manage the knowledge of your entire team Expertise becomes shared, helping everyone raise their game and perform better Knowledge capture and management reduce your practice’s exposure to loss of a key member You can make standard documents and template letters available across your team for use by all, improving both efficiency and your corporate image Workflow can be built into the CRM system to prompt your team for actions such as approving documentation, providing information following enquiries, advising of closing and filing dates, and marketing tasks such as follow-up ‘how can we help?’ calls to unsuccessful bidders.

When managing multiagency projects, a CRM system comes into its own in controlling the information flow

For commercial agency surveyors, a well-organised CRM system can help manage opportunities being offered to the market, and record the developer and landlord side of the relationship as well. On the other side of the fence, as a developer you can use such a system to record the introductions brought to you – no more disputes over which agent is in prime position.

General practitioners can use CRM systems to track their connections: who they’ve spoken to, who’s looking to have land or property valued, tracking a rural opportunity that may take years to come to fruition, for example. Meetings and conversations with introducers such as solicitors and land agents can also be recorded more accurately.

When managing multi-agency projects such as power lines, renewables or access roads, a CRM system comes into its own in controlling the information flow between proprietors, government agencies, utility companies and

lobbying groups. Domestic property sales can also be managed, recording enquiries received and from whom, responses promised and delivered, offers received and forwarded to the client, and helping to build your marketing database both as opportunities for future property sales and for your own services as professional adviser.

The advent of cloud computing has brought a CRM system within reach of most practices, as you will be able to take advantage of the cloud benefits of flexibility and lower initial capital costs. Once the system is in place and customised to your own business processes, it is relatively easy to extend the benefits to new or additional members of your team, and of course a cloud-hosted system can be accessed from branch and home offices and by travelling staff. Collaboration and co-operation with other team members and support staff is therefore made much easier, improving both customer service and profit.

CRM systems are now well within the budget of most surveying firms, and offer a range of benefits: Enabling more effective response to enquiries Driving your team to be more proactive in relationships with clients Reducing vulnerability to the loss of key staff Giving management a complete overview of team progress on opportunities and projects Reducing the opportunity for dispute by tracking correspondence and communications Lower entry costs and faster time-to-value with cloudbased solutions. archie bell is a former surveyor and managing director of Waverley Lane Ltd, an Edinburgh-based business technology consultancy that specialises in working with property professionals. waverleylane.co.uk To learn more about cloud computing, download the free RICS guide at rics.org/cloudcomputing.

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10 of the best: new residential developments Compiled by Tim Abrahams

Urban Tulou, Shenzhen, China

Architect Urbanus Cost £3.97m Completion date 2010 Social housing development in China has stalled over the past 10 years, making living conditions for lower-income groups difficult in the big cities. China Vanke Group began developing the Tulou affordable housing project three years ago. Within the three main seabord cities that experienced redevelopment first – Shanghai, Beijing and Shenzen – this project by Urbanus is one of the best. The practice, based in Shenzen, has reimagined a traditional building form used by the Hakka people: a circular building with individual dwellings around the perimeter and communal areas in the centre. The new tulou are constructed using modern building methods and provide affordable accommodation of far better quality than a dormitory, which might be the alternative for a low-income worker.

Concrete Slit House, Nanjing, China

Architect Zhang Lei Cost not disclosed Completion date 2007 Using a trick popular among architects in Japan, the Slit House is an abstracted version of the adjacent 1920s villas, themselves copies of foreign buildings.

Intended to be social housing, it has been appropriated as a clubhouse for the surrounding neighbours. According to architect Zhang Lei, China consumes almost half of the world’s supply of concrete, and around 2,000 concrete high-rise blocks have been built in Nanjing over the past two decades. Most of these buildings have been reclad or painted, so Lei decided to create an honest concrete building with a finely textured surface, not dissimilar in appearance to traditional brick, by using narrow formwork.

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Housing projects// Urban Forest, Chongqing, China

Architect MAD Cost not disclosed Completion date 2015 According to Bo Xilai, secretary of the Municipal Committee of the Communist Party of China in Chongqing, the city ‘has the capability to be built into a most livable city, a city of pleasant environments, a traffic-jam-free city, even into a city that runs into a complete urban forest’.

Urban Forest is a 385m high metropolitan complex in the centre of Chongqing with architecture that mimics a shifting mountain range, multilayered sky gardens and floating patios. Each floor is seen as a separate and unique level of the urban forest, with open space, pools, trees and courtyards, and offices or residential space with floor-to-ceiling glass windows providing expansive views of the city.

The Pano, Bangkok, Thailand

Architect WOHA Cost $100m Completion date 2010 Bangkok’s new Suvannabhumi Airport was completed in 2006 and opened up the city to premium levels of foreign investment in real estate. With a total of 397 residences, The Pano is proof that the market for luxury condominiums is buoyant in Thailand, the next market to develop after coastal China and Singapore. Designed by Singaporebased WOHA, it is a classic piece of Singapore development translated to a stunning site where the Rama III Road crosses the Chao Phraya River. The 55-storey tower offers a mix of one- to four-bedroom apartments, as well as 52 luxury riverfront residences for tourists boasting either a roof terrace with Jacuzzi or a private island at ground level with a pool on the basement level.

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Moganshan Villa Development, Hangzhou, China

Architect Rocco Design Architects Ltd Cost not disclosed Completion date 2012 With mass urbanisation comes the desire for rural retreats for the city-dwelling elite. Moganshan was popularised as a mountain retreat from the summer heat of Shanghai for wealthy foreigners in the 1900s, and today attracts wealthy Chinese. This development, designed by the Hong Kong-based practice Rocco Design, is near to Moganshan and adjacent to an 18-hole golf course with a large club house, which is being built at the same time. The 38,400m sq plot features 56 houses designed to express the organic planning and architectural characters of traditional Chinese villages, a rare sign of architects in the region updating an architectural typology from the peasant past to satisfy a new urban elite.

Ordos 100, Inner Mongolia, China

Architect various Cost £3.2m Completion date not disclosed The original idea behind Ordos 100 was to build 100 villas designed by 100 of the most promising young architects in 100 days. The designs were selected by Herzog & de Meuron and incorporated on to a masterplan developed by Ai Weiwei and his practice FAKE Design.

The practices approached were from all over the world, including two from the UK, Simon Condor Architects and DRDH Architects (pictured). Since Ai Weiwei’s incarceration, the project has stalled.

W Houses, Yangji, South Korea

Architect Moongyu Choi + Ga.a Architects Cost $500,000 Completion date 2010 In recent years, South Korea’s most pioneering architecture has been suburban, partly because these are unexplored territories. In this experimental project in Yangji, architects have devised new forms for building types that don’t yet exist here, such as the suburban villa. The detached houses each have a floor area of around 250m sq, with one floor below and three floors above ground, and are open on all sides. The development shows that, despite commercial pressures, the housing in South Korea is the most innovative in the region.

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Housing projects// MahaNakhon, Bangkok, Thailand

Images Ole Scheeren ©OMA

Architect Ole Scheeren Cost $515m Completion date TBC Ole Scheeren designed CCTV Tower in Beijing, one of the most recognisable developments of the past decade, and is now expanding his sphere of influence to Thailand. MahaNakhon is a 77-storey highrise complex located in Bangkok’s central business district. At 150,000m sq, it will be the tallest building in the city, comprising a multi-level retail centre with restaurants, cafés and a boutique hotel, as well as 200 residential units. Projects such as Jianwai Soho in Beijing have proved that luxury developments can be successful in business districts if they are mixed use.

Developed by PACE, MahaNakhon has been ingeniously designed so that the mass of the huge structure doesn’t impose on the plaza below.

Sliced Porosity, Chengdu, China

Images Yongkwan Kim , Kaori Ichikawa

House in Suita, Osaka, Japan

Architect Naoko Horibe Cost $370,000 Completion date 2010 The urban townhouse on a tiny site is a typology Japanese architects excel at, here just under 200m sq in a suburb crowded by other vernacular houses.

Designed by the young architect Naoko Horibe, each unit is both ultra-modern and traditional in its simplicity, with a studio, two bedrooms, a living room and a library – a total floor space of 112m sq on a building footprint of just 70m sq.

Situated in a tight urban environment, with a population density of around 10,000 per km sq, the houses maintain a relationship with nature with a wide picture window that looks out on to a 50-year-old cherry blossom tree.

Architect Steven Holl Architects Cost not disclosed Completion date 2013 At over three million m sq, the Slice Porosity Block in Chengdu is effectively a new city within a city.

An unassuming megastructure in some ways, the sculpted form of the building is a result of the architect’s attempt to allow daylight through to the surrounding residences, as prescribed by the city’s planning code.

The form also makes the complex inviting from every side, with five vertical entrances cut through the layer of urban shopping to the residential areas within. The development is part of Singaporebased mega-developer CapitaLand’s attempt to increase their holdings of 53 malls in the country to 100 within five years. It also shows the benefits to Western architects, such as Holl, of having been involved in China’s first phase of urbanisation.

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Keeping score

Singapore’s new Constructability Score promises to improve on-site productivity. Eugenie Lip FRICS of KPK Quantity Surveyors considers its key features and requirements

C

hanging public perceptions of construction from the three Ds (dirty, demanding and dangerous) to the three Ps (professional, productive and progressive) was envisioned more than a decade ago in the Construction 21 Report, a blueprint for the industry in Singapore.

Efforts and initiatives towards improving productivity began in 2001 with the introduction of buildability legislation requiring more buildable designs to be adopted on the drawing board. With the new regulatory requirements on constructability, that message is now being passed down from architects and engineers to on-site construction methods and processes, casting the Building & Construction Authority’s (BCA) productivity net across all stages of the supply chain. The recently launched Construction Productivity Roadmap is a clear demonstration of the industry’s resolve to shed its perceived inefficient work methods and labour-centric processes and become ‘highly integrated and technologically advanced’.

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The Building Control (Buildability) Regulations 2011 came into operation in July, and introduce a new component – the Constructability Score – to encourage labour-efficient construction methods and improve on-site productivity.

The requirements apply to projects with applications for planning permission submitted on or after 15 July 2011, and extend to all new building works with a gross floor area of 5,000m sq or more, as well as to repairs, alterations or additions to existing buildings of the same area. (Certain development types – including culverts, bridges, underpasses, tunnels, earth retaining or stabilising structures, slipways, docks, wharves and jetties, theme parks, places of worship, power stations, and waste processing or treatment plants – are not subject to the requirements.)

Components The Constructability Score comprises three main components:

Part A: structural system – technologies and innovative methods and equipment adopted during the construction of structural works (maximum 60 points).

Part B: architectural, mechanical, electrical and plumbing (AMEP) system – technologies and innovative methods and equipment adopted during the construction of AMEP works (maximum 50 points).

Part C: good industry practices – such as the use of building information modelling, productivity benchmarking and real-time site monitoring (maximum 10 points).

The Constructability Appraisal System, as set out in the BCA’s Code of Practice on Buildability, details the principles and methods for determining the Constructability Score, and prescribes the minimum to be achieved for various categories of building works and development types.

Projects with a gross floor area of between 5,000m sq and 25,000m sq must achieve a

minimum of 40 points (with at least 25 derived from the structural system component), while projects of 25,000m sq or more must achieve a minimum of 50 points (with at least 35 derived from the structural system component).

Submission The Constructability Score is submitted to the commissioner of building control at the time of the application for the permit to carry out structural works.

However, if the contractor requires more time to explore and plan for labour-efficient construction methods and processes, the commissioner may allow a three-month (for conventional or non-design and build projects) or six-month (for design and build projects) timeframe after the permit has been issued for the score to be submitted.

Upon completion of the project, and before the

Images Corbis

Buildability

application for a Temporary Occupation Permit (TOP) or Certificate of Statutory Completion (CSC), the contractor must submit a Certificate of Compliance of Constructability Score confirming that construction has been carried out as described. In the event of any departures or deviations from the technique or process described, the contractor is required to notify the commissioner and submit a recomputed score – which must still meet the prescribed minimum – at least three working days before carrying out any such departure or deviation on site.

During construction, the contractor must also comply with the following requirements: Keep and maintain on site a progress report on the construction techniques and processes adopted, including photographs, as evidential

demonstration that the project has been constructed in accordance with the submitted Constructability Score; records of construction processes used; and other documents, reports and records showing details of methods and technologies as may be determined by the commissioner.

Submit the Construction Productivity Data on a monthly basis. The data comprise manpower utilisation, construction output and documentation, and are used to gauge the productivity level of the project.

Attend to site checks as may be conducted by the BCA. Contractual implications The regulatory regime on the Constructability Score requires certain key issues to be clearly set out in the contract at tendering stage to enable the contractor to plan techniques and processes, submit the score on time, initiate record-keeping and document management on site, allocate the necessary resources efficiently and make provisions in pricing.

The contract must be clear on the remedies available to the developer and the implications for the commencement date of the project if the contractor fails to submit the Constructability Score on time, and the issuance of the permit is therefore delayed. Should the contractor fail to submit the Constructability Score by the commissioner’s deadline, they will be liable to a fine (maximum $10,000). The contract must also state that the contractor is liable for any fines imposed for contravening the applicable provisions in the regulations, such as failure to keep site records, non-submission of the Construction Productivity Data, or adopting techniques or processes that deviate from those described. Similarly, if the contractor fails to endorse and submit the Certificate of Compliance of Constructability Score and the issuance of a TOP or CSC is therefore delayed, it is fair to expect that the developer should be suitably compensated (a maximum $10,000 fine).

To ensure a total passdown of risk, sub-contract documents should require all sub-contractors (whether designated, nominated or named, directly or indirectly engaged) to be aware of the Constructability Score stipulations in the main contract. The sub-contract documents should also deal with an occasion where the contractor is held liable for contravening the applicable provisions or a delay in the issuance of the TOP or CSC and it is found to be the responsibility of the sub-contractor.

The regulatory landscape to raise productivity in Singapore’s construction industry through the power of technology and the adoption of less labourintensive construction methods and processes is welcome, timely and commendable. The constructability framework will certainly imbue productivity consciousness and change mindsets and attitudes across the whole of the supply chain from drawing board to site, steering the industry towards becoming truly professional, productive and progressive.

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Start-up firms//

times may have been tough over the past few years – but that didn’t stop these surveyors setting up their own small businesses. clare dowdy discovers 10 success stories Illustration by Oscar Bolton Green

Dalen Strategies Ltd, London, UK Sustainability and carbon consultancy Dalen was founded as a response to the growing demand for specialist sustainability advice from property owners and occupiers. ‘Although the general economic environment is currently very challenging, we have found most people in the real estate sector understand that sustainability, as both a regulatory and environmental issue, is here to stay,’ says co-founder Sam Pickering, who set up the company with James Pack in April 2011. Both ex-military, Pickering and Pack entered the property profession at the end of their commissions.

Their focus, they say, is to show clients how to make sustainability part of their company culture, so that it becomes ‘a process that can drive their decision-making to enhance long-term profitability’, rather than simply ‘another legislative framework.’

The company’s first instruction was the everexpanding Mexican restaurant business, Wahaca.

They now carry out all the chain’s sustainability services, from environmental assessments such as Ska Rating and BREEAM on new restaurants to achieving zero waste to landfill from operations.

The intention is to build Dalen into a sustainability consultancy that operates throughout the world, ‘ensuring any company, either a specialist in real estate or simply an occupier of space, understands how to make sustainability part of their everyday decision- and policy-making’, says Pickering. The boon of having your own company is that you can be responsive to the market at all times, he adds, admitting that the trick will be to expand the firm while maintaining this light-footed approach. dalenstrategies.com

Southern Valuation and Consultancy, Dunedin, New Zealand Commercial and residential valuation The founders of Southern Valuation received a phone call from a mortgage broker at midday on Christmas Eve, asking if they could inspect a property that afternoon and have the report ready three days later. ‘We could and we did,’ says Adam Binns MRICS. The broker was so impressed, he says, that the firm now gets all his referral work.‘That one relationship kept our business afloat in the first year.

Without that work we could not have survived.’

This is a two-strong husband and wife team: registered valuer and chartered valuation surveyor Adam, and Lynne Binns, who has worked in administration in the property sector. The couple emigrated from the UK to New Zealand in 2004, and set up their business in September last year after running it part-time while Adam was employed as an investment property portfolio manager for Dunedin City Council.

‘The economy in New Zealand at the time was tough, but nowhere near as bad as in other parts of the world,’ says Adam. The couple spotted a gap in the valuation market in Dunedin‘and decided to take advantage of a (hoped for) economic upturn’. Theirs is the only firm of chartered valuation surveyors in the city of 12,300 people – and, they believe, in New Zealand. So they have a broad brush, working with commercial, residential and lifestyle clients. The next move is to take on another valuer to help them grow the business – particularly in commercial property – and increase turnover. southernvaluation.co.nz

The Doré Group, San Diego, US Real estate advisory and valuation After 28 years as a real estate consultant and valuer in the US and overseas, Lance W Doré FRICS teamed up with Richard Anderson – also a real estate consultant and valuer of 20 years’ standing – to found The Doré Group in August 2010.

‘In a climate of economic distress, real estate consulting is greatly needed to assist clients with work-outs, modifications and due diligence, as well

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We felt that big businesses would struggle to cope with the severe downturn, but that a nimble firm could capitalise on the situation

as litigation support,’says Doré.‘When the economy improves, the consulting and valuation work transition toward transactional work.’ Hence their focus on complex real estate and valuation issues, serving legal, governmental and corporate clients.

It was a big bankruptcy case in New York City involving General Growth Properties and Howard Hughes Estates that put the firm on the map. Doré, who was retained by law firm Ropes & Gray (which was acting for Howard Hughes Estates), describes it as a partnership dispute over the bankruptcy of Summerlin, a 7,500-acre masterplan project in Las Vegas. ‘There was a significant amount of litigation support for the parties to determine the correct strategy and valuation issues to assist my client,’ he explains. The case concluded with a favourable result for his client, with an award of US$230m – including US$10m in fees, shared between all the consultants.

Over the next five years, The Doré Group hopes to mushroom from its current staff of six to between 10 and 20 offices. In the meantime, Doré is juggling‘the many hats you are needed to wear’ as the president and CEO of a small business, from human resources and accounting to quality control, technology, marketing and deliverables. Even so, he says, he is enjoying ‘not having to conform to a larger mission statement or profit requirement that may not necessarily meet my clients’ or my firm’s needs’. thedoregroup.com

Personal Touch Surveying, Wakefield, UK Residential surveying and energy consultancy In May 2008, the UK housing market was starting to decline and the economy was entering recession.

Three-and-a-half years on, Personal Touch Surveying has a senior management team of four, 31 chartered surveyors across the country, and a sixstrong central support team. ‘We set up because lenders and panel managers were seeking independent and quality surveys on a national basis,’ explains co-founder Dev Malle.‘We were confident

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that we could deliver these requirements, underpinned by a strong focus on quality.’

Personal Touch Surveying is a wholly owned subsidiary of Personal Touch Holdings, where Malle is sales and marketing director. This means the company can be quick to respond ‘with the benefit of a corporate sitting behind us in the guise of our parent’. For Personal Touch Surveying, it’s all about quality. ‘We undertake customer satisfaction surveys, and 100% of the feedback we have received rates our service as good or excellent,’ says Malle.

The firm’s core business is residential surveying, but it has also added energy compliance and consultancy in the hope that these additional services will keep it ahead of its competitors. To date, the company’s most significant project is the delivery of 1,200 commercial Energy Performance Certificates for Ernst & Young. The firm’s vision is to be the leading property surveying and environmental consultancy, relied upon by both property professionals and consumers. personaltouchsurveyors.co.uk

Cavendish Maxwell, Dubai Commercial property valuation In October 2008, when Cavendish Maxwell was founded, the Dubai property boom was in full swing – but Jay Grant MRICS and Adam Wellfair MRICS were expecting an imminent reversal. ‘We felt that big businesses would struggle to cope with the severe downturn, but a nimble firm with minimal overheads could capitalise on the situation,’ explains Grant.

Some firms did end up scaling back or closing completely.‘We positioned ourselves to benefit from this and won a number of instructions as a result,’ Grant says. But he admits that they were surprised by the severity of the downturn. ‘It didn’t so much slow down as stop completely. Literally overnight.’

At the time the two Brits set up shop, ‘the requirement for residential property valuations was effectively eliminated, with banks ceasing to extend credit facilities in order to safeguard their own balance sheets,’ says Grant. So they concentrated on commercial property valuations, and now carry out valuations for 15 banks across the region.

The pair’s resilience has paid off, and they are now 10-strong and have just bought their own office – at a quarter of its 2008 value, according to Grant. It’s been tough but worth it for Cavendish Maxwell.‘We both left relatively well-paid positions and our combined salary during our first six months was zero,’Grant says.‘But we saw an opportunity to start something out of nothing and were prepared to make huge sacrifices to be successful.’ cavendishmaxwell.com

Start-up firms//

Mocuntia Property Consulting, Schondorf/Ammersee, Germany Technical asset management Mocuntia’s founder, Bernd Rosoly MRICS, was a victim of the economic downturn. A building surveyor and civil engineer by trade, he found himself unemployed in 2009, and set up as a freelance consultant for major consulting firms. ‘It was amazing how soon I was in a direct contractual relationship with my first major client,’ he says.

Mocuntia now operates with six freelancers, and prides itself on being fleet of foot, starting site surveys and data room checks just a day or two after winning a job. The firm’s focus is the technical transaction service in the real estate sector – an expertise Rosoly built up over 10 years.

‘I’m developing a very detailed checklist for real estate site surveys and a programme of how to do a test-driven development. More and more clients are asking for our technical transaction service because they realise that many investors and funds bought “rubbish” prior to the big economic crisis and have a lot of technical problems with the properties today.

In order to avoid the same problems they now want a more detailed technical survey.’

Rosoly’s ambition is to be 20-strong in the next few years, developing additional services along the way and strengthening customer loyalty. He also hopes to attract more international clients who want to invest in the German real estate market.

Unsurprisingly, the greatest upside to starting his own business is that no-one can fire him.‘I’m free to do things that are impossible as part of a big firm. I love what I’m doing and this gives me an enormous power every day. Otherwise it would not be possible to work 12 hours a day, seven days a week.’ mocuntia.com

I love what I’m doing and this gives me an enormous power every day. Otherwise it would not be possible to work 12 hours a day, seven days a week

McNeil Commercial, Bath, UK Commercial property Jamie McNeil MRICS simply decided he didn’t want to work for a big organisation any more.‘I was billing well, and thought that even if I bill a 10th of this in my first year we could survive financially.’

He claims the economic climate of October 2009, when he starting trading, was irrelevant. ‘There are always going to be reasons not to start a business,’he says. His model is structured around people’s desire to save money, which is appropriate for a tough marketplace. ‘My fees are generally based on a percentage of what I save my clients,’ he explains, although he is equally happy to work on an hourly rate, retainer or fixed fee.

The company’s raison d’être is to help commercial property occupiers, and McNeil specialises in service charge work.‘When I was managing property for landlords, I saw a lot of occupiers pay more than they should have because they weren’t getting excellent advice. There is still a lot of dissatisfaction from occupiers with regard to how service charges are operated and administered.’

Interestingly, he made a conscious decision to start completely from scratch and not bring business or clients with him: ‘It was a sink or swim situation and that was what I wanted.’He spent the first month cold calling and meeting people.‘I was fortunate that Subway, Hobbycraft and discount retailer The Range gave me a chance to show what I could do.’ They all became clients. He hopes to have a £1m turnover in five years’ time, but in the meantime is enjoying being ‘master of my own destiny’. mcneilcommercial.co.uk

Darwin Construction Contracts and Costs Consultancy, Hong Kong Construction valuation and contracts Daniel Sum MRICS benefited from low rent and start-up costs when he established his business in 2007. At the time, Hong Kong was just recovering from the recession following the 2003 SARS epidemic. He focuses on providing surveyors’ services to contracting SMEs in Hong Kong’s building and construction industry, many of whom

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Start-up firms// don’t have such services in-house. ‘We advise our clients not just on the construction costs valuation of their works, but also on construction contracts so they have a comprehensive understanding of their financial and contractual position,’he explains.

The firm was launched with a project for a glass reinforced fibre concrete contractor in Hong Kong; Darwin provided consultancy on quantity surveying and construction claims for the specialist contractor on the Venetian Macao hotel and casino resort.

Sum can see myriad benefits of running his own show, from being the main decision-maker to not having to share the financial rewards with shareholders. But he admits that clients sometimes have more confidence in bigger, more established firms, and says it can be ‘hard to find the suitable clients and difficult to build confidence in clients’.

More established businesses also ‘have a higher bargaining power with the clients over the prices of works’. Despite this, he hopes to grow Darwin from a two-strong outfit into a medium-sized firm with at least 10 specialists.

Black Olive Ventures, India Development management In June 2011, the property market in India was flat.

Too many projects had been launched and execution was proving a challenge for many developers. In the midst of this gloomy economic market, and with a second recession forecast, Sunil Agarwal FRICS and Naveen Garg saw an opportunity for ‘owner representation’ in real estate development.

‘Many people had burnt their hands by getting into the wrong projects at the wrong time,’ explains Agarwal, an urban planner and civil engineer. ‘Real estate development was considered an easy side business, without any real skill involved, and matured players could not hire a good team of professionals.’ They also anticipated that, in the long term, there would be a strong demand for real estate in India for the next 15-20 years.

With their combined experience – Garg is an architect and project manager – the pair founded Black Olive Ventures (BOV), which specialises in owner representation.‘The key is empowerment in decision-making, and that comes from the approach of being the owner’s representative rather than a service provider,’ says Agarwal.

So far, BOV has little competition, and the company employs a unique combination of people who can cover development from all sides of the table. Currently involved in four major development projects with Supratik Estates, their aim is to have around 12-15m sq ft of projects under their

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management within the next five years. ‘The challenge is that, while there are many takers for the service, the industry benchmarks have not yet been set,’says Agarwal.‘However, we anticipate that more and more landlords and funds will now opt for a development manager over a classic developer.’

Earl Kendrick Associates, London and south-west England, UK Building surveying, interior design and project management Julian Davies MRICS says he hit a ceiling at his previous firm, being a director but not a shareholder.

So he set up on his own in February 2011, when the market was gloomy and uncertain. But for Davies, this was an advantage: ‘I saw it as a good time to set up a small company, providing an expert service while offering competitive fees because of my low overhead base,’ he explains. Earl Kendrick’s focus is on high-quality residential property, from large developments to private residences.

The personal service that Davies can offer suits premium clients, many of whom have busy lifestyles or are from overseas. ‘I often take calls at night or over the weekend,’ he says.

A key premium client is a prime residential estate in Kensington, London, where Davies is retained as surveyor. The company has carried out various major improvement schemes, including the refurbishment of the pool area and an internal communal lobby, which involved working alongside a top-end interior designer.

Over the next five years, Davies hopes to ‘build a brand that is recognised as providing the highest quality services in the sector,’ as well as setting up a base in south-west England and possibly expanding overseas. So far, he is enjoying having control over the direction of his firm but admits to working long hours, always with a degree of uncertainty. earlkendrick.co.uk

i saw it as a good time to set up, providing an expert service while offering competitive fees because of my low overhead base

Information :rics news :diary :membership :resources

useful numbers RICS asia +852 2537 7117 General enquiries APC guidance Subscriptions Events Training Bookshop Regulation helpline +44 (0)20 7695 1670 confidential helpline +44 (0)20 7334 3867 Dispute Resolution Services +44 (0)20 7334 3806

assessing assets RICS Asia has released the Chinese edition of the Best Practice Guidance note for the Technical Due Diligence of Commercial & Industrial Property, which will provide practical guidance for prospective property purchasers, occupiers and financiers during the disposal, acquisition and management of property assets. ‘Technical Due Diligence is not only essential for informed decisionmaking during property transactions, but it provides a basis for long term risk management and improved facilities performance,’ said Stephen Ballesty FRICS, one of the authors of the guidance note.

switchboard +44 (0)20 7222 7000

China has proven remarkably resilient in the face of a series of measures designed to cool the market

Simon Rubinsohn, RICS Chief Economist

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RICS Asia news//

New Asia professional groups

RICS has announced the establishment of two Professional Group boards in Asia: Valuation, and Quantity Surveying and Construction. The Valuation board exists to promote RICS to end users, develop and promote valuation standards,

educate members and non-members on best practice, and engage with opinion formers on valuation-related topics. The QS and Construction board was officially constituted in July, and its first task is to identify practice trends, emerging market

Going green RICS took part in the International Green Building Conference in Singapore in September. The conference, organised by the Building and Construction Authority (BCA), attracted 900 delegates from around the world and coincided with Singapore Green Building Week. As a supporting organisation, RICS was invited to give a presentation on the cost and value of green buildings. At the conference, the Singaporean Government announced the launch of a shared incentive scheme to enable building owners to obtain loans for energy-efficient retrofitting, part of its commitment to ensure 80% of building stock reaches the minimum ‘Green Mark’ rating by 2030.

first regulated firm in asia EC Harris has become the first RICS-regulated firm in Singapore. Since 2007, RICS has encouraged members to register their firms and publicise them as being ‘regulated by RICS’ to show that they have adopted the highest standards of professionalism. Hong Kong already has around 30 RICS-regulated firms. ‘We are delighted at the response that we have had to the registration of firms in Singapore, and we are pleased to acknowledge the achievement of EC Harris in being the first firm to be registered,’ said Ian Thomas, RICS Senior Regulatory Development Manager, Asia. ‘EC Harris has clearly reaffirmed its commitment to conducting its business in conformity with the highest standards – the “gold standard” that is the RICS regulatory framework.’

RICS japan working group The RICS presence in Japan has historically been limited, but the number of members is gradually increasing. RICS Asia started a comprehensive study of the Japanese market a few years ago, and at the same time began discussions on a future collaboration with the Association for Real Estate Securitization (ARES), the country’s largest and most influential organisation for industry professionals. The RICS Japan Working Group was established in May to promote RICS and facilitate further discussion, and in July RICS Asia Chairman Chris Brooke and Head of Development Ernest Leung visited Tokyo to meet top real estate executives and government officials. Members of the Japan Working Group are now working to enhance the relationship between RICS and various professional organisations, promote RICS membership and introduce Japan’s current market information to members in Asia.

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needs and business opportunities. The Asia Professional Group boards are accountable to the Asia Board. The chairs of each also sit on their corresponding global professional group board to ensure accountability and a cohesive global effort to promote professional practice.

bim awareness A BCIS survey of RICS members has revealed a generally low use and awareness of building information modelling (BIM), with few respondents recognising its potential benefits and fewer than 5% indicating any frequent use. Of the respondents, from the Quantity Surveying and Construction Professional Group, 98% said this was largely due to the lack of client demand, and 95% reported a lack of training and education. Few respondents expected to increase their baseline fees as a result of the technology, and only 40% saw the potential for expanding services. A disappointing 30% saw no benefit in BIM for themselves or their organisations. ‘This is an excellent starting point for further consultation,’ said David Bucknall FRICS, Chair of the Quantity Surveying and Construction Professional Group. ‘It is now clear that BIM is here to stay, and we are determined to play a leading part in its development.’ rics.org/bim

PRESIDENT’S COLUMN

‘It’s not just about what we get for our subscription, but what we’re willing to put back into our profession’ See Lian Ong FRICS, RICS President

P

assing through an airport recently, I saw an advert for ‘the world’s local bank’, and wondered whether it is possible to be both locally and globally relevant.

As President, I am deeply conscious of the need for RICS to be seen as relevant to members’ daily lives. However, this is a real challenge when you consider how diverse our membership is. There can be little doubt of RICS’ global relevance these days, and it is entirely right to my mind that we should have placed so much emphasis on ensuring the profession has responded to the demands of the international marketplace over the past 12 years.

However, the majority of the 10,000 RICS-regulated firms are SMEs, many of them with only regional or local business.

Understandably, it may be harder for these to see a direct, tangible benefit from the internationalisation of the profession.

In truth, though, no market is isolated from international forces, and the fact that the RICS qualification has become a global gold standard can only strengthen recognition of the profession by clients and governments in the long term.

Nonetheless, the recent downturn has spelled tough times for many of us, and I

am conscious that some of our smallest firms have found themselves struggling.

What can RICS do to help? First it can be out there promoting our professionalism.

Over the past few years, RICS has gained a huge amount of respect at government level for its thought leadership on industry standards. I want to ensure we are also providing member firms large and small with a toolkit to build recognition for their standards among clients.

As we develop our body of technical guidance and practice standards, I want to ensure we embrace innovative ways of keeping busy practitioners up to speed through easily digestible checklists and summaries of requirements. I also want to ensure RICS continues to grow its portfolio of CPD to provide an ever-greater range of low-priced events and training alongside the higher-end conferences.

I believe that for many small firms, RICS courses in business management are every bit as important as technical courses.

There are some members who feel that, since the dismantling of the branch structure in the 1990s, the chartered surveying community has lost some of its local vigour. However, I would like to remind members that RICS supports local groups in setting up small networking events with publicity and seed funding. So I recommend anyone who feels they need more networking opportunities in their area to get on and organise it themselves with the support of their regional office.

At the end of the day it’s not just about what we get for our subscription, but what we are willing to put back into our profession. In my experience, those that put the most in tend to get the most out.

I would be interested to hear your ideas on what practical steps RICS could take to improve the way it supports SMEs. Please write to me at president@rics.org.

See Lian Ong FRICS is RICS President.

2,036 165 10k

Net increase in qualified members worldwide

The number of firms regulated by RICS across continental Europe

The number of followers of the corporate Twitter account @RICSnews

45 8,500 15k+ 12 Number of standards published

Users registered to the RICS Online Academy

Mentions of RICS in the UK media alone

The number of Associate qualification pathways available in the UK *RICS’ financial statements and annual review will be presented to Governing Council in November and will thereafter be available at rics.org/performancereporting

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Events For rics events bookings and enquiries ricsasia@rics.org // +852 2537 7117 China

Hong Kong

International conference on new development of valuation 28-30 October, Beijing With China’s reform, and the opening up and rapid development of global capital markets, the outlook for the valuation industry in China is promising. In order to grasp the new opportunities and promote the development of this industry, RICS China will hold an international conference in Beijing in conjunction with the American Society of Appraisers (ASA) and Capital University of Economics and Business (CUEB).

Valuation experts from the UK, US, Japan and China, as well as leaders of relevant departments, scholars, staff from relevant business units and graduate students are invited to attend. Topics for discussion include performance measurements, tax base valuation and valuation for the purpose of financial reporting (VFR).

Members RMB1,000 ricschina.org/ ricsasia.org

Strategic approach to property development 26 October, Hong Kong This CPD training course will provide an understanding of the appraisal of a development opportunity.

Delegates will consider all the factors that affect the decision-making process, including site appraisals, planning, development appraisal and development finance, to gain an understanding of how all these elements interact and how the developer can manage the process.

Members HK$120; non-members HK$150 ricsasia.org

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Preparing for the final assessment (for graduate routes 1, 2 and 3 and adaptation route 1) 29 October, Hong Kong This training course is specifically tailored to help APC candidates understand how to be successful and how to avoid interview pitfalls. Run by experienced APC assessors, who will share their expertise and knowledge, this

course will cover everything that APC candidates will need to know about the final assessment process and what is expected of them, as well as providing specific examples of skills and competencies and APC interview techniques.

Members HK$1,000 ricsasia.org Preparing for the critical analysis (for graduate routes 1, 2 and 3 and adaptation route 1 trainees) 29 October, Hong Kong Designed for APC candidates, supervisors and counsellors to understand the requirements for the critical analysis, this course will explain how to select the right topic, what elements it should contain, how to prepare it and what the assessors will be looking for.

Members HK$1,000 ricsasia.org Hong Kong Office market development Forum 22 November, Hong Kong RICS Hong Kong has recently published the ‘Grade A office market study report, Hong Kong’. This forum will show how office space is currently being used, and will examine the Hong Kong office landscape with reference to international case studies. David Faulkner, Chairman

of the RICS Hong Kong Working Group on the Grade A Office Study, will present the research findings and RICS’ recommendations to the HKSAR government before joining a panel session with representatives from Amcham, Britcham, CoreNet and HKGCC to discuss the lack of quality office space

in Hong Kong.

Members HK$200; non-members HK$300 ricsasia.org Malaysia ‘Autocad’ vs ‘CADMeasure’ software 2 November, Selangor This CPD event will provide a solution to ‘taking off’, a common issue for Quantity Surveyors, by using CAD-

Measure software.

Chin Keh Liang, Managing Director of Masterbill System, Director of JUB Central and advisor to Perunding PCT, wll share his knowledge of the software, demonstrating its features in comparison to other similar software.

Free for members and students. ricsasia.org

MIPIM ASIA 2011 15, 16, 17 November, Hong Kong Now in its sixth year, MIPIM Asia is the leading Asia Pacific marketplace event for real estate investment opportunities.

Along with superb networking opportunities, attendees can hear experts from the real estate, economic, political and financial sectors. Join us in Hong Kong to forge partnerships, hear industry insights and find new business opportunities.

Key benefits: • Attend the leading property exhibition in Asia Pacific to discover innovative real estate projects and ventures • Attend expert-led panel discussions to learn focused insights on real estate business strategy in Asia • Connect with hundreds of key real Asian estate decision-makers during numerous networking events • Debate issues at topic-based lunch tables or new link-in sessions • Celebrate the best Asian real estate projects at the MIPIM Asia awards and gala dinner.

MIPIM Asia 2010 in figures: • 1,727 participants • 797 companies • 412 investors, end-users, hotel groups and retailers • 150 exhibiting companies • 40 countries For more details, visit mipimasia.com.

RICS members special rate Register before or on 15 October and pay only €520 (a 50% discount).

From 16 October until 14 November, save 24% on the full price (entrance price will be €800).

Contact : ricsasia@rics.org, +852 2537 7117 or anne-marie.sanchez@ reedmidem.com, +33 (0)1 4190 4520

Membership member survey

Thank you to all members who took the time to share your views on the organisation during June and July. The survey, which for the first time was sent in email rather than paper format, helps form an understanding of the level of membership satisfaction and engagement with RICS. New questions also enabled us to assess our strength as a brand in the property world, as well as our competitive positioning against other bodies.

Highlights include Three-fifths (61%) of members are satisfied with their RICS membership overall Almost three-quarters (72%) would be likely to recommend RICS membership, with nearly half (46%) highly likely to do so Members outside the UK are particularly positive about RICS and their membership RICS is seen as central to the land, property and construction sectors, with 78% believing the Institution enhances the reputation of the profession, and 83% agreeing that RICS is the mark of property professionalism 86% are proud to be members of RICS, and 80% believe that membership enhances their career opportunities and earning potential RICS is rated more favourably compared to any other large professional body in the UK property sector.

Areas for focus include Improving engagement to ensure members feel more connected to and supported by RICS, as their careers develop Providing increased clarity on what RICS is planning to do and achieve Increasing and promoting RICS’ initiatives to attract young talent to the profession Improving website navigation.

Some examples of what members said the market needs from RICS ‘A more evident public face; better assistance for students; continued independence from external regulation; increasing and publicly evident global reach’ ‘Maintaining a high and well-respected profile; being vocal on relevant matters; promoting the highest standards’ Simplicity, clarity and support for the chartered surveyor; promoting the industry by promoting members’.

Next steps The findings will inform RICS’ strategy and help shape future services and products.

To gather further rich information and views from members, the member survey will now be conducted every six months, with half the membership invited to participate each time. rics.org/membershipsurvey

apply for a 2012 concession

We believe the professional qualification and status your RICS membership provides, along with the range of information and training opportunities available, are invaluable.

However, we also understand that sometimes personal situations should be taken into account when asking for membership fees. That’s why under certain circumstances you may qualify to have a concessionary rate applied to your membership fee. Download an application form from rics.org/concessions and return it by 31 January.

Join an RICS community RICS Communities are online hubs and networking opportunities for all professional group members, providing links to events, conferences, standards and guidance, and information papers, as well as a discussion forum to connect with other members working in your field.

Communities have been set up for building surveying, project management and

quantity surveying, arts and antiques, dispute resolution, residential, and building control. We also run forums via the communities system, which are open to everyone, with members and other property professionals welcome to join. There are forums on telecommunications, building conservation, insurance and dilapidations. rics.org/communities

+68 +63 -19

The results in Singapore show strong reilience in the real estate sector*

Occupier demand in China remained strongly positive*

Expectations for rental values in Malaysia turned negative in Q2 (down from +11)*

+90 +44

Retail occupier demand was particularly strong in Hong Kong*

New development starts rose sharply in Malaysia, compared to neighbouring countries*

-9

Unlike other countries in the region, Japan showed a negative occupier demand score*

*Highlights from the RICS Global Property Survey Q2 2011. rics.org/economics

10.11 // MODUS ASIA

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Measure//

Measurement

299,792

from the smallest to the greatest

Speed of light (km/s)

150,000,000

The distance of the Earth from the sun (km)

Illustration by Ian Dutnall

356,400km

The distance of the moon from the Earth at the perigees (closest). At the apogees (furthest) it is 406,700km.

40,075km

The circumference of the Earth at the equator (24,901 miles).

1787

1783

Surveyor William Roy commissioned leading instrument maker Jesse Ramsden to construct a 3ft theodolite to establish the exact relative position of the London and Paris observatories.

RICS Geomatics professional group has over 3,000 members and the largest percentage of international members (over 40%) of any RICS area of practice.

The year of the Ordnance Survey of Britain. Ramsden’s theodolite was used in the first accurate survey of Britain, forming the foundation for all Ordnance Survey maps.

1799

France was first to adopt the metric system – now the official system of measurement for all nations except Myanmar, Liberia and the US.

1 foot

A foot was measured as the actual length of a Roman soldier’s foot (296mm).

Three feet became known as one yard.

0.9144m

The length of one international yard, as defined by the US, UK, Australia and South Africa in 1960.

1,760 yards = 1 mile 1 mile = 1,609.3m 1 acre = 4,046.8m sq 1L = 1kg of water

The height of Mount Everest (29,000ft), as established in 1856.

Andrew Waugh, the British Surveyor General of India, named it after his predecessor Sir George Everest.

8,840m 11,033m The depth of the Mariana Trench (36,197ft), the deepest part of the Earth’s oceans. It was first sounded at 4,475 fathoms (8,184m) on the Challenger expedition of 1872–76.

Sources: Oxford English Dictionary, Wikipedia, International Bureau of Weights and Measures, rics.org/geomatics, ramsden.info, cartography.org.uk

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1kg Defined in 1889 by the international prototype kilogram, which is kept at the International Bureau of Weights and Measures in France.

International System of Units (metric system) prefixes 1,000,000,000,000 1,000,000,000 1,000,000 1,000 100 1 0.01 0.001 0.000001 0.000000001 0.000000000001

terra (T) giga (G) mega (M) kilo (k) hecto (h) centi (c) milli (m) micro (μ) nano (n) pico (p)

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