Editorial

Citation

French, N. (2001), "Editorial", Journal of Property Investment & Finance, Vol. 19 No. 6. https://doi.org/10.1108/jpif.2001.11219faa.001

Editorial

The world is getting smaller. As I write, I have just returned from the International Real Estate Society (IRES) World Congress, which was held in Alaska, July 2001, and I am humbled by the way in which the Real Estate profession has developed its international network in the last ten years.

In 1991, I attended the annual American Real Estate Society (ARES) meeting and I was impressed with both the conference and the organising society. But I was surprised by the belief that there was no real estate research of any note taking place outside America. Thus I returned to England with the idea of setting up a European equivalent, albeit I appreciated that it wouldn't be easy given the language and cultural differences. But we planted the acorn and from it the European Real Estate Society (ERES) has matured into a thriving society in its own right with an annual meeting (see below) and a large cross-border membership. At the same time colleagues from Asia, Australasia, Africa and South America have all embarked upon their own societies; brought together under the auspices of the umbrella grouping of IRES[1]. There is now a "real" international community. Not only do I believe this to be important, but also I am convinced that the work being undertaken today is the better for the cross-fertilisation of ideas and experiences.

At the Journal of Property Investment & Finance we are equally proud to have played our part in this development. Emerald (previously MCB) have supported the various societies by offering prizes for best paper (the ERES/MCB best paper for 2000 is presented in this issue); attending the various conferences and developing "group membership" for the various societies. The Journal's mission statement is to "provide an international forum for the interchange of ideas and research" and I think we have certainly achieved our objective.

Indeed, research presented at the International Real Estate Society World Congress has shown that the Journal of Property Investment & Finance is the leading property journal in the UK and USA for publishing international property research over the last ten years.

Professor Graeme Newell, University of Western Sydney, Australia, conducted an independent survey and analysed over 3,400 papers in 17 major real estate journals over 1991-2000. He found that 34 percent of papers in the Journal of Property Investment & Finance were internationally-focused, compared to only 7-11 percent in the leading USA property journals (Real Estate Economics, Journal of Real Estate Research, Journal of Real Estate Finance and Economics) and only 25 percent in the other leading UK property journal (Journal of Property Research)[2].

The development of this international community has added benefits of developing friendships and partnerships across the world. I think that is important, even when my Australian colleagues are basking in the glory of another "Ashes" win in the cricket!

Foreword: the European Real Estate Society

In this issue we continue our association with the European Real Estate Society (ERES) and present two papers that were presented at the ERES 7th annual conference held in Bordeaux, France in June 2000.

As noted above, Emerald (in their previous guise of MCB) provide an annual sponsorship to ERES in the form of an annual award of £500 for the best paper published in the Journal of Property Investment & Finance that was previously presented at the annual meeting of the European Real Estate Society. Bert Kramer and Ton van Welie have won this year's award for their paper "An asset liability management model for housing associations". Congratulations to them both for their excellent contribution.

We very much hope that you find their contribution, and the other ERES[3] paper presented here, enjoyable, enlightening and thought provoking.

Nick FrenchEditor

Notes

1. 1.

   The World Valuation Congress also shares the aims of the IRES societies and whilst a separate entity, the journal has been fortunate to develop a strong relationship with the organisers of the bi-annual Congress and we will continue to present the best papers from that Congress in future issues of the journal.

2. 2.

   The full research paper will feature in the IRES World Congress Special Issue of JPIF, which will be published during 2002.

3. 3.

   We are hoping that we will be able to publish two further papers from the Bordeaux conference in the future issue of the journal.