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AFTER 2012 Creating communities in the Olympic Park p16 SUDDEN IMPACT How do new sports venues affect prices? p26 JOIN THE TEAM Work opportunities in the sports sector p36 05.13 // GAME PLAN SURVEYORS IN THE SPORTS SECTOR

RICS Modus, Global edition - May 2013

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#RICSModus, May 2013 - the SPORTS issue. In this issue of Modus, we look at surveyors in the sports sector. Features cover the transformation of London’s Olympic Park into the city’s newest neighbourhood; the top 10 innovations in the world of sporting arenas; how new venues spark a ripple effect on their surroundings We also go behind the scenes with three RICS members in Brazil who are helping the country prepare for the 2016 Olympic Games.

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Page 1: RICS Modus, Global edition - May 2013

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afTer 2012 Creating communities in the Olympic Park p16 suDDen iMpacT How do new sports venues affect prices? p26 join The TeaM Work opportunities in the sports sector p36

05.13 //

gaMe plan surveyors in The sporTs secTor

Modus_May13_P1_Cover_v4.indd 1 15/04/2013 16:05

Page 2: RICS Modus, Global edition - May 2013

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NO 2705.13 //

BREAKING THE RULESIn every other area of our global economy, logic is all that matters. Or at least,

that’s what we like to tell ourselves. But when it comes to the world of sports –

and specifi cally sports investment, property and construction – it’s arguable that

slightly different rules apply. Sports investment taps into something unique and

hard to defi ne: the same unstoppable passion that fi lls stadiums with tens of

thousands every fortnight, and keeps tiny football clubs somehow still in business,

year after year. After all, what other form of leisure pursuit would have countries

competing against each other to stage a multi-billion-dollar global Olympic

party, without any copper-bottomed guarantee of fi nancial return? Only sport.

And I doubt that many of us would have it any other way…

OLIVER PARSONS EDITOR

05.13 // MODUS 03

Regulars05_FEEDBACKYour views on Modus and the surveying profession

06_INTELLIGENCEGlobal news, plus opinions, reviews and reactions

31_LAW ADVICETips on how smaller fi rms can fi ght back against late payers

41_BUSINESS ADVICEThe benefi ts of employing a smarter spending strategy

Features16_THE HOME STRAIGHTMapping the transformation of London’s Olympic Park into the city’s newest neighbourhood 22_GAME CHANGERSThe top 10 innovations in the world of sporting arenas

26_SHOCK WAVESHow new venues spark a ripple eff ect on their surroundings

32_THE ROAD TO RIO 2016Behind the scenes with three RICS members in Brazil who are helping the country prepare for the Games

36_SPORTING CHANCESExplore the opportunities for professionals in fi rms of all sizes to fi nd work in the sports sector

Information43_RICS NEWSNews, updates and a message from the RICS President

51_EVENTSTraining and conference dates

54_RECRUITMENTThe latest job opportunities from across the industry

58_THE MEASUREThe impact of Premier League football grounds on house prices in the surrounding area

Contents

26

32

22

MODUS_May13_P03-05_Content & Letters.v2.indd 3 17/04/2013 10:09

Page 4: RICS Modus, Global edition - May 2013

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Feedback //

The MODUS team //

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.

profession – which is why many of us have benefi ted from a placement year in industry.

One problem the committee faces is making best use of the (limited) time we spend at university to bring together the advantages of learning alongside friends and fellow students. In an increasingly complicated industry, sharing ideas and branching out will greatly add to our experience and move away from learning on a student shoestring.

After reading Modus, we hope that SHUBESS can continue to grow and contribute to the creation of well-rounded young professionals.Matthew Wackett, Sheffi eld

LEAD BY EXAMPLEI would like to respond to one of the points that Charles Fifield made in his letter published in the April edition of Modus (page 4). He commented that ‘if climate change theory is correct, then it doesn’t really matter what we do in the UK - it’s the US, China and the emerging economies that are the issue.’ Assuming that he is referring to anthropogenic climate change theory, I would respond that it does matter what we do in this country.

Surely if we in the UK, by advances in technology and by adopting appropriate changes to how we do things, were able to demonstrate a way by which it is possible to live in a more sustainable way without detriment to our standard of living, then the developing countries would follow our lead. As things stand, however, with our wasteful use of resources and energy, and our grotesque overpopulation, I don’t think we set a good example to anyone.Eric Carter MRICS, West Yorkshire

SLOW IT DOWNThe advert in the March issue for ‘Go Report’ (page 42) is the antithesis of what a professional organisation, such as RICS, is all about. Its suggestion that, in a ‘frantic world’, quickly generating professional reports on site, to leave ‘more time for important revenue-generating activities’, makes me suspect only that negligence claims might start to increase.

Modern technology is great, but stop, breathe and think before using it too fast!Rob Yorke FRICS, Abergavenny

INSURANCE: INFURIATINGI refer to the letter from David Butler (April issue, page 5) regarding the unacceptable and ever-increasing professional indemnity (PI) premiums, especially for smaller practices. I operate as a sole practitioner, and recent threats of claims from banks have now presented me with an unsustainable level of insurance costs. I ceased to undertake valuations for security purposes a number of years ago, partly due to the likely future actions by banks, but also due to the policy of such fi nancial institutions not to instruct smaller fi rms.

I’m sure Mr Butler’s experiences will ring true with many members, and I am of the opinion that the apparent policy of insurers to settle claims on a commercial basis – ie to avoid the legal costs of resisting, in many cases, totally fatuous claims – has

given rise to this situation. As confi rmed by discussions with lawyers, there is no doubt that fi nancial institutions now look on the existence of PI policies as potential ‘cash cows’ when they have lost money, primarily due to their own failed lending policies, which have, of course, been well documented over the past few years!

Not surprising is the RICS response to refer to ‘Regulation’, when it would seem clear that the fault lies with the insurers and, indeed, the banks. It would, I believe, assist members if RICS could lobby insurers on their behalf to fully resist false claims and, therefore, keep premiums at a more realistic and sustainable level.

It goes without saying that valuers use their best endeavours to provide a realistic valuation in whatever market conditions prevail at that time. Otherwise, as Mr Butler suggests, I have no doubt that more surveyors – particularly those in smaller practices – will abandon their profession purely because of the uneconomic cost of obtaining PI insurance. I have to say that I am not overly optimistic in that direction, but would hope that RICS, while pursuing its policy of global domination in the surveying world, would also look to assist members either in small practices or operating individually. David Robertson FRICS, West Sussex

ON A SHU-STRINGAs a member of the Sheffi eld Hallam Built Environment Student Society (SHUBESS), my peers and I were delighted to receive the March ‘Learning’ issue. Being a part of the society involves the promotion of networking, and the addition of new skills, for built environment students. The ‘Learning’ issue provides fascinating and relevant insight into the APC (Assessment of Professional Competence) process, the importance of networking and the value of additional training. By reading Modus, students achieve a real understanding, and ‘get under the skin’, of being a surveyor across all specialisms and levels of expertise.

We feel the mentoring initiative discussed on page 21 is a good example of how to bridge the gap between education and

FOR SUNDAYEditor Oliver Parsons // Art Director Christie Ferdinando

// Contributing Editor Brendon Hooper // Deputy Editor

Samantha Whitaker // Junior Designer Isabella Fernandes

// Creative Director Matt Beaven // Account Director

Stephanie Hill // Commercial Director Karen Jenner //

Commercial Manager – Display Lucie Inns // Key Account

and Agency Sales Victoria Cunningham // Commercial

Manager – Recruitment Charlotte Turner // Recruitment

Sales Executive Angus Sharpe // Managing Director Toby

Smeeton // Repro F1 Colour // Printers Woodford Litho //

Cover Neil Stevens // Published by Sunday, 207 Union

Street, London SE1 0LN sundaypublishing.com

FOR RICSEditorial board Jaclyn Dunstan and Mark Goodwin

RICS, Parliament Square, London SW1P 3AD

94,818 average net circulation 1 July 2011 – 30 June 2012

JOIN THE DEBATE

:REACTIONS AND RESPONSES FROM PREVIOUS ISSUESDo you have an editorial comment about this issue of Modus? Please email [email protected].

Please send feedback emails to [email protected]. We regret we are unable to print, or make individual responses to, all letters that we receive.

If your comment relates directly to RICS, please email [email protected].

MODUS_May13_P03-05_Content & Letters.v2.indd 5 15/04/2013 15:47

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Intelligence :news :reviews :opinions :reactions

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01.11 // MODUS 09

Russia’s last Olympic Games, in Moscow in 1980, was famously boycotted by the USA and 64 other countries in protest against the Soviet Army’s presence in Afghanistan. More than three decades later, and in a global political context that couldn’t have been imagined at the start of the 1980s, Russia is hosting Olympic sport once again, in the form of the 2014 Winter Olympic and Paralympic Games. The compact Sochi Olympic Park contains six purpose-built venues, including the 40,000-seat Fisht Olympic Stadium, designed by Populous with engineering services by Buro Happold. Thanks to a flexible design, the stadium can easily be adapted for the 2018 Russia World Cup, and for use as a concert venue. But perhaps the most unusual aspect of this Olympic site build is the construction of a 5.8km Formula One circuit running through the park. The first race of a seven-year contract is due to take place in the summer of 2014, just months after the Winter Games. As Russia’s first Formula One venue, it’s predicted the new circuit will play a vital role in the local economy.

:olympic park SOCHi, RUSSiA

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Farmers and rural businesses should prioritise their fi nancial forecasting this year to avoid a potential cash-fl ow crisis, tax specialists have warned. Following two years of extreme weather, variable harvests and fl uctuating commodity prices, many businesses are likely to declare poor fi nancial results

this year, which could lead to cash-fl ow diffi culties for those without long-term fi nancial planning calculations. ‘Farming businesses have had mixed results for 2012/13,’ said Nick Holmes, managing partner at Chavereys. ‘The lucky ones will generate decent profi ts on the back of that, but the unlucky

ones will already be feeling the pain. All businesses should review their position for the 2012/13 tax year, and be building that into their cash-fl ow predictions.’ According to Nigel Parsons, managing director of Landmark Systems, the problem could be further compounded by the wider squeeze on bank lending. ‘The

disastrous autumn meant that the UK’s drilled acreage was 30% down, with a further percentage of crops not surviving the wet winter. This will result in increased establishment costs and a reduced harvest, which, coupled with an 8% reduction in the value of the single payment scheme, will have a direct eff ect on cash fl ow.’

UK RURAL SECTOR WARNED OF CASH-FLOW CRISIS

Opinion

LONDON HAS RAISED THE STANDARD FOR HEALTH AND SAFETY

The summer of 2012 will be one that many will remember for a long time. For a while, London was the centre of the world’s attention, and the

Olympic and Paralympic Games provided quite a show. But the real success of London 2012, in health and safety terms at least, began back in 2007, when the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) took an early decision to work with the Olympic Delivery Authority (ODA) to make health and safety an enabler of the Games.

Building the venues and the Olympic Park was one of the largest construction projects in Europe. The so-called ‘big build’ involved more than 46,000 people working to a tight, infl exible deadline for completion, which was a huge workforce to protect, and presented considerable risks. But despite the challenges, these were the fi rst Games ever to be built and staged without a single work-related fatality. Fewer than 150 reportable injuries were recorded in more than 80 million working hours, and the overall accident rate was well below the average for all industries.

So, if London 2012 set the gold standard for health and safety, how was this achieved? Leadership throughout the supply chain meant all those involved understood that workforce health and safety was an important objective. This led to different ways of working, including bringing together representatives from delivery partners and contractors to address strategic risk management issues, and fostering a climate of continuous improvement and sharing of ideas and solutions between companies.

London 2012 also recognised the value of actively engaging the workforce. This was less about just providing

workers with information, and more about establishing an honest dialogue, where recognition was given and ‘fair blame’ accepted (acknowledging responsibility when something went wrong to help learn from it).

Finally, it was evident from London 2012 that supervisors are vital to establishing and maintaining the right safety culture – not just when the boss is looking, but at all times. There was investment in training, and support for fi rst-line supervisors, which helped them become strong communicators and safety leaders, and helped drive better risk management and outcomes.

There’s so much to learn from London 2012. HSE has published an extensive library of research and case studies on its website and, hopefully, the Games has heralded a change in attitude. Lawrence Waterman, the ODA’s head of health and safety, commented: ‘Managing health and safety well is not a cost, it’s an investment.’ If the London Olympics can help embed this viewpoint, then it will leave a very worthy legacy indeed.

JUDITH HACKITT CBE is chair of the Health and Safety Executive. hse.gov.uk

Judith Hackitt CBE Health and Safety Executive

NEW BENCHMARKSAs one of the largest construction projects in Europe, London’s Olympic Park provides a rich learning legacy

Intelligence //

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Imag

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01.11 // MODUS 09

UK HOUSING ASSOCIATIONS TO HELP ‘GENERATION RENT’ Fifteen of London’s biggest housing associations are joining forces to help the growing number of people who cannot aff ord to buy in the capital. Known as the G15 group, they will work together to build 13,000 aff ordable homes by 2015, and provide 4,000 properties for rent. All profi ts will then be used to fund further aff ordable housing. With the average home in London now costing more than £400,000, the strategy will help ‘generation rent’ – the young people trapped renting at high prices who cannot get on the property ladder. ‘The reality of London’s housing crisis means that innovative approaches are essential, and G15’s collaborative approach is very welcome,’ says Michael Newey FRICS, group chief executive of Broadland Housing Group.

UKBIM SAVES BAM CONSTRUCT £350,000Waste from potential clashes and risks worth around £350,000 has been avoided in the construction of the Leeds Arena, due to the use of Building Information Modelling (BIM), says BAM Construct. Designed by Populous, with Davis Langdon providing QS services, the 13,500-seat arena is set to complete later this year. The £60m venue will host more than 140 events a year, including rock concerts, boxing matches, ice dancing and comedy shows, and it is the fi rst arena in the UK to be built in a ‘fan-shaped’ design for better audience visibility.

:ONE BIG QUESTION WHAT IS YOUR ADVICE TO ASSESSMENT OF PROFESSIONAL COMPETENCE CANDIDATES?

Take part in discussions by joining the RICS group at linkedin.com.

Gloucestershire Many graduates start the APC process with great gusto, but then they lose focus after a while. The best advice is to keep your diary up to date, and make sure that the quarterly counsellor and supervisor meetings are maintained to keep on track.

Tony Heming MRICS, Tony Heming Chartered Surveyors

Northumberland Good work experience is vital, so if the right experience takes a bit longer to achieve, don’t rush it. You can’t pass on academic knowledge alone. Also, practise communicating what you’ve done to the panel eff ectively by undertaking several mock exams.

Cheshire I’m an APC Chair and Assessor. The APC isn’t designed to trip you up – it’s an opportunity to demonstrate that you know, understand and can apply RICS rules and ethics to a scenario. It’s safe to assume that bribery, confl icts and core values will come up!

Gavin Scott-Brooker FRICS, Brooker & Co

James Clare MRICS, Northumberland County Council

UK PRIME ARABLE: REGIONAL VALUESPER ACRE AGAINST UK AVERAGE

One to watch

LUMSDON WOOD PARTNERSHIPFounded: 1954Specialism: Quantity surveyingThe partnership strives to create long-term relationships with clients by fully understanding their requirements. Their QS services on Birtley Young People’s Club in Gateshead were vital to the project winning the Community Benefi t category at the 2012 RICS Awards (North East). The purpose-built boxing facility also off ers football, judo sessions and holiday clubs.

To nominate the next ‘One to watch’, email [email protected].

05.13 // MODUS 09

Savills Farmland Value Survey 2013

SCOTLAND-£145

WALES -£594

NORTH +£42

WEST MIDLANDS

-£594 SOUTH WEST -£94

SOUTH EAST -£467

UK av: £7,594

EASTERN COUNTIES

+£480

EAST MIDLANDS

+£223

Modus_May13_P08-15_News.v6.F1.indd 9 17/04/2013 10:20

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We like

PROPSKIIt is: A not-for-profi t organisation that coordinates ski networking events.It does: Set up last year by fi ve young surveyors, PropSKI has a growing network of more than 800 surveyors and related property professionals, of which around a hundred embarked on their fi rst successful ski networking trip in January.

Search ‘PropSKI’ on Facebook or LinkedIn.

The bulk of George Osborne’s 2013 budget statement may be fading from memory – but I doubt this applies to

the new Help to Buy (HtB) initiative. What appears to be a helping hand for those unable to take a fi rst step onto the property ladder, or move up the chain, is also being seen as a prop for an overvalued market, and likely to lead to further house-price infl ation.

So what’s the truth of the matter? There are two aspects to this new scheme. The fi rst, which is already in place, is essentially an extension of an existing product, FirstBuy, and provides the opportunity to purchase a new-build home with the benefit of the government taking a 20% equity share in the asset. The second element, NewBuy, due to come into place next year, is a mortgage guarantee to support loans of up to 95% of the value of the property, with the insurance provided by the government.

The key metrics to measure the success of this initiative are that it increases housing supply from the current paltry levels, and that it provides a greater level of movement higher up the chain. But the reality is that it will take some time to assess this impact.

However, even with the best will in the world, it’s unrealistic to expect new home starts to rise materially this year – the lags in development are just too long. More likely, HtB will initially be used in place of existing products, and may also be favoured by some who, before, would have simply purchased a property with a mortgage. That said, a critical attraction of the new product for developers is that they won’t have to use their balance sheets to fund the shared equity loan. For many smaller building fi rms, this could be of considerable signifi cance, enabling them to actually participate in the scheme.

There is, of course, a risk that the additional demand from greater access to fi nance will lift the prices charged for new homes. Indeed, there’s some evidence that existing schemes have already done just that over the past year, although one has to treat quoted ‘average selling prices’ with a degree of caution, as they may refl ect both shifts in product mix and regional distribution.

So is this approach simply a prop for an overvalued market? It might be a neat solution to see the market clear at much lower – some would say, ‘realistic’ – levels. Those who advocate this approach forget the consequences of such a steep decline in prices. If nothing else, lenders with massive losses on their books will be even more reluctant to advance fi nance, while the near-term hit to consumer confi dence could be devastating, even though affordability for many will materially improve.

For now, the jury is still out on whether HtB will really deliver. Personally, I’d have liked to see this initiative supplemented by a lifting of the borrowing cap on local authorities, which would enable them to boost their own development programmes, as lack of supply – whether for owner occupation, market rent or social housing – is still the critical issue.

Do you think the Help to Buy scheme will deliver? Email [email protected].

Simon Rubinson, RICS Chief Economist

Intelligence //

10 r ics.org

Column

WILL ‘HELP TO BUY’ SOLVE THE SUPPLY ISSUE?

UK EXPANSION PERIOD FOR STRONGER RETAILERSFinancially healthy retailers should take advantage of opportunities to acquire retail properties that are back on the market after a tough year in the sector, notes Colliers International’s National Retail Barometer. The fi rm found retail sector sales remained fl at in 2012, while internet sales continued to grow, threatening the high street. ‘There is a cautious outlook to 2013,’ said Steve Burnaby, director of retail agency at Colliers. ‘The weak economy has put some struggling retailers into administration, bringing prime retail properties back on to the market. And, although few companies are expected to roll out large-scale expansion programmes, many will optimise their store networks, which may release further stock.’

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01.11 // MODUS 0905.13 // MODUS 13* For full terms and conditions of fees (paid only to property professionals on unconditional exchange) please refer to our web-site.

That’s why we are committed

to being as flexible as possible in

agreeing and signing a deal that

works for everyone.

That’s what partnership is all about.

WWW.KFCDEVELOPMENT.CO.UKFind out more online at

or call us today on 01483 717 188 if you know a site

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Page 12: RICS Modus, Global edition - May 2013

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01.11 // MODUS 09

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Czech RepublicPROJECT AWARDED LEED PLATINUM Considering only 6% of all LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) projects worldwide achieve a ‘Platinum’ rating, the project team behind Qubix 4 Praha have much to be proud of. The original 1970s building in the city’s business district has been converted into a seven-storey offi ce complex. Gardiner & Theobald (G&T) managed the certifi cation process, ensuring compliance with the rating system: ‘Qubix 4 Praha is the highest scoring Core and Shell certifi ed building in the Czech Republic,’ said Eric Johnson, associate partner for G&T Prague. ‘Also, 86% of the original walls, fl oors and roof areas were reused.’

UKGLEEDS TO LEAD CONSULTANCY FRAMEWORK IN THE SOUTH WESTTorbay Council has appointed international management and construction consultancy Gleeds to provide a range of surveying and green building advisory services on a four-year framework across the South West. The framework has been set up to help public bodies in the region deliver effi ciency savings and improve value for money on a range of capital projects. As one of eight consultancies selected to head up a supply chain, the fi rm’s services will include project management, quantity surveying, CDM (construction, design and management) coordination, building surveying and sustainability consultancy. ‘Gleeds will be heading up a supply chain that includes some of the region’s top architectural and engineering practices, and we look forward to working together to deliver real savings to public bodies in the South West,’ said Terry Langdon, director for Gleeds Management Services.

AfricaMEGA-CITIES DRIVE ECONOMIC GROWTHDemand for high-quality commercial and residential property is growing in Africa as the continent sustains strong economic growth, according to Knight Frank’s Africa Report 2013. Africa as a whole has averaged a 5% GDP growth per year over the past 10 years, with mega-cities such as Lagos, Nairobi (pictured), Accra, Lusaka and Dar es Salaam driving growth and attracting greater interest from occupiers, developers and investors. In the offi ce sector, many key African cities have severe shortages of high-quality space at the specifi cations expected by international companies, which has led to extremely high rents in some cities. Meanwhile, the demand from off shore buyers for high-quality residential accommodation continues to increase in countries such as Morocco, Kenya and South Africa. ‘Many African countries remain challenging places in which to do business, but for those able to steer their way through African property markets, there is the promise of high returns and signifi cant growth potential,’ said Peter Welborn, head of Africa at Knight Frank. View the report at bit.ly/12kS62D.

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05.13 // MODUS 13

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Waters fateThe UK government has approved Liverpool Council’s decision to grant planning permission for the redevelopment of the city’s disused central docks. Peel Group has provided consultancy services on the £5.5bn scheme, known as Liverpool Waters, for around six years.

Sport servicesAtkins has been appointed to design and deliver construction supervision services for the Sultan Qaboos Sports Academy in Muscat, Oman. The complex will include a sports science laboratory, an aquatic training centre, a tennis stadium and indoor running tracks.

Volume upCommercial property investment in Germany totalled €25.3bn (£21.4bn) for 2012, an increase of 9% on the previous year and the highest volume for fi ve years, according to Savills. Foreign investment drove much of the activity, which was up 60% on 2011. View the report at bit.ly/W2CykK.

Skills gap The UK’s fi rst accredited postgraduate course for working in Business Improvement Districts (BIDs) has been launched. To date, 149 BIDs have generated close to £100m of town centre investment, and the new part-time course aims to drive greater professionalism and standards within BID environments. Visit britishbids.info.

Opinion

UK BUSINESSES HAVE PLENTY TO OFFER THE GLOBAL SPORTS MARKET Lord Green UKTI

Following last year’s spectacular Olympic and Paralympic Games, we can be proud that we delivered the most challenging

of sporting events – on time and on budget. Those few weeks showed the UK at its best, and showed the world what we could do. The invaluable experience UK businesses gained from working on London 2012 adds great weight and can be replicated elsewhere.

Irrespective of what happens to the global economy, with so many regular events, sport provides great opportunities. The fi eld is broad, and can be so specialised, that fi rms of any size can fi nd a niche and win a foothold – from chartered surveyors to catering companies.

UK Trade and Investment (UKTI) has a specialist Global Sports Projects team that looks at global sporting events and the multi-billion pound openings they represent. The Olympic legacy aims to deliver £11bn of benefi t to the UK economy, and part of the benefi t is on the export side, tapping into the global sports market. Global consultants Davis Langdon’s conservative estimate is that investment in construction and infrastructure

requirements for global sports events will amount to US$200bn between 2010 and 2020, and UKTI has listed a number of upcoming events within its portfolio of High Value Opportunity programmes, including the Rio 2016 Olympic Games, and the Russia 2018 and Qatar 2022 FIFA World Cups.

UKTI has already led trade missions, and attended trade shows, to make inroads into the sports infrastructure and event management market, with many more in the pipeline. For example, we’ve already had 160 missions to Brazil on the 2016 Olympics, helping to create what chairman of the Organising Committee Carlos Nuzman describes as ‘the closest ever relationship between two Olympic host cities’.

London 2012 may have been the best Games yet, but records are there to be broken. I have every confi dence that the Games in Sochi, Rio and PyeongChang will be equally stunning, spectacular and unforgettable. And I hope that UK businesses will help to make that happen.

LORD GREEN is the minister for trade and investment. ukti.gov.uk

LATEST NEWS

One thing I know...

FOR SPORTS VENUES, THINK LONG-TERM Craig McLellan MRICS head of Sport & Leisure at Gardiner & Theobald

You need to consider cost, revenue, operations and legacy, which should all combine to deliver the optimum venue and long-term operating surplus, allowing the tenants to focus on their sporting performance rather than a depreciating asset.

What’s your business tip? Email [email protected].

14 r ics.org

DubaiFREE ZONE IS BOOMINGDemand for commercial and retail properties in the Jumeirah Lakes Towers (JLT) Free Zone rose strongly in the fi nal quarter of 2012, according to property consultants Cluttons. The fi rm noticed a signifi cant shift in rental confi dence towards the JLT Free Zone in recent months, which is now the fastest growing free zone in the UAE, with around 55,000 people living and working within the development. ‘JLT off ers commercial tenants many advantages, such as its strategic location on the Sheikh Zayed Road, connecting Abu Dhabi and Dubai,’ said Paula Walshe, head of commercial at Cluttons Abu Dhabi.

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01.11 // MODUS 09

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The home sTraighTWith tenants due to start moving in over the next feW months, here’s hoW London’s oLympic park is being transformed into the capitaL’s neWest residentiaL districtWords by Katie Puckett

Given the lavishness of the promises that city officials make when they’re bidding to host the Olympics, it’s not surprising that the

legacy of the Games often fails to live up to expectations. This is particularly true when it comes to the conversion of the Olympic Village into housing. Housing is always a key battleground in cities, where planners face a constant struggle to provide enough good-quality, affordable homes within the constraints of local economics. For those who must deliver lasting benefits for the host city, squaring this equation with the complexity and expense of the Games themselves is one of the greatest challenges. And there are notorious failures – such as Athens, where the accommodation built for the 2004 Olympics has become a crumbling, semi-deserted sink estate. But even where regeneration is considered to have been a success, in cities such as Barcelona and Sydney, this is often achieved only with significant compromises on affordability and sustainability.

It is this economic balancing act that is most likely to determine whether or not

the Games are considered a success in the long term. This means that surveyors are on the front line – even if no one knows it. ‘What annoys me is that the people you read about most are the architects,’ says Ralph Luck FRICS, director of property at London’s Olympic Delivery Authority (ODA). ‘But the one profession that is involved throughout it all is the surveyors – from the planning and masterplanning, through the cost consultancy, and in the management and disposal at the end. Their contribution doesn’t often get lauded because you can’t physically see it.’

As the UK’s winning bid was founded on the Olympics’ potential to regenerate rundown East London, now is when the real delivery starts. Much detailed financial planning has been carried out, not just to kick-start the local housing market, but also to create a completely new one from scratch. The Olympic Village, where 17,000 athletes and officials stayed during the Games, will be renamed East Village, and reshaped into a portfolio of 2,818 apartments. This portfolio is split between public/private venture Triathlon Homes, which will manage its 1,379 apartments as affordable housing,

London 2012

and QDD, a joint venture between sovereign wealth fund Qatari Diar and developer Delancey, which will rent its 1,439 properties at market rates on long leases.

These 2,818 apartments are now the scene of furious activity as the ODA completes one of its final tasks. The London Organising Committee (LOCOG) vacated the Village late last year, and now the ODA is preparing to hand the apartments over to Triathlon and QDD. That means removing the temporary partitions, fitting kitchens and giving the apartments a lick of paint. ‘It sounds relatively easy to do, but when you’ve got 2,818 units, it’s a major logistical challenge to make sure the work is well programmed, that the right trades turn up at the right time, and we haven’t got people sitting around doing nothing,’ says Luck. ‘There’s also obviously still a lot of money involved, so we have a team of quantity surveyors controlling that.’

With the first homes handed over this September, occupation is then set to proceed at a breakneck pace before all the units are fully occupied by the end of March 2014. ‘The sheer volume of homes to let and occupy in such a short space of time is unique,’ says Geoff Pearce, director of >> im

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Olympic legacy //

The London 2012 Olympic Village is in the final stages of its transformation into East Village, a huge housing development of 2,818 flats, split between QDD and Triathlon Homes. Five further residential neighbourhoods are planned for the next 20 years, which will include schools, health centres, playgrounds and open spaces.

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Marshgate WharfThis new neighbourhood, sited around the Olympic Aquatics Centre and Olympic Stadium, will combine residential areas with shops, restaurants, bars, galleries and open- air performance spaces.

Pudding MillThis area, with a continuous waterfront to the south, east and west, will be a mixed-use residential neighbourhood. Taking advantage of close proximity to Pudding Mill Lane DLR station, there will be a busy riverfront with waterside cafés and restaurants.

sWeetWaterThe highest point in the Olympic Park, the Sweetwater neighbourhood will offer stunning views across the area. The homes will include studios, flats and houses with private gardens and communal green space alongside the Lea Navigation canal.

east villageStrong demand for homes in East Village is predicted, with more than 17,000 having already registered an interest in one of the 2,818 flats. Just under half will be managed as affordable housing by Triathlon Homes, while the rest will be let by QDD at market rates on long leases.

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Olympic legacy //

East WickThe former Olympic Press and Broadcast Centres will form the heart of East Wick, a neighbourhood of family housing and a hub for business and jobs, including the iCITY enterprise complex for the digital and creative industries, and a new campus for Loughborough University.

chobham manorThe temporary Basketball Arena will be replaced with the first of five new residential neighbourhoods, Chobham Manor. Consisting of 850 homes, the area will be aimed at growing families, with extensive community facilities, shops and public open space.

development and asset management at East Thames, one of the two housing associations that co-owns Triathlon with developer First Base. ‘Normally, developments on this scale would be occupied over seven or eight years. Here, we are going to do it all in just seven or eight months.’

Releasing so many apartments at the same time is a challenge for the local market, but by the end of January 2013, more than 17,000 people had registered an interest in moving into East Village. Olympic glory aside, the apartments are attractive in their own right: built to level 4 of the Code for Sustainable Homes – higher than most new homes on the market – they are much larger than minimum standards, and each has a private balcony big enough for a table and chairs.

Despite the challenges, Luck believes that achieving full occupation so rapidly is a major opportunity. ‘The biggest legacy challenge is not really about delivering 2,818 apartments, it’s about successful regeneration through the establishment of a community,’ he says. ‘In London, you see developments that take maybe five or 10 years to be established sufficiently so that the retail and restaurant units become viable. Here, we can establish a place very quickly,’ he adds. Also, with Stratford served by five rail lines, as well as new high-speed trains to central London, the new districts won’t suffer the isolation that has condemned previous Olympic villages and the failed housing experiments of London’s recent past. And there will be local jobs, too. ‘Everyone thinks of Stratford City as a very large shopping centre, but they forget that there’s planning permission for four million square feet of offices,’ says Luck. Plus, with the largest new park in London for over a century, and top- class sporting facilities on the doorstep, Luck hopes East Village will be a popular destination at weekends, too, rather than a ghost town like the nearby Docklands.

Perhaps the most decisive factor, however, is the way the deal was structured in the first place, says Luck. Pre-selling the homes to private developers means their fate will be determined by the need to maintain commercial value, rather than politics or public funding: ‘We’re tied into quite detailed specifications – we have to deliver what we promised back in 2008, and there can be no watering down of quality,’ he explains. ‘Because the owners will be managing the homes, they will have >>

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Olympic legacy //

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As it’s situated directly opposite the Olympic Velodrome, cycling will be a key part of Chobham Manor’s identity, with the provision of 2m² of extra bicycle storage space per dwelling – not in vandalism-prone communal areas, but actually inside the homes themselves.

However, the Olympic goals were tangibly enshrined in the commercial deal, which Balcombe says will make Chobham Manor rather different to the product Taylor Wimpey would normally deliver. An obvious difference is the emphasis on family homes in such a central location, but the developers also had to commit to a range of activities to help give residents of the deprived host boroughs the same life chances as those in the prosperous West London, which together add hundreds of thousands of pounds to the total cost. In particular, there is a strong focus on opportunities for local businesses, and employment for local people, including the creation of apprenticeships.

The development could also have a wider legacy for London, presenting a model for funding other hard-to-crack regeneration projects. The development risk is not only spread equally between Taylor Wimpey and L&Q, but the full land cost is deferred, with the London Legacy Development Corporation receiving a proportion of the proceeds once the homes are sold. ‘It means

an interest in maintaining the quality and keeping the values up. You won’t get absent owners and a multitude of different letting agents competing with each other and driving values down.’ Also, although Triathlon Homes’ shareholders may be Registered Social Landlords, it’s a private company and its stake includes £158m of loan finance from Barclays Commercial Bank and the European Investment Bank, he adds.

Meanwhile, the developers of Chobham Manor, one of the five new residential neighbourhoods planned for the Olympic Park, are watching events unfold in the Olympic Village closely. A joint venture between Taylor Wimpey and London & Quadrant (L&Q), Chobham Manor may not be the largest site either is working on, but it’s definitely the most high profile. ‘A lot of people have got very high aspirations for Chobham Manor, but it’s a market that is really untested,’ says Sebastian Balcombe, planning manager at Taylor Wimpey. ‘We’re trying to create a value that hasn’t existed in the Stratford area.’ He hopes that prices will be comparable to desirable areas nearby, such as Victoria Park and London Fields, which requires not only generous room sizes, but also for Londoners to buy into a bold new vision of the E20 postcode. Balcombe admits the Olympics are a hard act to follow: ‘The Games had such a feelgood factor, but that’s a finite period. The legacy is less tangible, and it means different things to different groups. People want that quality to be carried through, but they’re not always prepared for how long that will take.’

that there’s not as much capital tied up for as long a period as with a commercial land sale,’ says Simon Baxter, senior land and development manager at L&Q. ‘This could be used for sites where there isn’t a completely defined existing market. In central London, there’s an international market of buyers with an apparently insatiable appetite. Outside of the centre, there are significant opportunities in terms of land, but often the financial aspects are less certain.’

Of course, making the numbers stack up on this kind of deal is another essential surveying role, carried out by East London- based cost consultant Martin Arnold Associates. ‘It ran into hundreds and hundreds of pages of Excel spreadsheets,’ says founding partner Jim Martin FRICS. ‘When you’re looking at a project of this size, over a number of years, cash flow is the only thing that counts. They needed a chartered surveyor to model that, because we understand the construction process and how it all fits together. People want to reduce carbon emissions, and there are all these

‘The sheer volume of homes to let and occupy in such a short space of time is unique’

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BARCELONA, 1992In regeneration terms, the 1992 Olympics were a turning point for Barcelona, and the run-down neighbourhood of Poblenou is now affl uent and buzzing, and one of the most sought-after addresses in the city. The 2,048 apartments of the Vila Olímpica were put up for sale in 1990, and by the time the Games were held, almost 60% had been snapped up for prices slightly higher than the city average. A study 10 years later found that prices had multiplied by a factor of 2.5 or three, and the most expensive seafront apartments were selling at fi ve times the original price. The downside is that plans to provide social housing were abandoned when the value of the apartments became clear.

SYDNEY, 2000London Olympic Village developer Lend Lease built this project, too, in a joint venture with Mirvac, for the fi rst ‘Green Games’. Conceived as a new suburb of the fast-expanding city, Newington included 900 townhouses and 700 apartments, sold as private housing. Unfortunately, the original, highly sustainable designs were abandoned as unaff ordable amid concerns that the public sector would have to step in to fund them. However, the scheme has been a commercial success – according to the 2011 census, there are now 2,074 dwellings, housing 5,320 people, although the organisers’ dream of a car-free settlement has faded: just 3% of homes have no car, while 55% have two or more.

VANCOUVER, 2010As with London, the fi nancial crisis dealt a blow to Vancouver’s Olympic Village at a crucial stage. In 2008, the US hedge funds paying for the 1,100-unit scheme pulled out and the city council had to step in, losing its AAA-credit rating as construction costs soared to nearly C$1bn (£640m). Taxpayers were further enraged when the council’s commitment to aff ordable housing was scaled back – from two-thirds of the site to just 126 units – and low-income tenants later complained about high energy bills, which were promised to be ‘next to nothing’. Meanwhile, condo sales were disappointing. But a 2011 rebrand, and price cuts of around 30%, have drawn a growing community of young families and professionals to the waterfront homes (pictured below), and a number of shops and restaurants have followed.

:OLYMPIC VILLAGES HITS AND MISSES

different architectural and social elements, but you’ve got to be able to do it all without running out of money.’

As a long-time local resident, Martin was initially sceptical about the ambitions of the development. ‘I fi rst worked on this site 25 years ago, when it was called Stratford Rail Lands, and I wondered who would pay that sort of money to live in Stratford,’ he says. ‘But it’s about new Londoners. There has been such a massive, fundamental change in this part of London that, now, all the old assumptions are worthless.’

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36 rics.org

No two retractable roofs are the same, with different climates, venue capacities and sporting cultures all affecting the choice of technology used. For example, while most convertible stadiums in Europe use a retractable system with roof panels mounted on rails, Bank One Ballpark in Pheonix, Arizona, uses an unusual system akin to a drawbridge

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How mucH will tHe live sports experience cHange in tHe

future? it could be a great deal, if tHese construction and tecHnological trends

are anytHing to go by

05.13 // MODUS 23

Venue innovation //

1: RetRactable Roofswhen a transparent, retractable roof was installed over wimbledon’s centre court in 2009, it finally ended the prospect of any future crowd sing-alongs with cliff richard during rain delays. designed by architecture firm populous, with structural engineer capita symonds, and built by galliford try and scx group, the renovation reportedly cost around £100m, which is money well spent, many would argue, to enjoy the world’s most famous tennis tournament away from the rain – and cliff.

retractable roofs are now almost a standard request for the biggest stadium-owning clients. with global audiences to please, they can eliminate match-day delays and keep those inside warm and dry. one of the most astounding retractable roofs is at the cowboys stadium in arlington, texas. with a capacity of up to 100,000, the venue is the largest domed stadium in the world, and has the world’s largest column-free interior. two 89m-high arches support its dome and retractable roof, while retractable glass end-zone doors also open up during certain events. at us$1.15bn (£763m), the stadium ended up being one of the most expensive ever built, and to help pay for the overrun costs, the residents of arlington voted to approve the increase of the city’s sales tax, hotel occupancy tax and car rental tax.

2: augmented Realityit’s nearly half time at the football match, and you’re wondering how on earth you’re going to get to the toilets, queue up for food and drink, and get back to your seat in time for the start of the second half. the queues are going to be so long that it just won’t be possible, right? well, in the near future, maybe it will. seer and eyeply are just two companies developing software that may change the way we watch live sports events by displaying real-time augmented reality information on your smartphone. from your seat, you may soon be able to know the waiting times at certain queues, check latest scores, or even point the smartphone at a player to get their live performance statistics, such as their number of passes or shots.

3: moveable pitcheswhile more and more new sports stadiums are being built with retractable roofs, if there’s enough space in the surrounding area, retractable pitches could soon become a popular design stipulation, too. this innovation is all about allowing the grass on the pitch to grow as naturally and as optimally as possible – away from the shaded and humid conditions inside the stadium – by literally rolling the pitch out after a game. it’s a system already in place at the university of phoenix stadium, home to the arizona cardinals. weighing in at around 9m kg, the pitch is contained in a metre-deep tray, fitted with 546 steel wheels rolling on 13 rail tracks. to move the pitch out, 76 motors take around 75 minutes to drive it through a 60m-wide opening, where it stays outside, getting the maximum amount of sunshine and irrigation for the grass to recover for the next game.

4: goal-line technologythe debate is finally over: it was announced in late february 2013 that every english premier league football club will be obliged to install goal-line technology in their stadiums, beginning next season. no more ‘it was/wasn’t over the line’ arguments – we’ll soon all be waiting anxiously as the referee consults an electronic wrist device to decide whether a goal should stand. three licensed companies, including goalref and Hawkeye, which already provide the technology in tennis and cricket, are in line to install the systems after successful tests at fifa’s club world cup in Japan last december, where all 21 goals scored in the tournament were flashed to the referee’s wrist-device. importantly, the system didn’t register goals when balls hit the woodwork or the side netting. while welcomed by many, some think it will be a shame to remove the essential human element to refereeing.

5: tRiangulaR cantileveR designbuckminster fuller’s visionary research involving structurally efficient geodesic domes has been a key influence in the emergence of innovative triangular cantilever design in stadiums. none more so than the aami park in melbourne, australia, which was constructed using 50% less steel compared to traditional systems. built in 2010, by cox architects and planners in collaboration with arup, and at a cost of a$268m (£185m), the aami park’s design actually enhances the performance of the structure. rather than having a separate roof, walls and supports, the overall ‘bioframe’ is a continuous steel structure consisting of a series of domes with triangular panelised façades. as well as reducing construction costs, the design also helps capture vast amounts of rainwater for use inside the stadium. >>

gametop 10

changers

words by brendon hooper illustrations by Justin mezzell

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Venue innovation //

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6: Natural air-coNditioNiNgHow can you hold sporting events in outside temperatures of up to 45°C? It’s a challenge Arup Associates has been facing as the firm prepares to build stadiums for the 2022 FIFA World Cup in Qatar. In 2010, Arup unveiled a 500-seat ‘showcase stadium’ as a demonstration of what it believes will be achieved – on a much larger scale – in time for the tournament in the desert nation. Taking only four and a half months to build, the zero-carbon structure featured a canopy roof that rotates with the angle of the sun to provide shading, and a highly efficient stadium cooling system running off solar power. Representatives from FIFA were certainly impressed: during their visit, the outside temperature reached 44°C, while the temperature around the pitch was a comfortable 23°C. In fact, Arup is set to complete an even grander demonstration next year in Singapore, where the new ‘Sports Hub’ stadium will not only be covered by one of the world’s largest free-spanning retractable domes, but it will also be the first naturally ventilated stadium to feature an integrated cooling system, which will deliver cool air to every single seat – a real blessing for fans in Singapore’s humid climate. What’s more, they’re planning to host football, rugby, athletics and cricket all in one venue, by using a fully moveable lower tier of seating to adjust the viewing areas for each sport.

7: computer-modelled crowdsCrowds may seem homogenous, but they’re not. Depending on a person’s height, weight, age and gender, everyone moves at different speeds and directions around a stadium – some aggressively and impatiently, some passively, and some without any rational pattern at all. So understanding the movement and behaviour of crowds at mass gatherings, such as sports events, has become crucial for security and emergency planners. Systems such as Mott MacDonald’s STEPS tool are now used to simulate crowd dynamics in 3D under normal and emergency conditions, to help owners and operators improve safety. For example, when the Yankee Stadium in New York needed to introduce a new security screening process for all admissions, but also wanted to avoid a negative experience for fans, the project team used STEPS to simulate the behaviour of those waiting in line, and how they might be organised and entertained. According to Dr Norman Rhodes, practice leader for life safety and security at Hatch Mott MacDonald, ‘STEPS didn’t tell them how to design, but it showed what was working and what wasn’t.’

8: solar-powered sportAs stadiums get ever bigger, the amount of power they consume increases enormously, too. Stadium constructors now, and in the future, would therefore do well to follow the sustainable-energy standard set by the Stade de Suisse Stadium. Located in Bern, Switzerland, the 32,000-capacity stadium is powered almost exclusively by the sun, and boasts an overall power output of 1,134,045 kWh per year, which is the equivalent of 350 homes. Similarly, at the Kaohsiung National Stadium in Taiwan, most of the stadium’s power comes from solar energy. The solar panels covering the ‘dragon-shaped’ external roof structure are able to generate enough power to keep the stadium running during major events, while additional power is stored and sold back to the grid.

9: temporary coNstructioN Nine months after the London 2012 Olympics came to an end, the basketball venue has been packed up and put into storage. As an integral part of the London Olympics’ sustainability and legacy plan, the £42m venue was, of course, designed for temporary use, and the construction of around 850 houses will soon start on the site (see pages 16-21 to find out more). As a great example of recycling Olympic venues, it was hoped that the steel components of the structure would be sent to Rio de Janeiro to be reassembled for the next Olympics in 2016, but these plans are still being negotiated. Whatever the outcome, the materials will be recycled and used again somewhere, while London has certainly set the standard for reusing elements of stadiums, following its period in the international spotlight.

10: let’s make some NoiseThousands of sports fans can make a tremendous amount of noise, especially when instruments such as drums and trumpets are allowed into a stadium. Indeed, at least in football terms, this kind of support for the home team is commonly referred to as the ‘12th man’. And it’s this massive ‘audio morale boost’ that the owner of Seattle’s Seahawks American football team, Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen, wanted to capitalise on for the team’s new 67,000-capacity CenturyLink Field venue, by using a particular design that would harness the volume of the team’s lively fans. Built in 2002, at a cost of US$430m (£285m) to replace the Seahawk’s previous stadium, Allen instructed Ellerbe Becket architects to create one of the country’s loudest stadiums. Inside, noise levels can reach 112 decibels – which is nearly as loud as a jet plane – due to the funnelling of sound from the partial roof cover and the position of the seating decks.

the outside temperature reached 44°c, while arouNd the pitch, the temperature was a comfortable 23°c

what other

iNNovatioNs are chaNgiNg sports?

Let us know by emailing [email protected]

or tweeting @modusmag.

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One of the economic problems of stadium

construction is that they spend the vast majority

of their time unused. But in sunnier climates,

particularly, integral solar power arrays offer an

imaginative way to reduce running costs, while

also helping to lower the owner’s carbon emissions

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‘Arsenal’s Emirates Stadium added more than £1bn to neighbouring house prices’

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shock waves

Designed, in part, for dramatic aerial photography, the arenas of the multibillion pound sports industry increasingly resemble alien landings. In

London, for example, Arsenal’s Emirates Stadium glows in the night like it’s ready for take-off, while Wembley Stadium evokes a space-age force field. But far from standing aloof from the communities in which they touch down, the effect of sports stadiums on local economies, land values and house prices is remarkably direct.

When Arsenal’s new stadium opened in 2006, fans of the North London football club wondered how Thierry Henry would fare on the newly laid pitch. But Gabriel Ahlfeldt, an economist at the London School of Economics (LSE), and his colleague from the Cass Business School, Georgios Kavetsos, had an altogether different goal: they set out to test the argument that major new stadiums boost local economies. In the resulting discussion paper for LSE’s Spatial Economics Research Centre, they concluded that the effect was nothing less than a ‘shock’ to the immediate catchment areas of both the old ground, Highbury, and the new Emirates Stadium – the former entered a negative trajectory as the footballers and their fans moved on, while the latter took a positive turn. ‘We looked at how property prices changed from 1995 to 2008,’ says Ahlfeldt, who has spent many years studying

the impact of sports arenas. Although the two grounds are less than a mile apart, Ahlfeldt says that, ‘after the announcement of the development in 1999, there were immediate and significant adjustments.’

Detailed analysis of houses sold in a 4km radius of the grounds concluded that the net positive effect on values around the new Emirates Stadium was a staggering £1.04bn, whereas around the old ground, values fell by £1.41bn. It’s an effect that far outweighs the £390m cost of the stadium itself. Likewise, the reconstruction of Wembley Stadium in North West London resulted in a £1.9bn rise in aggregate property values in the local area – £500m more than the cost of the stadium, infrastructure and financing.

The scale of the impact on local property values could, potentially, have tricky political consequences. According to Ahlfeldt and Kavetsos, if public money is used, as was the case in the Wembley project, ‘a distributional conflict arises if the costs are spread equally across taxpayers, but the benefits are capitalised locally’. Among their findings was an interesting quirk: while the arrival of a major new sports stadium can be said to increase property values in the local area as a whole, some streets displayed dramatic falls in value, while others saw dramatic increases. Residents of the tightly packed terraced streets around Arsenal’s old stadium, Highbury, used to complain about fans

walking to and from the game throwing litter, and relieving themselves, in their front gardens, making match day a fortnightly trial. So, on those most heavily used streets, the departure of the stadium caused an increase in house prices of around 30%. Conversely, on pedestrian routes to the new Emirates Stadium, there was an opposite, but weaker, negative effect of a fall in house prices of around 12%. ‘If you’re using public money in these projects, you have to think about the correct policy response to this,’ says Ahlfeldt. ‘You might have to think about whether you can direct people from public transport interchanges without causing major harm and, in many cases, this hasn’t been sufficiently taken into account.’

Sometimes, the impact on local property values of major new stadiums is unreservedly negative. Constantine Kontokosta FRICS, deputy director of New York University’s Center for Urban Science and Progress, studied the house-price impact of the Olympic Games from 1984 to 2000. ‘Of the six host cities studied, Barcelona and Sydney were shown to have experienced positive impacts on prices; Los Angeles, Calgary and Atlanta had results that indicate negative effects; and Seoul resulted in no significant impact,’ says Kontokosta. ‘It appears that the Games are often perceived as a one-size-fits-all economic development tool – but my research suggests this is not the case.’ >>

05.13 // MODUS 27

Wherever they happen, large-scale sports events and venues convey material benefits to the surrounding area,

but also place complex demands on local infrastructure. Rob booth investigates

Sports investment

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Sports investment //

retaining the richesAccording to Cardiff politician, Huw Thomas, there are two poles to the Welsh psyche: music and sport. And when you hear a match-day crowd belt out Tom Jones’ Delilah at the Millennium Stadium ahead of a Wales rugby match, it’s hard to disagree. So, it was inevitable that the 72,500-seat arena built in the heart of Cardiff just in time for the 1999 Rugby World Cup has fast become a totem of Welsh national life. ‘It’s a landmark of the ongoing regeneration of the city,’ says Thomas, the Cardiff City Council member with responsibility for culture, leisure and sport. ‘It’s a fantastic brand to demonstrate how Cardiff is transforming itself, which is attractive to companies looking to invest, and shows there is drive among the politicians.’ Using a stadium as a vehicle for a city’s rebranding might seem obvious at a time when sport has gained international cultural ubiquity. But few UK cities have grasped it: Manchester, one of the world’s most famous football hotbeds, has parked its arenas outside the city centre. And Reading, Sunderland and Stoke City football clubs have done the same, with their new grounds away from the hubbub of civic life. But in Madrid, Barcelona, Cape Town and Rio de Janeiro, the sports stadiums are central to the cities’ identities.

In Cardiff, when the Welsh authorities decided the famous Cardiff Arms Park was too small, the city rejected a proposal to move to a new site with acres of car parking, and instead squeezed a much larger arena on to the current city-centre site. ‘If you place a major stadium at the heart of your city, there is a range of benefits,’ explains Thomas. ‘One concern was that there would be an impact on spending around it, but studies have shown this is not the case.’ In fact, the studies Thomas refers to suggest the presence of the Millennium Stadium contributes around £85m a year of output to the Welsh economy, with 85% of the riches remaining in Cardiff. Analysis of the first seven years of the stadium’s operation, by Professor Calvin Jones at Cardiff University’s Welsh Economy Research Unit, shows hotels and restaurants turned over £354m from spectators, shops enjoyed a £47m boost and the transport sector received £44m.

But there is a painful paradox at the heart of that success. The Welsh Rugby Union Group, which owns and operates the stadium, is struggling with losses and rising costs. ‘It’s almost the opposite of the model in the US, where stadium owners are completely focused on internalising their revenues,’ says Jones.

For example, the hill farmers in mid-Wales who produce lamb for the restaurants around the stadium might be making extra money from the £85m ripple effect but, according to the latest Welsh Rugby Union annual report, the stadium owner saw its post-tax profits fall last year from £1.9m in 2011 to just £600,000 in 2012, while the stadium costs rose from £4.5m to £7.7m.

The city-centre location means that the stadium is well embedded in terms of the visitor economy, explains Jones. ‘Unlike Wembley Stadium, for example, where there isn’t much else to do in the area, in Cardiff, the hotels, restaurants and bars all around mean you are likely to stay much longer in the city. With a sport event, visitors are usually encouraged to leave quickly, so the majority of the benefit to the local economy is in the

hospitality industries and tourist attractions. The stadium has also acted as an anchor, dragging footfall and development into the area, including the redevelopment of the Old Brewery Quarter and the major new shopping centre, St David’s 2.’

The problem is that, even though the city and Wales has benefited 10 times the amount of the cost of the stadium, Welsh rugby, despite its Six Nations success this season, continues to face a financial struggle. And the difficulty in making the Millennium Stadium profitable is a major part of that: although they are bringing in the revenue, they are not able to internalise the money they are generating.

‘Cardiff’s Millennium Stadium adds £85m a year to the national

economy, but its owners are struggling’

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becoming games-readyAlan Willby FRICS has been engaged in his own Olympic legacy over the past few months. After six years as head of cost management at CLM, the London Olympic Delivery Authority’s (ODA) development partner, his new role at international consultancy Mace has taken him to projects in Azerbaijan and Turkmenistan. Also in his sights as lead on major programmes, global events and major venues, are possible projects in Russia for the 2018 World Cup and Istanbul, where the firm is interested in the Turkish city’s chances of hosting the 2020 Olympics. He comes bearing fascinating insight from his experience in East

‘The infrastructure that makes an event run smoothly is more

important than the sparkling

sporting arenas’

London: ‘On the London Olympics, of the £8.1bn ODA budget, only around £1bn was for the sporting venues,’ says Willby. ‘The rest went on infrastructure, transport, the village, the broadcast centre, management, logistics and security. The overall cost of big events always dwarfs the cost of the venues.’

Part of the success of London 2012 was the project team’s determination to safeguard spending on ‘legacy’ elements whenever there were cost pressures, Willby explains – which is not always top of the agenda for project sponsors, especially when, for presidents and prime ministers, major sporting events are the source of political prestige. ‘We’re interested not just in the sporting facilities, but in assisting host nations and cities to become Games-ready,’ he says. ‘People tend to forget issues like having sufficient airport capacity to allow people to come and go freely. Also, do they have the road network and

the ability to move people around? What about accommodation for the athletes, press and the visitors they hope will attend? And what is the legacy going to be? The danger is that these things are considered too late as, typically, the focus is on the sporting venues.’

Willby’s argument is that when it comes to generating national prestige, ensuring that the infrastructure and systems are in place to make an event run smoothly are as important as designing the sparkling arenas that look fantastic on television. The success of the London 2012’s team at getting the basics right provides UK surveyors and construction professionals with a valuable platform in the ever-growing market for major sporting infrastructure. ‘There’s a big opportunity for UK businesses to advise on all of that,’ says Willby. ‘The Australian construction and consultants industries have had a very good period since 2000, following the success of the Sydney Olympics. At Athens and Beijing, we were in competition with them, and they enjoyed an advantage due to that sheen of success. But now we are all hoping that, with London having also been a huge success, UK plc will be seen as having much to offer.’

Central to Willby’s argument is that thorough preparations, which often involve more spending on infrastructure than many sponsors imagine is needed, are crucial. ‘There are always important underlying aims for a global event – such as increasing participation in sport, improving the health of the nation or providing a catalyst for regeneration – but it’s

also about inviting the world’s press and cameras into your country,

and showing everyone what you are about by staging a great Games,’ he explains. ‘You can always make these events look great on TV, but if it’s not running smoothly on the

ground, it will be reported negatively by the press.’

What’s your vieW?

Share your opinions on the impact of sports

events and venues. Email [email protected]

or tweet @modusmag.

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Though late payments continue to be a problem for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), it’s evident that a number are taking action. The most recent Bacs fi gures show that, in the UK alone, SMEs are currently owed more than £36bn in late payments. And, according to research by Barclays Bank of more than 1,100 senior decision-makers in UK SMEs, the majority (85%) admit they’ve experienced this problem in the past two years.

Within the property industry, the issue of late payers is particularly serious, especially for smaller fi rms. Many businesses in the sector have to deal with upfront costs long before they see any payment, and with payment terms on contracts becoming longer, the impact of a regular late payer on a construction business’ cash fl ow can mean the difference between a company running smoothly and struggling to make ends meet. What’s more, it seems the continually challenging business environment – both in the UK and overseas – is having a knock-on

effect, with nearly half (47%) of SMEs claiming their worst repeat offenders have paid late three times a year or more.

TACKLING THE PROBLEMIt can be diffi cult to decide on the best course of action. Barclays’ research shows that nearly a quarter (22%) of SME decision-makers have declined future business from

customers in the past year in an attempt to tackle late payments. Understandably, turning customers away goes against all natural business instincts, but it can be an effi cient and necessary measure.

However, not all businesses are in the position to turn custom away. In the past year, 60% have taken action by communicating more frequently with, or chasing, the customer’s finance team, and 30% have requested payment up-front. Interestingly, 32% of UK SMEs have threatened to take, or actually taken, legal action. This can be a daunting and time-consuming process, but it was precisely for the protection of commercial entities that the Late Payment of Commercial Debts (Interest) Act came into force in 1998. The legislation has recently been amended to implement the European Directive 2011/7/EU on combating late payment in commercial transactions, which will make pursuing payment a simpler process across the European Union and, according to the government initiative, ‘will reduce the culture of paying late and make paying on time the norm’. Under the new

rule, debtors will be forced to pay interest and reimburse the reasonable recovery costs of the creditor if they do not pay for goods and services on time (60 days for business and 30 days for public authorities). Full guidance on the new legislation is available from the Department for Business Innovation & Skills website at gov.uk.

Since pursuing legal remedies against late payers is such a time-consuming, expensive and ineffi cient means of managing cash fl ow, business owners should try to avoid late payments by having a good understanding of their customers and anticipating possible payment problems. There are online tools to help assess potential and existing customers, such as Barclays’ CREDITFOCUS, which helps owners and managers gauge the creditworthiness of the businesses they trade with. CREDITFOCUS can also help in the preparation of legal letters, and provides SMEs with the ability to instruct debt-recovery solicitors as, often, a solicitor’s letter can be enough to prompt payment.

THE RIGHT COURSE OF ACTIONIt can be both mentally and physically tiring to tackle late payers head-on, with legal processes only increasing the amount of time it takes to receive payment and/or compensation. However, minimising late payments and effectively managing cash fl ow is crucial for the survival, as well as the growth, of SMEs.

Business owners have every right to challenge those who pay late, but before taking action, they should seek advice and consider what action is appropriate. Not all customers pay late all the time, so it’s important to differentiate between one-off and regular late payers, and also to consider just how late the payments are. Also, before entering into a contract, it’s wise to check the creditworthiness of the company. On the whole, though, it seems that some business owners are getting tougher on the issue, which is a good sign of things to come.

SUE HAYES is managing director of Barclays Business Banking, which supports SMEs with specialist advice, products and services. barclays.com

IN THE UK, SMALL AND MEDIUM-SIZED FIRMS ARE CURRENTLY OWED MORE THAN £36bn IN LATE PAYMENTS

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Law advice //

How to deal with

LATE PAYERSBy business strategist Sue Hayes

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the road to rio 2016three professionals share what it’s like to work on glamorous, but demanding, sports projects in one of the world’s biggest emerging markets

words by Stuart Watson

LocaL knoWLedgeJameS SLattery FrIcS director, bcQs group

Brazil-based chartered surveyors have, so far, had relatively little direct involvement with the big sports-related construction projects springing up around the country. Many of the RICS-qualified surveyors in Brazil carry out valuation work for international property consultancy companies, but in the construction industry, the position of surveyors is less well established.

‘The engineering profession controls a lot of the project management and costing work in Brazil,’ explains James Slattery, head of the Brazilian operation of BCQS, which provides quantity surveying, project and construction management services. ‘These are usually civil engineers by profession, but they have been taught to administer building contracts,’ he adds. However, Slattery argues that this also means there is a gap in the market waiting to be filled, which is why Caribbean-based BCQS set up its office in Brazil’s commercial capital, São Paulo, three years ago. ‘In Brazil, a lot of projects go over-time and over-budget, so there is a need for classically trained project managers and quantity surveyors,’ Slattery explains. The chartered status of BCQS surveyors also appeals to international surveying companies working on the 2016 Olympic Games and 2014 FIFA World Cup projects when they are seeking a Brazil-based partner to provide them with local market knowledge. ‘These firms want to speak to somebody that speaks the same language, technically,’ says Slattery.

BCQS has been included as a local partner in bids and enquiries for Olympics or World Cup-related work by Arup, Davis Langdon and Rider Levett Bucknall. ‘When they start to engage in the work, they ask about practical

cost information and procedures, and once the job is on the ground, they need us even more, as we shortcut the learning curve for them,’ Slattery explains. Big firms may be better off working with a local partner because setting up a business in Brazil can be challenging, he adds. The initial investment needs to pass through the hands of the Brazilian central bank, and a mountain of paperwork is required to gain a resident’s visa. Companies can end up paying as much in levies as salaries if they don’t know how to structure their business to mitigate them.

Originally from the Midlands, Slattery emigrated to the Caribbean in 1985, and has worked for BCQS ever since. He was also a property developer until the downturn cut off funding for projects. ‘In 2008, the Caribbean market paralleled the nosedive of North America. As a company, we thought: “where can we diversify to?” South America was on our doorstep, and although it has challenges with language and cultural differences, there is a lot of opportunity here,’ he says.

Slattery’s 10-strong professional team is largely composed of locals, but also includes two other expats, from France and Scotland. The company has worked on retail, office and distribution projects for multinational firms, including Bloomberg, Credit Suisse and Carrefour. It’s also advising hotel operators Marriott, Hyatt and Sofitel. ‘The work from the hotel chains is, in part, a spin-off from the demand for hotel rooms in and around Rio for the World Cup and Olympics,’ explains Slattery. Upgrading Brazil’s airport, road and rail infrastructure – also prompted by the need to accommodate visitors to the sporting events – is likely to provide income.

Over the coming years, sports-related work will prompt more surveyors to come to Brazil, but it’s the country’s status as an emerging economic superpower that will encourage them to stay. >> ph

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Sport in Brazil //

a lot of projects go over-time and over-budget, so

there’s a need for classically trained

project managers and surveyors

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From London to rio david Higgins mriCs partner, Rider Levett Bucknall

On his visits to Rio, David Higgins clocks up the miles, running along Copacabana Beach in training for the London Marathon. ‘It’s one of the perks of working there,’ he says, with just a hint of smugness. Higgins, a partner at property and construction advisers Rider Levett Bucknall (RLB), is looking forward to spending more time in Brazil over the next three years as the firm gets to grips with its latest big project: the 2016 Rio Olympics. In December, RLB was appointed to undertake a complete budget review and cost update for the games ‘overlay’ – the temporary facilities required to stage the sporting events and cater for the spectators and athletes.

It’s a task that the company has become very familiar with. RLB has been involved in every summer Games since Sydney in 2000, including last year’s Games in London, for which it handled the procurement and cost and project management of the overlay. ‘Absolutely everything we learnt in London is completely transferable to Rio,’ explains Higgins. ‘One of our obvious selling points is the knowledge of the supply chain – the people, how it all comes together and what gets missed.’

Born in Windsor, Higgins studied quantity surveying at Leeds Polytechnic (now Leeds Metropolitan University), graduating in 1987 and going on to work for Bucknall Austin. ‘Itchy feet’ took him to the Philippines in the late 1990s, where he worked for Davis Langdon, before returning to the UK and rejoining Bucknall Austin as head of the Thames Valley, and later London, offices.

The business was bought by venture capitalists and rebranded as Citex, but it overreached financially and, in 2003, Higgins was part of the team of senior Bucknall Austin figures who retook control of the business in a

absoLuteLy everytHing we Learnt during tHe London oLympiCs is CompLeteLy transFerabLe to rio

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medical centre, Olympic hall, athletes’ lodgings, and press and broadcast centres will be constructed.

Davis Langdon also contributed to the London Games, providing procurement and cost management services to delivery partner CLM. Howland didn’t work on London 2012 himself, but some of his colleagues did: ‘Rio is different from London in that whereas the London Olympic Park was in a fairly derelict area of Stratford, Barra is a residential area, where there is some quite valuable land for development. There’s less regeneration, but legacy is still integral to the whole concept,’ he says.

A North Londonder, Howland qualified as a quantity surveyor by studying part-time as a trainee with contractor Bovis. He worked for Franklin + Andrews before moving to Bermuda to work for the Caribbean island’s government, and then to the British Virgin Islands, where he continued his career with locally based construction advisers BCQS: ‘I’ve always liked travelling, and warmer climates and nice beaches,’ he says.

After returning to the UK, Howland worked with Franklin + Andrews on his first sports project, the Lansdowne Road rugby stadium in Dublin. Six years ago, he joined Davis Langdon, initially working on commercial projects, but when the opportunity came to join the company’s sports group, he jumped at the chance: ‘Moving to the sports side was with a view to Rio 2016, and the other opportunities in Brazil,’ he explains. ‘It’s nice to be associated with big, high-profile projects, like the FIFA World Cup and Olympic Games. You feel that you are contributing to something that really means something, and there’s pride in that.’

The team needed to produce every document in both English and Brazilian Portuguese, and some technical terms proved particularly difficult to translate. ‘The other challenge was to understand the market, and the construction costs, in Brazil,’ adds Howland. ‘You apply the same principles, but cost information is not so freely available. We had to build up our own cost database.’

Howland has now almost completed his work on the Barra Olympic Park masterplan budget, although Aecom’s Brazil-based team will continue to manage the design of the Barra Olympic Park through to the post-Games legacy phase. For Howland, the project has provided some treasured memories: ‘It’s nice to sit in the office looking at Sugar Loaf Mountain, with the sun always shining,’ he says. ‘To be involved in the Rio Olympics was a great thing in itself, but to also be part of an integrated team delivering architecture, engineering, masterplanning, and cost and risk assessment was really quite an achievement.’

05.13 // MODUS 35

Sport in Brazil //

Speaking the languageandrew howland MriCS associate, Davis Langdon

One of the chief barriers to international firms working in Brazil is the language. But Andrew Howland has a head start on most foreigners – his wife of 11 years is Brazilian, and he and his family visit the country once or twice every year. ‘I learned Portuguese from visiting my wife’s parents and huge family – none of whom speak any English,’ he says.

Howland is an associate at Davis Langdon, part of international property consultancy Aecom, which won the contract to masterplan Rio de Janeiro’s Olympic Park, in Barra da Tijuca, in August 2011. Throughout 2012, he worked on costing out the plans, frequently travelling to Aecom’s Rio office to meet with architects and the city’s Olympic Delivery Authority.

Unlike London, Rio is employing an existing stadium, the Maracanã in the city centre, to stage the athletics events. The Maracanã stadium will also be a venue for FIFA World Cup football matches in 2014. At Barra, to the south of the city, alongside the existing velodrome and aquatics centre, a new science and sports laboratory,

to be part of a teaM delivering arChiteCture, MaSterplanning, and CoSt and riSk aSSeSSMent waS quite an aChieveMent

management buyout. Four years later, the company merged with Rider Hunt, which operated in Australasia, and with Levett and Bailey, based in Asia-Pacific, to create a firm with a global reach.

Higgins’ new Australian colleagues brought with them the experience of working on the Sydney Olympics, and he used that exposure to secure work from other cities bidding to stage the Games. Higgins led the team who put together a bid to cost manage the overlay for London 2012. ‘I didn’t think we’d win,’ he admits, but the track record of RLB’s Sydney team swung the decision in the company’s favour. However, it turned into a massive undertaking: ‘We were involved in every single venue, including the media centre, athletes village and transport depots, and there was at least twice as much temporary construction in London as there was in Sydney,’ he explains. The cost and project management team for the overlay swelled to 120 people – 70 from RLB, and the rest from Event Planning Group, RLB’s event delivery joint venture.

Higgins worked on the project for six years, finishing in December 2012, around the time the contract for RLB’s involvement in Rio was secured. His team has now begun to prepare a detailed set of overlay budgets for Rio, where there will be fewer fully temporary venues than London because the city will use a number of facilities built for the 2007 Pan American Games. However, there will be some unique challenges: beach volleyball courts will be created on Copacabana beach, and it was recently decided to move the diving venue to the Fort Copacabana headland. ‘There, we’ll have to construct a temporary venue with a 5m- deep diving pool and 5,000 seats on a rock,’ says Higgins. ‘The cost of that venue has, therefore, gone up somewhat.’

RLB doesn’t have an office in Brazil, and it will need to recruit local staff to work with the London team. Higgins may relocate to Rio for the whole duration of the project: ‘I wouldn’t be averse to taking my family over there,’ he muses. ‘It’s not an unpleasant place to live for a few years – unless you burn easily.’Ph

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sporting chances

From local leisure centres to Premier league Football grounds, the world oF sPort Presents amPle oPPortunities For

surveyors, Finds Roxane McMeekenillustration by neil Stevens

For surveyors with a passion for sport, getting involved can go way beyond watching and playing. From selling the houses springing up alongside new stadiums to going in-house at a sports club and managing its estate, surveyors’ skills are ideal for all sorts of roles in the sports sector. And the world of sport is by no means the exclusive preserve of the large consultancies: although the big league players might tend to win contracts on huge events, such as Olympic Games, these are far from the only fixtures to play in.

LeveL pLaying fieLdOne of the most cutting-edge areas of surveying in the sports sector is geomatics. Practitioners in this field could find themselves carrying out topographical surveys of sports grounds through 3D-laser scanning or controlling flying drones to create digital models. Severn Partnership, a land-surveying consultancy based in Shewsbury with 30 employees, started targeting the sports sector when the downturn was beginning to bite in 2008. Back then, managing director Mark Combes MRICS realised it would be wise to expand

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his range of clients. Now, sports and leisure clients contribute around 10% of the firm’s turnover, and Severn has delivered 3D surveys for clients ranging from football stadiums to fisheries. ‘We broke into the sector mainly by just updating our website and improving search engine optimisation,’ says Combes. ‘Luckily, we had already done a few golf courses, so we had some experience that we could showcase.’

The turning point came in 2008, when the souped-up website attracted a killer contract from the European Ryder Cup golf team. ‘We surveyed the Ryder Cup course in Kentucky and created a detailed model, which the team used to study where to hit their balls,’ Combes explains. The firm carried out 3D laser scans, which it linked to GPS observations and helicopter-based photography to create a contour plan of the course.

After that, one job led to another. ‘We continue to work for the Ryder Cup team – and we’ve done several golf courses – but now our work encompasses all kinds of sports,’ says Combes. ‘For example, we recently did a 3D laser scan of the Silverstone Circuit in Northamptonshire for motor racing simulation software.’

Another player in this area is the international aerial surveying specialists Blom Group. Blom has a fleet of helicopters and twin-engine planes, fitted with large- format cameras and aerial laser scanners, which fly over territories to measure heights. Using this data, Blom creates detailed maps, models and digital orthophoto imagery that inform the upkeep, design and construction of sports facilities worldwide.

Blom UK recently completed a project on the Olympic Park for the London 2012 Olympic Delivery Authority (ODA), producing very high-resolution aerial images of the site at set times during the construction phase. Simon Kraeter MRICS, commercial director of Blom UK, says: ‘Our camera acquired 4cm-resolution imagery of the entire area, with an accuracy of 12cm. This provided a complete overview of the construction project at any given time, from which detailed plans could be made. It also made a nice background for the ODA website, showing the public how construction was developing.’

Interestingly, Blom also offers airborne, unmanned drones to scan areas. ‘The drones are less costly than planes or helicopters,

and they have a smaller visible presence, reducing disruption on the ground, which can be useful for some events,’ says Kraeter. However, while the service is available in the UK, there has been no take-up so far. Kraeter says that the biggest challenge for Blom UK is balancing the provision of a highly skilled and reliable service for the lowest price possible – particularly in the current economy, where everyone’s budgets are squeezed. But he insists that working in the sports sector is very rewarding: ‘It’s always nice to see our data used to stage a successful event,’ he says.

Managing estates For those who would like to get even closer to the field of play, the roles of property, operations or estates manager are often undertaken by surveyors. Clive Pring is estates manager at his local football club, Exeter City, where he oversees the upkeep of the 9,000-capacity stadium, the pitch, the training facilities, and the hospitality and bar building. ‘We do regular electrical checks, and look after the grass, which needs to be fed regularly and sprayed to reduce disease and weeds,’ explains Pring. >>

Work in sport //

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Work in sport //

‘Maintenance work is ongoing – especially on the stadium, which is 79 years old, although only one original wooden stand remains. Recoating the edges of the steps with yellow paint is like painting the Forth Bridge – it never stops,’ he adds.

Pring’s biggest challenge is making his budget stretch. Exeter City plays in League Two, and money is extremely tight at the club. Pring’s annual spend is £60,000 (excluding wage costs), with about a third of that earmarked for pitches: ‘The club is owned by the fans, and we’re not in a position to borrow money,’ he says. ‘If, during the year, we can sell a player for £150,000, that covers our expenses. If not, it’s pretty tough. We need £18,000 a year just to pay our utility bills.’ Happily, Pring is supported by the local community: ‘We’re lucky enough to have a huge amount of help from volunteers, including retired plumbers and carpenters. Also, local businesses often bring us things that they’re throwing out, and we reuse whatever we can,’ he says.

Pring’s busiest time is out of season, when the Sports Ground Safety Authority makes its annual visits to UK stadiums. ‘They do a

very detailed inspection and usually give us a long list of issues to address,’ he explains. ‘The list might include simple things, like grinding off a spot of rust, but they’ve also had us dig up steel columns to check whether they were rusted underground. They weren’t, thankfully – but, of course, resetting them in concrete turned into a fairly major operation.’

Simon Durrant, general manager at Epsom Downs Racecourse in Surrey, is similarly busy year-round, even though the ground hosts just 12 competitions annually. ‘As with many sports venues, these days, a racecourse is not just for race-goers,’ says Durrant. ‘Epsom is also used for events, such as weddings, conferences, exhibitions and annual general meetings, and we also put on live music after races.’ This means that Durrant’s role extends beyond facilities and ground management into finance, events management and marketing. ‘It’s an incredibly varied role,’ he explains. ‘One of the main challenges, I find, is building relationships with all the different stakeholders, from building contractors to jockeys and horse trainers.’

Building success Stephen Jepson MRICS, director of the sport team at Deloitte Real Estate, has been working with sports clients for 15 years. His experience ranges from local leisure centres to high-profile stadiums, such as the London 2012 equestrian venue, and the new £46m home for Hull City Football Club and Hull FC Rugby Club. Deloitte’s sports work is mainly project management and delivery: ‘It ranges from doing bills of quantities to feasibility studies for stadiums, including advising on development opportunities to help fund the project,’ Jepson explains.

Jepson had the good fortune to be placed on sports projects at Drivers Jonas at the very start of his career, but any surveyor can get involved in the sector. Also, many projects are ideal for smaller practices. Hein Le Roux MRICS, associate director at Davis Langdon, which works extensively in the sports sector, says: ‘The 20 football clubs in the Premier League are the big clients, but our research found that at least a quarter of the 1,400 sports and leisure centres in the UK need to be refurbished or replaced. Many of these jobs would be below £15m in cost.’

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Even on smaller projects, surveyors will often need to provide more than just cost consultancy. ‘There’s been a shift away from the traditional approach, where the local authority simply pays for the project,’ says Le Roux. ‘Instead, many councils now work with developer partners when they build leisure centres.’ Also, he adds, because borrowing money has become so expensive for developers, surveyors are now needed to ensure a project stacks up commercially. This means adding elements that will create income, such as a café at a swimming pool, or a housing scheme at the site of a football club’s old ground – an approach successfully pioneered by Arsenal Football Club at their old ground in Highbury, North London.

Whatever job surveyors do in the sports sector, each one comes with its own set of challenges, from implementing sustainability to managing a tight budget or making sure a development will benefit the local area. Despite this, the appeal of playing a part in the world of sport is hard to beat, says Jepson: ‘It’s always interesting. And when you tell someone what you do for a living, they actually want to hear about it.’

:Good sportsThree surveyors share Their experiencesChris Bevan MriCs managing director of Sports Solutions‘i’ve always worked in sports. i was an acquisitions manager for Fitness First, where i acquired 2.3m m2 of health and fitness clubs for the gym chain. Then, i joined a developer and worked on “enabling developments”, including the relocation of football clubs. in 2004, we started sports solutions, a development consultancy focused on helping developers and sports clubs carry out relocation projects. There are thousands of clubs that need to relocate, so it’s a big market. once you take a club to see one of our completed schemes, they are usually keen to proceed as soon as possible. But gaining planning permission can be complex, because the application for the new community sports facilities has to be linked to the application for the higher value enabling development on the old ground. The part i enjoy most is that you are delivering something that most people in the local community really want.’

Katie KopeC MriCs director of the development consulting team at Jones Lang LaSalle‘We tend to work on the development side in the sports sector. often, it doesn’t make financial sense for a club to build a new stadium, so we advise them to make a new ground part of a broader development scheme. now, clubs are using their stadiums as assets by introducing facilities such as conference suites and hotels. These facilities can provide a welcome boost to the club’s bottom line, and help tackle the problem of stadium only being used around 30 times a year. The facilities can also help to integrate the stadium more successfully into the local community.’

antony spenCer MriCs co-founder of commercial and residential property consultancy Anthony Green & Spencer ‘everyone thought i was crazy when i came up with the idea of moving arsenal Football club’s stadium, and building a housing scheme on the site of the old ground to finance the project. nothing of the kind had been done before, and it sounded too complicated. at the time, in 1999, the club was bidding – unsuccessfully – for a site in Finsbury park, but i managed to get a meeting with the board to present the idea. They said they were a football club, not a developer – but, eventually, they saw how a wider development could finance the stadium, while meeting the needs of the local authority and the Greater London authority for regeneration and the creation of jobs.

‘since building the new emirates stadium (below) in 2006, we’ve delivered 3,000 homes and the last phase is now being built at Queensland road. part of the project’s success was down to convincing people that living next to a stadium is sexy. it’s been an incredibly interesting journey.’

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Thinking of doing your doctorate?

Drop in for an informal chat with the teaching team between 12.00 noon and 6.00 pm at any of the following venues:

Dublin, DIT, Bolton Street, Dublin 1, Friday 17 May

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Pittsburgh, Carnegie Mellon University School of Architecture, Friday 7 June

The Salford Professional Doctorate:

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Students enrolled in the programme may participate with fellow students and professionals of Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) in joint symposia.

Talk to us about studying for your professional doctorate with the University of Salford, the UK’s premier built environment research centre.

See www.professionaldoctorate.org or contact Dr Paul Chynoweth, the programme leader, at [email protected] or on 07970 39 2008.

SCHOOL OF THE BUILT ENVIRONMENT

In partnership withProgramme starts each October

40 r ics.org

It has never been more important for surveyors to ensure they are adequately protected by professional indemnity insurance (PII). Since the 2007/08 property crash, surveyors have increasingly faced claims as lenders seek to recover damages after defaults on loans.

Unfortunately, many surveyors are unaware that they could be exposed to personal liability. In the case of Merrett v Babb (2001), a surveyor was held to have negligently overvalued a property. His firm had ceased trading, and their PII had been cancelled without run-off. The claimant, therefore, brought her claim against the surveyor personally and, as the surveyor had signed the valuation report in his own name, he was held to have assumed personal responsibility for the report and, in the absence of cover, was personally liable for the damages.

A more recent case, Norwich & Peterborough Building Society v Gillies Solicitors LLP and others (2011), extends this principle to the buy-to-let market. Here, a claim was brought

by a lender against the firm of solicitors that had acted for it in a property transaction. After settling the claim, the solicitors sought a contribution from the surveyor who, they argued, had negligently overvalued the property. The surveyor was found to have breached his duty of care but, as in the Merrett case, the firm that employed him was no longer trading, had insufficient assets to pay the damages, and did not have run-off provision under their PII, so the surveyor was forced to pay the damages from his own personal assets.

These cases illustrate the problems surveyors may face if their current or past firm go into liquidation and there is no run-off cover. RICS

requires members to carry run-off insurance for a minimum of six years after they have retired or ceased trading, but run-off provisions are often cancelled in the event of insolvency, leaving employees vulnerable to personal claims.

Lockton has an exclusive professional indemnity facility with XL Group, which offers comprehensive coverage that exceeds the RICS minimum requirements. Contact 0845 050 0262. lockton.com

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Modus_May13_P40-41_Bus advice +ad.v1.indd 40 15/04/2013 15:39

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During a recession, business strategies remain fairly consistent, with retrenchment (cutting costs) and investment (reinvesting profits) the most commonly referenced tactics to help increase margins. However, these don’t take into account an organisation’s purchasing strategy, or the thinking behind it.

Recently, we conducted research into the psychology behind purchasing, and the mind-set of the fi nancial director when tackling tough business problems, which revealed that both have a major influence on an organisation’s behaviour and its fi nancial performance. In fact, 77% of fi nancial directors surveyed stated that their company would default to a defensive cost-cutting approach when dealing with fi nancial diffi culties, while only 4% would look to increase R&D (research and development) spending on new products and services. This defensive approach, and lack of innovation by companies, is a natural reaction, and unsurprising given the current economic climate.

BARRIERS TO BUSINESS GROWTHFor any business to grow, it needs cash. But, if you asked the owners of leading surveying companies how purchasing could help improve cash fl ow, the majority

would associate it only with cost-cutting. This lack of understanding of purchasing among senior management is a key psychological barrier to business growth that the surveying industry really needs to address. Worryingly, almost half of the fi nancial directors we

surveyed admitted their company discussed purchasing at board level only once a year, if at all. It’s clear from this statistic that the majority of senior management don’t understand the impact their purchasing strategy – or lack of it – is having. Unfortunately, until this changes, fi nancial directors will fi nd it hard to change purchasing practices and improve spending habits to help free up cash.

Another key barrier to business growth is ineffi cient supply chain partnerships. Like many service businesses, the management of the supply chain – which includes things like stationery, telephone, transport and energy bills – is another key component that impacts business performance for surveyors. And, although a successful supply chain is dependent on mutual trust and understanding, only 21% of fi nancial directors surveyed viewed their suppliers as partners.

SMARTER SPENDING HABITSBusinesses need to buy into the strategic value of procurement, and to consider purchasing as more than simply a cost-cutting tool, as it has the potential to positively infl uence the psychology, culture and business performance of every organisation. Although service-led, surveying businesses can still make signifi cant savings through implementing a smarter spending strategy, and extending a positive psychology to every company purchase, from major IT spends to small sundries, such as offi ce stationery. One way to do this is by tackling the procurement psychology of senior management by providing accurate internal and external costs reporting. With the right evidence, a fi nancial director will see why purchasing practices and psychology should be prioritised. Also, organisations need to help fi nancial directors set policies and benchmarks so they can measure performance and ensure targets are met.

Training and expert outsourced support is essential to ensure that employees understand the organisation’s purchasing psychology: just because your staff are good at purchasing core products, it doesn’t mean they will be good at items of ‘indirect spend’. Furthermore, by evaluating and improving communications with your supply chain, you can build closer relationships between your staff and suppliers to ensure your purchasing methodology delivers lasting value.

Despite the obvious pressure of the wider economy, it’s important not to rely on cost-cutting strategies to drive growth and become more competitive, or even just to survive. In fact, developing a culture of smarter communication with customers, employees and the supply chain is more likely to free up cash, and will deliver more sustainable and profi table spending habits.

ROB ALLISON is managing director at procurement consultancy Expense Reduction Analysts. smarter-spending.co.uk

BUSINESSES NEED TO CONSIDER PURCHASING AS MORE THAN SIMPLY A COST-CUTTING TOOL

Illus

trat

ion

Borja

Bon

aque

Business advice //

How to

MAKE YOUR MONEY GO FURTHERBy procurement consultant Rob Allison

Modus_May13_P40-41_Bus advice +ad.v1.indd 41 15/04/2013 15:39

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Department of Engineering and the Built Environment

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n BSc (Hons) Building Surveying RICS Accredited

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One-year full-time or twenty seven months part-time. September and January starts.

For further information:

Click: www.anglia.ac.uk/RICS13 Email: [email protected] Call: +44 (0)845 196 3964

Professional Doctorate and PhD programmes also available.

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n MSc Project Management APM Accredited

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PostgraduateThese can be studied full or part-time.

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Become an effective project manager with an RICS accredited course.

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UPSKILL TO A BETTER JOB

Ensuring your Ordnance Survey data is correctly licensed can help reduce risk to

your organisation, meet legal obligations and help to protect your professional reputation.

Contact your supplier to find out more and make sure that you are correctly licensed.

Alternatively visit us online to

find out more about being up-to-date. www.ordnancesurvey.co.uk/licensing

The face of Britain changes up to 10 000 times a day.

Make sure your licence is up-to-date.

OrdnanceSurvey_Modus_Ad_AW.indd 1 08/04/2013 13:2542 r ics.org

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01.11 // MODUS 09

Information :rics news :diary :benefits :resources

In April, 500 delegates gathered in Delhi for the RICS international conference Global Real Estate and Infrastructure 2020: Destination India. The opening session featured the formal launch of the RICS School of Built Environment at Amity University – a historic first, as there is no other institution like it in India dedicated to producing the construction and real estate professionals of the future. The school, which was warmly welcomed and officially opened by India’s urban development minister, Kamal Nath, is a start in tackling the sector’s 80% skills gap of professionals. ricssbe.org

destination india useful numberscontact centre +44 (0)870 333 1600

General enquiriesAPC guidanceSubscriptionsPasswordsLibraryBookshop

regulation helpline +44 (0)20 7695 1670

confidential helpline +44 (0)20 7334 3867

dispute resolution services +44 (0)20 7334 3806

switchboard +44 (0)20 7222 7000

i’m confident the school will go a long way in providing highly specialised graduates to the developing built environment sector

atul chauhan chancellor of Amity University, India

05.13 // MODUS 43

the likely demand-supply gap of core professionals

in india’s built environment sector

by 2020

44m

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08 r ics.org

facts, stats & surveys

RICS news //

44 r ics.org

Illus

trat

ions

Osc

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n Gr

een,

Ber

nd S

chiff

erde

cker

Rise in UK construction wage rates in the year

to Q3 2012Fall in UK building material costs in the

year to Q3 2012

Fall in UK tender prices in the year

to Q3 2012

1.8%

Harmonising urban data across EuroperIcs aims to bring consistency to the way property is measured internationally. to that end, we are a member of the stakeholder board of the eu-funded research project plan4business, which is a platform that offers users a full catalogue of planning data, such

as transport infrastructure, and regional, urban and zoning plans. this aggregation of data will provide rich analysis and visualisation services for cities across europe. the project grew out of the eu’s INsPIre Directive (Infrastructure for spatial Information in

europe), which seeks to harmonise european urban data to make it more accessible and comparable. Plan4business will create a platform that will enable this to be done in a way that will also attract commercial users. rics.org/land

To support struggling small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), RICS is calling for increased transparency and visibility in government construction contracts. this call follows extensive consultation with members across the sector, which highlighted the need to unblock construction pipelines, reform procurement processes and improve the access and visibility of finance. rIcs’ uK construction policy outlines several recommended time- and cost-effective solutions that would enable the government, the industry and rIcs to address these concerns, and enable a sustainable construction sector for the future. central to rIcs’ policy is a call to government to improve access to public sector construction contracts by making them visible to all in the industry. this would bring work to the regions so that smaller contracts could filter down to sMes. to support this, rIcs is producing guidance to help government staff working in procurement understand the complexities of the construction supply chain. rics.org/constructionpolicy

recognising the importance of establishing the link between sustainability and long-term value in mainstreaming sustainable buildings in the global property market, rIcs supported the World Green Building council by joining its steering group for a global meta-survey of peer-reviewed reports. the resulting report highlights the benefits of sustainable buildings at various stages throughout their life cycle, and concludes that by opting for sustainability, the built environment sector has the ability to contribute not only to economic priorities – such as climate-change mitigation, energy security, resource conservation and job creation – but also to the quality of life within the building, the neighbourhood and the city. Download the report from rics.org/sustainability.

GReen BUildinGS

suPPortING sMall fIrMs

0.4%0.7%

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01.11 // MODUS 0905.13 // MODUS 45

The 2010 and 2011 gains in growth of new work output will be negated

by the end of 2013 in the UK

Materials prices forecast to rise in the UK per annum over the next

five yearsExpected rise in UK

tender prices over the next five years

Taken from the latest BCIS Tender Price Index. Subscribe

at rics.org/bcis.

Alan Collett FRICS RICS President

‘RICS’ Construction Policy is a vivid illustration of how our approach can have a positive impact at all levels’

Innovation often lies behind great sporting triumphs – sometimes revolutionary, sometimes evolutionary. Dick Fosbury quite literally raised the bar with a totally

new approach to high jumping. Four decades on, an aggregation of marginal gains, such as wiping a cyclist’s tyres with alcohol before the race to improve traction, led to Team GB’s Olympic cycling success.

RICS is no stranger to innovation. Building recognition for our standards is often incremental. Conversely, the introduction of new standards can be game-changing. Where innovators lead, others follow. And continual improvement gives organisations the edge, a source of authority, and a basis for influence.

The RICS Construction Policy, launched in the UK in March, is a vivid illustration of how our approach can have a positive impact. The policy matters nationally at the macroeconomic level, as the UK faces the prospect of a triple-dip recession. It also matters at the macro level for RICS, as some 40,000 of our UK members work in construction. But the policy’s impact at the micro level is at least as important, as small and medium-sized enterprises – many of which are run by RICS members – will be the drivers of growth in the sector. Economists estimate that every pound invested in

construction provides around £2.80 of benefits to the wider economy. Not only do we need investment in new housing and infrastructure for its own sake, we need it to stimulate growth.

The Construction Policy recognises that the UK is not homogeneous. We’ve taken account of national and regional differences through active consultation with members nationwide. For the first time, we’ve drawn together all our work across the construction sector, and made recommendations for the government and for industry, because we believe they need to raise their game. We’ve also made recommendations for RICS, because we too can raise our game.

We’re able to make such recommendations thanks to members’ insights, which has been a particular focus for us in the UK over the past year. The North East Summit in January showed how we have already begun to shape our regional events to better suit local needs (which, for the North East, was largely about attracting foreign investment), while making links to national issues.

Within weeks of launching our Construction Policy, the UK Chancellor announced some welcome initiatives in his March budget. He didn’t go nearly as far as we wanted, but the door remains open for us to keep pressing the government with our members’ backing.

RICS acknowledges the life achievements of Alfred Russel Wallace, who began his career as a land surveyor and later co-discovered the process of evolution with Charles Darwin. To mark

the centenary of his death, celebrations of Wallace’s contribution to evolutionary science will take place across the UK and further afield in collaboration with the National History Museum

(NHM). Wallace’s work investigated the causes of organic evolution, which established his reputation as a leading naturalist and entomologist, and one of the world’s first bio-geographers.

RICS is proud to be part of this historical event, which includes the unveiling of a statue of Wallace at the NHM by Sir David Attenborough on 7 December. Find out more at wallacefund.info.

CelebRatIng a lIfe and legaCy

PRESIDENT’S COLUMN

3%19%

0

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08 r ics.org

I was delighted to read the letter published in the April issue of Modus (page 5), which was in response to my column in the March issue about the wide-ranging responsibilities of surveyors. Not only is it nice to know that there is at least one reader of my scribblings, but the letter also raised the excellent point that we should be aware of the limits of our knowledge – something that I wholeheartedly agree with. I like to think that I keep my own limitations in mind when talking to clients, but it can be a shock, sometimes, to suddenly realise that you have been wrong about something all along. (I am reminded here of a friend at university – now also a surveyor – who thought that the word ‘hirsute’ meant ‘nevertheless’, and was quite upset when I corrected him as he used it quite a lot.)

I always thought, for example, that ‘brick slips’ were generally a bad thing. Brick slips are added to make external walls look like they are constructed from traditional brickwork, and were common in the 1960s. A textbook defect is compression from above causing the brick slips on the face of the slab to bow and lose their adhesion, leaving them in danger of falling off, which can be dangerous to passersby. As a result, I thought they were no longer widely used, but watching a large building go up opposite my office, I was fascinated to see modern brick slips being incorporated. They look so convincing that, from a visual inspection, I would never have known they were used at all – clearly illustrating the limits of what I thought I knew, and of what I can achieve during a survey. Some internet research quickly revealed that brick slips nowadays are much more reliable.

The letter also introduced me to the concept of disposable overshoes – and for this, I am very thankful. These are an excellent substitute for taking off your shoes during an inspection, and the fact that my previous, informal sock-hole-based method of measuring the number of instructions I have received in a year has now been rendered useless is a small price to pay for technological innovation.

Finally, I encourage the correspondent to divulge his own experiences of residential surveying as I think, judging from his letter, we would all enjoy reading them.

Agree? Disagree? Or interested in being a secret surveyor? Email [email protected].

‘wE shOuld bE awarE Of thE limits Of Our knOwlEdgE’

Secret Surveyor

RICS has published new research that evaluates how, and to what extent, real estate courses equip graduates with commercial awareness. the research gathered the views of uk academics, practitioners and students on commercial awareness in order to develop the commercial awareness taxonomy. key findings were: the most important skills for

the development of commercial awareness are the ability to solve problems and critical thinking. the most important attributes

for the development of commercial awareness are self-motivation and the ability and willingness to update professional knowledge. students think their courses

have not sufficiently helped them develop commercial awareness.

largely, commercial awareness has been embedded into the riCs real estate curriculum as a whole, rather than as a standalone unit. the suggested method to

embed commercial awareness into the curriculum is through the use of problem-based and work-based approaches, in order to enhance ‘learner-led’ learning. the other important aspect of

enhancing ‘students’ commercial awareness is to maximise their practical experience, such as placements or internships.

associate director of riCs Valuation and Commercial Professional groups Paul bagust said: ‘this report highlights the fact that, rather than simply providing traditional technical skills, surveyors are becoming increasingly commercially aware and are looked at to provide leadership. a flexible and strategic approach to business and problem-solving, together with a detailed understanding of financial management, will be essential skills for those wishing to progress.’ rics.org/research

46 r ics.org

ProPerty tAx cAn be helPfulWhile the impact of the global recession has increased the importance of property tax, it has also created problems for individuals, corporate taxpayers and governments. The economic downturn has made it difficult for many people to pay their property taxes, and many businesses have seen a decline in revenue, making it more difficult to pay overheads, such as payroll and taxes. As a result, governments around the world have experienced increased pressure, as they are facing shortfalls in revenue but increased demands for services. Nearly 170 countries have at least one tax on property and more than 100 have at least one recurrent tax on immovable property, according to Gerry Divaris FRICS, director of the International Property Tax Institute. ‘Although property tax is probably the most unpopular tax on the planet, it is one of the more important taxes we have around,’ explains Divaris. ‘It has a bad name because it has such an “in your face” feel, but, if properly deployed and properly utilised, it can be really helpful.’ To find out more about RICS’ work in this area visit rics.org/propertytax.

Are GrADuAteS reAlly reADy?

RICS news //

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07.12 // 08.12 MODUS 47

More than a fifth of hoMe buyers who do not take out a survey end up with a property they would never have bought, finds new riCs researCh

The home-buying time bomb

results from a recent riCs survey of home-buying consumers has revealed that many homeowners who did not take out a home survey are left with a property they regret buying and an average of £5,750 in repair bills. the survey of 1,017 buyers across the uk found that consumers are clearly aware of the need for independent advice, with 94% of respondents agreeing it is important to commission a survey. however, nearly a third failed to do so. this means that buyers are left ignorant of issues with the property – such as structural defects, subsidence, and dry and wet rot – which can become serious matters at a later date. by this stage, the new homeowner may not be able to afford to fix the faults, or may not want to.

of the respondents who did commission a survey, 73% said it provided them with peace of mind, and more than 50% felt that it was value for money. of those who did not commission a survey, 89% now think that it’s important to take out independent advice. riCs global residential director peter bolton king commented: ‘buying a home is one of the biggest decisions most people will ever make, and yet many consumers are doing so blind to the facts. serious faults are difficult to identify and costly to repair, and by not being aware of them, consumers risk a potential home-buying

time bomb. this can cause extreme stress and financial strain on homeowners, who are often stuck with a property they no longer want but cannot sell.’

results from the survey also revealed common misconceptions, and a lack of understanding, among consumers. nearly 60% of respondents incorrectly identified an estate agent’s primary responsibility, with one in 10 mistakenly believing that agents act for the buyer, and nearly one

in five thinking they act equally for the buyer and seller. ‘the lack of understanding about the home-buying process is putting consumers at increased risk, as many fail to take out further independent, expert advice,’ said king. ‘agents can and should offer advice to buyers, however, only a surveyor is trained to identify issues with a property. the cost of a survey is a small price to pay for this knowledge and peace of mind.’

Choosing the right surveythere are three levels of riCs surveys available to suit the particular circumstances of the client and the property: LeveL 1 Condition reportprovides an objective overview of the property’s condition, highlighting areas of major concern without extensive detail. this option is ideal for those buying a modern house in good condition, and for owners and sellers.

LeveL 2 homeBuyer reportthis is the most suitable report for standard older and modern properties that appear to be in a reasonable condition. it provides a concise report, with advice detailing any significant problems that could make a difference to the value of a property. LeveL 3 BuiLding surveythe ‘flagship’ riCs service, this report provides a detailed analysis of a property. it’s particularly

useful for older, larger and non-traditional properties; those that are dilapidated or have been extensively altered; or where the buyer is planning a major conversion or renovation.

are you advising clients on the advantages of a home survey? download the riCs home surveys information sheet. it covers the various options, and includes a table with at-a-glance comparisons of the service features of each survey and report. rics.org/homesurveys

05.13 // MODUS 47

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Advertorial//

Benefitsrics.org/benefitsplus

In light of the challenging economic conditions, businesses are focusing on controlling costs. Here, Howden Windsor respond to questions about Professional Indemnity Insurance (PII).

I’m thinking of starting a surveying firm – how much will PII cost? The cost is influenced by many factors, including estimated fee income and the type of surveying work. A sole practitioner generating £50,000 of income per year should budget around £500 for £250,000 of cover; £850 for £500,000; and £1,000 for £1m. This estimate would increase significantly if cover is required for mortgage valuations or Home Buyer reports.

What are the most and least expensive disciplines to insure?The cost varies according to insurers’ views of the likelihood of a claim arising. Mortgage valuations are the most expensive area to insure, while estate agency is the least expensive.

How is premium calculated?A ‘rate’ is allocated to each surveying discipline, applied as a percentage of fee income. The riskier the discipline, the higher the rate – for example, the rate applied to income from valuations for lending may be as high as 15%, so for every £1 earned, 15p should be allocated to PII. In comparison, the rate for estate agency is around 0.25%.

How much insurance should I buy?As an RICS-regulated firm, you must purchase at least £250,000 of cover, providing fee income doesn’t exceed £100,000. For firms with fee income of £100,001 to £200,000, a minimum of £500,000 is required, and for those with an income +£200,001 a minimum limit of £1m applies. When deciding what limit of insurance to buy, you must consider the maximum financial impact of a claim against your firm and the likely requirements of your clients.

What excess should I carry?Typically, lower risk disciplines carry lower excesses. But you should consider affordability – while it’s tempting to increase the excess to reduce the premium, calculate how much income your firm must generate to cover an excess and maintain margin. Also, carrying a higher excess doesn’t always reduce the premium.

How much is run-off insurance?Typically, premium for the first year’s run-off will equate to the premium for the year prior to closure. After the first year, the premium will reduce by around 15% per annum, providing: insurance rates remain stable; you are not paying insurers’ minimum premiums; and no new notifications are made.

Howden Windsor is the RICS preferred UK professional indemnity broker. For assistance, telephone 0800 019 0373, or email [email protected].

PII: the pounds and pence

To view all the latest offers, new partners and monthly and seasonal promotions, visit rics.org/benefitsplus.

48 r ics.org

Advertorial //

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Membershipred tape toolkit RICS’ red tape toolkit is designed to assist members running small to medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in managing legislative requirements. The factsheets, and various links to government resources, provide guidance on compliance with business law, health and safety law, employment legislation and environmental legislation. Supporting members in SMEs in dealing with the red tape

around compliance with statutory legislation is a priority for RICS. In addition to the policy team’s contribution to the UK government’s Red Tape Challenge, which aims to reduce the burden of administration placed on small businesses, RICS is committed to providing the information and tools that will help you to manage red tape effectively. To find out more, visit rics.org/redtapetoolkit.

out nowConstruction sectors and roles for the chartered surveyor An information paper that summarises what is meant by the construction sectors, and reviews the various roles for the chartered quantity surveyor within the UK construction industry.

22 MayBlack Book – Performance guarantees This UK guidance note reviews security and performance documents normally associated with a construction project. These are documents required as security for performance –whether payment, design, management or construction. In complex projects, there may be many different types of document required by several parties.

28 MaySustainability and commercial property valuation It is vital that valuers of commercial property are fully aware of the potential impact of sustainability on commercial property valuation, and this UK guidance note provides best practice for the valuation profession.

7 June Design and specification A UK guidance note that provides surveyors and other professional practitioners with information and best- practice guidance relevant to the tasks and processes of design and specification for small to medium-sized construction projects, from project inception to the end of a detailed project design stage.

28 June Managing communications This information paper is intended to encourage best practice in communications, which are defined by the Association for Project Management as the ‘giving, receiving, processing and interpretation of information…conveyed verbally, non-verbally, actively, passively, formally, informally, consciously or unconsciously.’ In an industry context, this means communicating with stakeholders via different media in a clear, consistent and concise manner that enables them to play their part in delivering a successful project. rics.org/standards

Raising standards

gOvERnIng COUnCIl MEET In DElhI

ConductDISCIPLINARY PANEL 6 MARCh 2013

Paul hutton MRICS, Newcastle upon TyneSummary of finding: contrary to Rules 8 & 9 of the Rules of Conduct for Members 2007penalty: reprimand/costs

DISCIPLINARY PANEL 20 MARCh 2013

Morris Marshall & Poole, PowysSummary of finding: contrary to Rule 3 of the Rules of Conduct for Firms 2007penalty: reprimand/costs

DISCIPLINARY PANEL 27 MARCh 2013

Blay Abeysekera, Kalutara, Sri LankaSummary of finding: contrary to Bye-Law B5.2.2(d) and Rule 6 of the Rules of Conduct for Members 2007penalty: expelled/costs

Peter Way, NorfolkSummary of finding: contrary to Bye-Law 5.2.2 of RICS Bye-Laws 2009penalty: expulsion/costs

DISCIPLINARY PANEL 3 APRIL 2013

William Ricketts Partnership, CardiffSummary of finding: contrary to Rules 5,7,14 & 15 of the Rules of Conduct for Firms 2007penalty: reprimand/fines/costs

For full details, visit rics.org/conductcases.

last month, RICS governing Council took place in Delhi – the first time the meeting has been held in South Asia. Widely predicted to be the world’s biggest economy by 2050, with US$1.2tn due to be invested in infrastructure and housing by 2030, and with an estimated cumulative skills gap in the land, property and construction sector of some 44m core professionals by 2020, India is a market that the surveying profession cannot afford to ignore. During the first day’s session, Michael newey was confirmed as next RICS President; louise Brooke-Smith as President-Elect, and Martin Bruehl was elected as RICS Senior-vice President for the 2013/14 session. FInd out more at rics.org/governingcouncil.

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Find and be foundFind contacts and let others find you. Build your member profile on rics.org and showcase your skills and expertise to a global audience.

Visit rics.org to get started

50 r ics.org

School of the Built environment

Construction Law and Practice (MSc or LLM)

This programme will: Produce reflective practitioners able to conduct and communicate legal analysis of mainstream professional construction practice with confidence and accuracy

Examine construction practice from a legal perspective, to include detailed consideration of construction contracts, tortious and multi-party liability, insurance, dispute resolution, procurement, and the environment

Assist individuals in taking effective roles in specialist construction law departments or firms

Promote high-quality research in areas of construction law, including a high level of legal analysis

We welcome applications from students without formal qualifications but relevant experience. the course may be completed from anywhere in the world, without any uK attendance.

Study part-time by distance learning, with support and interaction through our virtual learning environment and assessment by coursework.The programme will enable construction and surveying professionals, as well as lawyers, to provide more effective expertise in construction law and related areas.

A joint venture from the School of the Built Environment and Salford Law School. For more information visit: www.salford.ac.uk/built-environment or www.salford.ac.uk/law, or contact the Enquiries Team on [email protected] or 0161 295 4545.

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developments across the profession will shape your business in the future.£220 + VATrics.org/bcconference RICS and CoreNet UK Chapter Occupiers Seminar5 June, LondonAs the corporate real estate market is faced with increased drive to reduce costs and deliver value, occupiers are looking at their professional bodies for guidance and information in achieving success. This networking event offers insights into what RICS and CoreNet UK Chapter can offer to occupiers and professionals in the corporate real estate sector.£100 + VAT for RICS members; £125 + VAT for non-membersrics.org/occupiersseminar

RICS Expert Witness Conference 6 June, LondonThis prestigious annual conference includes a briefing from the judge of the Technology and Construction Court The Hon Justice Akenhead and other eminent speakers who will come together to assess and debate issues practitioners are faced with when

acting as expert witnesses. £250 + VATrics.org/ewconference

ScotlandRICS Scotland Rural Mid-session 23 May, PerthshireThis conference focuses on housing, ecosystems, energy planning, investment in infrastructure, Scotland Land Review and a tax update. Leading experts will share their advice for professionals in the rural, environment and geomatics surveying sector.£65 + VATrics.org/ruralscotland

RICS Scotland Dilapidations Update30 May, GlasgowThis seminar will provide an in-depth understanding of core areas of dilapidations to enhance your knowledge and broaden your approach in this area. By attending, you will be able to put legal knowledge into practical use in your daily surveying role.£100 + VATrics.org/scotlanddilaps

WaleSRICS Wales Rural Update 28 May, BreconThis half-day rural programme provides unique opportunities for rural, valuation and environment surveyors and professionals to hear the latest practical legal and finance content relating to planning, energy,

property values? What is embodied carbon? Hear from expert speakers on these topics, followed by a roundtable discussion on the future of sustainable buildings. For more information, email [email protected]

RICS/IPTI: Challenges and Recent Developments in Valuation and Construction 22-23 May, Trinidad Join RICS and the International Property Tax Institute for a seminar on valuation and construction in the public and private sectors.US$325 (£212) for RICS members; US$375 (£245) for non-membersgoo.gl/fvwXT

REALTY 28-30 May, BrusselsREALTY is a high- level networking platform for key players in the Belgian real estate industry. The numerous events

will cover the latest project developments and important market trends. RICS Belux will have a stand at the event, and will be hosting a lunch on the opening day (28 May). For more information, contact [email protected].

8th International Conference on the Valuation of Plant Machinery and Equipment18-20 September, RussiaTo register your interest in this event, email conferences @rics.org.

Save the dateRICS Cobra 201310-12 September, New DelhiRICS, the University of Ulster and the Indian Institute of Technology in Delhi present the world’s leading annual construction and real estate research conference. For abstracts, visit rics.org/cobra.

Eventsrenewables, land value, rural farmhouse and agricultural relief. £75 + VATrics.org/walesrural

northernIrelandBIM Northern Ireland15 May, BelfastEnhance your understanding of Building Information Modelling (BIM) and how the big transformation to utilise BIM will impact practitioners within land, property and construction.£125 + VATrics.org/bimni

InternatIonalWhat Makes a Building Truly Sustainable?7 May, ViennaWhat is the business case for green building? Will our current model of sustainable buildings hold true five years from now? Does sustainability already have an impact on

FOR RICS EVENTS BOOKINgS AND ENqUIRIES [email protected] // +44 (0)20 7695 1600

South WESt ProPErty ConfErEnCE 6 June, Bristol

Highlighted through a series of keynote presentations,

forum-style debates and local case studies, this conference will assess the barriers facing the South West property market to help you manage your property portfolio and identify new opportunities in the region. £150 + VATrics.org/swproperty

englandRICS Dilapidations Roadshow 2013May to July, various locationsMitigate risk to your practice with key insights into break clauses and case law updates, plus case studies on how dilapidations have been working in practice since the implementation of the dilapidations protocol.£150 + VATrics.org/dilapsroadshow

RICS South West CPD Day8 May, ExeterA selection of plenary sessions and focused streams to update your knowledge and skills, and meet your continuing professional development requirements in one day. You’ll have the opportunity to attend sessions on a variety of issues including dilapidations, planning, the Red Book and Building Information Modelling.£125 + VAT – full day£75 + VAT – half dayrics.org/southwestcpd

RICS National Building Control Conference23 May, LondonGain opportunities to manage your costs effectively and learn how the latest

05.13 // MODUS 51

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52 r ics.org

One of the largest providers of construction and property education in the UK.

Brighter futures begin with GCU.To find out more, visit www.gcu.ac.ukGlasgow Caledonian University is a registered Scottish charity, number SC021474

Our range of professionally accredited postgraduate programmes has been created in consultation with industry, with many providing a choice of flexible learning routes at either our Glasgow or London campus. A high level of employer and professional input ensures our programmes are relevant to the ever-changing needs of the employment market, and students experience a range of innovate learning techniques.

surveying process using kykloud mobile software

Survey in half the time with kykloud mobile

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0845 366 2242www.kykloud.com SMART TECHNOLOGY FOR SURVEYORS

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07.12 // 08.12 // MODUS 51

EastErnBruce Carlisle allen FRICS1927-2013, CambridgeProf David Mark Cato FRICS1934-2012, Saffron Waldenrobert Fellowes FRICS1931-2012, NewmarketIvan Greenwold FRICS1931-2013, RadlettDavid Charles Pitcher FRICS1928-2012, Welwyn Garden CityWilliam Bryan ringrose FRICS1925-2012, NewmarketJohn David short FRICS1925-2013, Colchester

LonDonJerrold assersohn FRICS1915-2012, Londonroland spencer Giddy APC Graduate 1965-2012, HamptonPeter norman Handy MRICS1925-2012, Beckenham Keith Harry russell MRICS1930-2012, London

nortH WEstFrancis Edmund Clarke MRICS1930-2006, Boltonrichard travis Edge FRICS

1929-2013, WidnesFredrick Charles Hutchence FRICS1927-2013, Wirralrobert Edward Jones FRICS1925-2013, LiverpoolKenneth rutherford Parker FRICS1925-2012, Prestonalan James Christopher slater AssocRICS1935-2013, Wallasey Peter thorpe FRICS1931-2013, Altrinchamanthony Kevin Walmsley MRICS1943-2013, Wirral

nortH EastJohn neville roe FRICS1934-2012, Yarm

soutH EastWayne Francis anderson FRICS1950-2013, Tadworthronald stanley Bedwell MRICS1922-2013, Lymington Derek neil Blatt MRICS1963-2013, Thame Michael Edward John Blount MRICS1929-2012, Henley on Thamesnorman Harold Buchele FRICS1926-2013, Stockbridge

alan David Chun FRICS1923-2012, Southamptonroger Keen Howard FRICS1922-2013, CroydonMark Manfred Luxton FRICS1925-2013, Shorham by Seaalan richard Marson FRICS1929-2012, SevenoaksProf Charles William noel Miles FRICS1915-2013, HookPeter Michael smith MRICS1952-2013, Alton

soutH WEstJohn W H Burmester FRICS1919-2013, BristolWilliam rae Cullimore HonRICS1918-2012, Wiltshirethomas Meredith Harris FRICS1917-2012, BridportJohn neil James MRICS1937-2012, GloucesterBrian David Lalonde FRICS1924-2011, Weston Super MareCharles steward FRICS1928-2013, Shepton Malletalan Fielden Williams FRICS1930-2013, Truro

ObituariesWEst MIDLanDsJames Howard Perrigo FRICS1930-2013, SolihullCharles sands FRICS1918-2012, Birmingham

East MIDLanDsMichael Jones FRICS1929-2012, Leicesterstephen Mattison FRICS1953-2013, LeicesterJane McKevitt MRICS1965-2012, Spaldingsidney Charles Phillips FRICS1915-2012, Peterborough Patrick anthony Ward FRICS1926-2012, RushtenWilliam Peter White MRICS1924-2011, NottinghamLeonard Clive Woodward MRICS1917-2012, Daventry

YorKsHIrE & HuMBErJohn aspinall MRICS1929-2012, WetherbyKenneth William Bull FRICS1920-2012, North Yorkshire

sCotLanDJames tarvit aitkins FRICS1934-2012, Dumfriesthomas Forgie FRICS

1925-2013, GlasgowHarold D V Forsyth MRICS1912-2012, InvernessBernard William Pirie MRICS1939-2012, GlenrothesDavid Mitchell struthers FRICS1937-2013, Glasgow

WaLEsDavid William L rowlands FRICS1934-2013, Welshpool

IrELanDalan Heap FRICS1923-2012, Craigavon

aMErICasDonald alexander Macniven MRICS1923-2012, Laguna Woods

oCEanIaarthur George Compton FRICS1916-2012, Auckland

Please email obituary notifications to rICs, including membership number if known, to [email protected] or call +44 (0)870 333 1600.

05.13 // MODUS 53

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RecruitmentFor recruitment advertising please contact: Angus Sharpe +44 (0)20 7871 2667 [email protected]

The June issue will be published on 10 June

Recruitment copy deadline Wednesday 15 May

Residential valuation, HomebuyeR and building suRveyoR

Opportunity for contract surveyors/consultants to joina nationwide firm of surveyors. Opportunities exist in specific postcodes throughout England and Wales.

Please forward your Cv and contact details by email to:[email protected]

ONE CALL ONLY - FOR THE BEST RESIDENTIAL SURVEYING JOBS

MLA assists most of the industry’s employers and is instructed with all their latest jobs. With just one call to MLA, you will find all the best jobs in the market and, with our many years of independent experience, we can advise and help you apply to the most suitable companies. If you have experience of undertaking mortgage valuations and Homebuyer reports (building surveys), make MLA your first contact.

Immediate requirements: London/M25 (all areas), Kent, Surrey, Sussex, Hants, Dorset, Bristol, Gloucs, S Wales, Berks, Oxon, Bucks, Beds, Herts, Essex, Cambs, Norfolk, Northants, Warwks, Birm E, Leics, Notts, Derbys, Cheshire, Manchester, Liverpool, S+N Lincs, Humberside, N Notts, S Yorks, Scotland, Belfast.

Call Jeff Johnson on 07940 594093. Or email your CV in confidence to: [email protected]

If your location is not shown, register now to be kept advised of new opportunities. www.mlarecruit.com

Looking for your next surveying job?Find out who is hiring today. Visit ricsrecruit.com or scan here

Connells Survey & Valuation is a leading provider of Valuation Panel Management and Chartered Surveying services throughout the United Kingdom.

Residential SurveyorsCompetitive Salary + Commission + Company Car (or allowance)

Audit ManagerLeighton Buzzard Competitive Salary Package + Essential Car User Allowance

Area DirectorCompetitive Salary + Commission + Bonus + Company Car (or allowance)

www.connells.co.uk

As a result of winning a number of major new Lender contracts, combined with significant Private client opportunities, we are now looking to recruit additional experienced Residential Surveyors throughout the country including:

For further details please contact: Tim Jones at: [email protected]

London all areas – Brighton/Haywards Heath – Leicestershire – Sheffield – Cheshire – Liverpool – Birmingham – Cardiff – Newbury – Guildford – Rayleigh/Chelmsford – Warwickshire – Aberdeen – Teeside – Norwich – Nottingham – Leicester – Bradford – Burnley – South Lancs – Lancaster – Nottingham – Cambridgeshire – Northampton – Croydon – Bournemouth – Bristol – Portsmouth.

We are seeking MRICS/FRICS qualified Surveyors with recent experience in carrying out Mortgage valuations, Homebuyers reports and Building surveys, ideally in the volume residential sector.

We are also seeking an Area Director to join the management team in a combined surveying and management role. Survey cover would be required in the Guildford, Croydon or Brighton/Haywards Heath locations above. Ideally you will have experience of management in the corporate residential sector, or be ready to make the step up.

We have an opportunity for an experienced Chartered Surveyor to head up the Audit Team at our Head Office to further enhance our quality service. This is an opportunity to demonstrate your previous audit experience and working knowledge of lender and RICS requirements in this central client-facing role.

If you believe you possess the right skills and experience, then we want to hear from you. Excellent remuneration packages are available for the right individuals.

10505 Survey & Vauation Ad 180mmWx116mmH.indd 1 03/04/2013 16:39

94,818 average net circulation 1 July 2011 – 30 June 2012

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05.13 // MODUS 55

Recruitment //

MAKING A SPECULATIVE JOB APPLICATIONBy Linda Whitney

Speculative applications can put you in sole charge of your career. However, applying for jobs on spec is not about sending out your CV en masse: the secret for success is targeting. ‘When I qualifi ed as a chartered project management surveyor last year, I wanted a job that would make the most of it. I thought a spec application would make a more proactive impression,’ says Mark Berry MRICS, a former section project manager with a principal contractor. ‘I chose fi ve top consultancies and researched their work, looking for projects that excited me. Then, I searched the companies’ websites for project manager roles in London that suited my expertise, which narrowed the fi eld down to four,’ he explains. Berry then tailored the personal statement section of his CV to highlight experience that fi tted the companies’ requirements, and sent speculative applications to human resources managers, whose names he had researched on LinkedIn. It resulted in two job off ers, including his present position as a project manager with Mott MacDonald in London: ‘Don’t be afraid to make spec applications, but target them carefully, and tailor each application to the company and role you want,’ he advises.

Oswald Phipps, recruitment manager for Mott MacDonald’s programme and commercial management business, says: ‘Chartered surveyors tend to make spec applications as a result of hearing about new projects we’ve won, rather than targeting us more randomly.’ The key to attracting attention, he says, is a well-crafted covering letter, sent by post or as an email (not an attachment): ‘The best ones explain who you are, what role you want and state your skills that are relevant to the sector you want to work in. They are short, interesting and engaging.’

If you are making contact through LinkedIn, ensure your LinkedIn profi le shows the same skills as your speculative application. Also, ensure your email is well written and laid out: ‘I check that, particularly, because surveyors are likely to be writing reports,’ says Melanie Olrik, human resource partner at building consultancy Malcolm Hollis.

Often, recruiters reject untailored, standardised letters and CVs automatically – and they are experts at spotting them. ‘Emails that have clearly been copied to dozens of other companies, or where the candidate has failed to change the company name to ours, are huge mistakes,’ says Olrik. ‘I’ve had letters that say, “I’d like to work for a multidisciplinary international company”, which we are not,’ she adds. ‘Even using the phrase, “your company”, rather than the company’s name, can betray a standardised letter.’

Recruitment agencies may make speculative applications on your behalf. ‘We only do this if we know the company well, and the candidate has the profi le they are looking for,’ says Simon Girling, managing director of recruiter Girling Jones, which handles many surveying vacancies in the South West. Girling advises candidates to make sure that any speculative application made is carefully tailored: ‘Just sending a general CV and a note that adds up to “I need a job” won’t work.’

Careers advice

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PROJECT MANAGERS & SITE INSPECTORS LONDON & SOUTH WEST

SALARY NEGOTIABLE PLUS PROFIT SHARE

LEASE CAR / CAR ALLOWANCE AND OTHER BENEFITS With our client base continually growing and more high profile developers making Salus their first choice for Building Control and Fire Safety services, we are recruiting for like-minded professionals to work alongside our established teams at our Hendon, Sidcup and Farnborough Offices. We pride ourselves on team working and producing exceptional results for our clients. These positions are an excellent opportunity for you to enhance your building control career and join a team of professionals who appreciate diverse and challenging schemes. Our staff enjoy ownership of their individual projects and clients, whilst having the benefit of the support from a network of professional colleagues located throughout the country. Salus are committed to recognising your individual talents and actively support your professional training and development. We recognise the contribution made by our staff to our continued success and reflect this in our generous broad banded pay structure and profit related pay awards. You will need to possess a solid background in building control, be RICS/ABE qualified or equivalent and be able to demonstrate a practical and pro active approach in a diverse range of building control and fire safety issues. Full and part time opportunities are currently available. To apply please email your CV to [email protected] or further information please call Rita Raven on 01455 271155 Closing date for applications is Friday 17th May with interviews taking place on Thursday 23rd May 2013

Please see our website for more details - www.salusai.co.uk

Campbell Gray (FRICS)Managing Director - Middle EastFaithful+Gould

Build your career with usFaithful+Gould is the fi rst and only company in the Middle East to be

certifi ed by the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors – a guarantee of our commitment to the continuous professional development of our people.

As one of the world’s leading construction project and cost management consultancies, we work on some of the region’s most iconic projects.

Make your fi rst move towards building a career with us by visiting: www.fgould.com or

email your CV to: [email protected]

56 r ics.org

To view more jobs online visit ricsrecruit.com

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Opportunity knocksWe’re looking for talented Valuation Surveyors to be part of the team at Colleys. We want vibrant, hard-working professionals to join our team of Valuation Surveyors in helping people realise the dream of home ownership in the UK. These roles are home-based anywhere in the UK with competitive market salaries and a variety of contract options for the right people.

Colleys is a growing company with a dynamic workforce, and we want individuals who’ll embody the Colleys way of doing things. We’re especially looking for talented Valuation Surveyors who are looking to develop their skills, knowledge and experience from working with the best. The role includes conducting property valuations, reporting on property condition, and forming trusted relationships with Lloyds Banking Group mortgage customers.

As part of Lloyds Banking Group, at Colleys you’ll receive all the benefi ts of one of the largest fi nancial services employers in the world and clear opportunities to follow your perfect career path.

Smart surveyors: we’d love to hear from you.

To fi nd out more and apply, visit www.lloydsbankinggroup-careers.com and enter ‘Surveyor’ into the keyword search.

05.13 // MODUS 57

Recruitment //

pod LLP is a construction and regeneration consultancy based in London. Our range of services include chartered surveying, development and finance consultancy, working predominantly in the affordable housing sector. We are proud of the excellent reputation we have built since our formation five years ago.

We are seeking suitably qualified Senior and/or Building Surveyor(s) to join our friendly, enthusiastic team and help us grow as a practice. This is an exciting opportunity for surveyors with a flexible approach and a ‘can-do’ attitude.Candidates ideally need to be full members of the RICS, although unqualified but experienced candidates working towards accreditation will be considered. The range of disciplines will include Employers Agent, Contract Administration, Party Wall Works, Fire Risk Assessments and Condition Surveys. In addition, experience of CAD would be an advantage.pod LLP is firmly committed to equal opportunities and the promotion of diversity, and expects the successful candidate to understand and uphold these values.Salary in the range of £30,000 – £45,000 per annum, depending on experience.Interested? Please forward your CV and contact details by email to Cat Barrett at [email protected]

Senior/Building Surveyor(s)

Country House Consultant Country House Consultancy is a progressive and niche service offering day to day and strategic help and advice to the owners of the very best country houses and small high-value estates across the UK.

A position has become available within the team for a motivated, outgoing and personable individual looking for a change from a mainstream property discipline.

Applicants should ideally be RICS rural qualified but a property background and enthusiasm for a diverse and unconventional role are key.

Apply online at KnightFrank.co.uk/Recruitment

Join Knight Frank’s marketleading team in Hungerford.

Exceptional People

MODUS_May13_P54-57_Classified.indd 57 15/04/2013 16:28

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58 rics.org

Illustration by Ian Dutnall

StaDIum effect house-price change around premier league grounds

Measure //

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TIMES HAVE CHANGED

See the PRD in action or buy online

facebook.com/Latchwayslinkedin.com/company/latchways-plc

youtube.com/latchwaysfallprotect

Latchways has created a full body harness with integrated rescue device – the PRDLatchways Personal Rescue Device® is the only rescue harness that can easily be worn as everyday workwear. By pulling a release cord, you are lowered to the ground within seconds. Why wouldn’t you wear one?

Available from Health and Safety distributors or online at www.latchways.com/PRDMO1

Innovative solutions to complex problems.

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Page 60: RICS Modus, Global edition - May 2013

You’ll fi nd no camoufl age or hidden surprises in our policies, just plain English.

RICS members save 12.5% on our home insurance rates for the life of their policy plus 10% in the � rst year when buying online (subject to a minimum premium).

WHY PRETEND TO BE SOMETHING YOU’RE NOT?

The 10% online discount is applicable in the � rst year of your policy only and will be taken from your premium before application of the 12.5% saving. The offers only apply to Hiscox 505 Home Insurance available via speci� c telephone number and website and are subject to a minimum premium. Cases that do not meet Hiscox’s underwriting criteria may be referred to a Hiscox recommended specialist insurance broker, where these offers will not apply. Policies are underwritten by Hiscox Underwriting Ltd on behalf of Hiscox Insurance Company Ltd both of which are authorised and regulated by the Financial Services Authority. The Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors is an Appointed Representative of Hiscox Underwriting Ltd. Reference to standard policies is based on a typical level of non-high net worth cover as de� ned by the independent � nancial research company Defaqto Ltd. For UK residents only. 11520 03/13

Call 0845 365 1734 for a quote or visit hiscox.co.uk/rics

Preferred Partner

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