Real Estate & Planning Launch 40th Birthday Celebrations
Working with the maxim "celebrate early and celebrate often" REP are pleased to announce the launch of our 40th birthday celebrations which will culminate in a party in September 2008. We have commissioned a 40th Birthday device which we will use on all our publicity material in the run up to the 40th anniversary of the first intake of students to the Department (which was then known as Land Management and Development) in 1968. Hannah Sharp, a student from Reading's Department of Typography designed a number of alternative devices and is shown here with Colin Lizieri and the chosen device. 
 

REP Students at Wembley
Students on the second year of the undergraduate "planning package" were fortunate enough to enjoy a day at the new Wembley stadium development. The visit was hosted by Ian Henderson and Fiona Hooper of Quitain Estates & Development plc. The students enjoyed a tour of the site and series of talks from people involved in the ongoing development. We are most grateful to Quitain for allowing our students access to such a fascinating development.

Prestigious Internship for REP Student
Matthew Hussey, a second year student on BSc Land Management programme, has been awarded a prestigious summer internship with CBRE in China. CBRE offered six internships which were available through a competitive process which was open to real estate and planning students across the UK. Matthew will be joining CBRE for nine weeks in Shanghai - one of the most dynamic and 
rapidly growing cities in Asia.

Planning Field Trip to Milan
The 2007 European field trip for the postgraduate Planning students was based in Milan. The students had an enjoyable and an interesting week  - if a little tiring in the +25c heat. The busy timetable included talks and tours about the planning system, the property markets and about transport. There was also a full day visit Venice to learn about the issues of depopulation, tourism and climate change/flooding there. Back in Milan staff and students were able to enjoy the evenings and managed to keep reasonably calm when Manchester Utd beat AC Milan!

RREF Launch Fund Raising Campaign
The Reading Real Estate Foundation (our alumni organisation) is working with Shaun Horan, the University's Development Director, to raise funds for the new Business School buildings - see below. Although the University has committed £20m to the project, the Foundation believes that further "ring fenced" funds would ensure the top quality fit-out and state of the art equipment necessary to attract the very best staff and students from across the world.  "We want Reading Real Estate to be the very best, not just in the UK or Europe, but globally" says Professor Andrew Baum, President of the Reading Real Estate Foundation. "To send the right message to the industry about how seriously we are taking real estate we must offer a top quality product, both in terms of staff and facilities. To do this we need investment". The Foundation hopes to raise £5m by the time the building is complete and has a longer term target of £10m. Further details of the fund raising initiative are available from the Foundation.

Farewell
After a joint tenure of nearly 40 years the Department bid a fond farewell to Nick French and Stephen Lee at the end of 2006. Both left us in order to gain promotion - Nick to a Chair at Oxford Brookes and Stephen to a Senior Lectureship at the Cass Business School. We wish them well in their new positions but, given Nick's propensity to yo-yo back to the Department each time he tries to leave, we will, in the words of William Cowper, say "Farewell, but not for long".

Award for Rural Package Student
The Department of Real Estate & Planning was pleased to welcome representatives from Bidwells, Chartered Surveyors, on 5th December.  Bidwells generously award sponsorship funds to the Part 3 Land Management (Rural Studies) student who scores highest marks at Part 2.  Pictured here, on the left, receiving his £500 award is this year’s winner, Aled Rhys Jones, together with Giles Dobson from Bidwells Cambridge office. 
 
 
 

Planning Permission for New Business School Buildings
The University has been granted planning permission for an exciting new development which will bring together the four elements of the Business School on the same site. The artist's impression below, shows how an extended ICMA Centre will sit alongside a combination of new build and refurbished space which will house the Departments of Real Estate & Planning, Economics and Management. The new space will also house a Resource Centre, a cafe and a range of teaching space including a state of the art 275 seater lecture theatre. It is anticipated that building work will start early in 2007.

Community Council for Berkshire Elect Reading Chair
Gavin Parker has been elected as Chair of the Community Council for Berkshire (CCB). Gavin has represented the University on the Board of the CCB since 2004 and his connection with the organisation corresponds well with his research into topics such as Parish planning, rural services provision and countryside recreation issues. The CCB is the countywide community development organisation aiming to help residents of Berkshire to achieve sustainable communities and higher quality of life.  Previously focussed on rural development, as a rural community council, it has since widened its remit to cover the whole county. This reflects trends in national policy and recognition of the need for integrated development work. For more information on the CCB visit: www.ccberks.org
 

Careers Fair a Big Success 
Each year the Department holds a Careers Fair organised in conjunction with the Reading Real Estate Foundation. This year's Fair was held at the beginning of  November. The event has continued to grow in popularity and more than 30 firms hosted stands at the event which now occupies both levels of the the Palmer Lecture Theatre foyer. The Fair was busy throughout the afternoon with both undergraduates and postgraduates keen to find out what the firms had to offer. 
 
 

Teaching and Learning Away Day
The Department reinforced its commitment to Teaching and Learning with a gruelling Teaching and Learning Away Day. The day, which focused on the "Problems and Benefits of Short Course Teaching", was held at Foxhill House by kind permission of the School of Law. The photograph shows staff in an informal small group discussion session. The overall outcome of the day was a unanimous view in favour of continued short course teaching with some interesting ideas for developing existing courses and expanding our market. It is hoped that the next Teaching and Learning Away Day will be held in the Autumn.
 

Farnborough Field Trip
Slough Estates generously hosted a field trip to the Farnborough Business Park for Part I students. On completion, the 51 hectare Business Park will provide up to 1.67million sq ft of space in a combination of new build and refurbished historic buildings. The visit came at an interesting stage in the development process and the students were able to visit the completed Norman Foster deigned building (shown left) as well as tour the site to see "work in progress".
 

Major New Research Report
The third report in an ongoing a series of studies sponsored by Development Securities plc has now been published; Who Owns the City 2006 looks at the ownership of London office space. In an update of the 2001 report, Colin Lizieri and Nina Kutsch reveal that 45% of space - some 3 million square metres - is owned by non-UK investors. The full report is available here.

Presentation of Inaugural Loizou & Anastassiades Memorial Award
Jo-Ann Ciorra is pictured here with Pavlos Loizou receiving her Loizou & Anastassiades Memorial Award cheque for £500. Pavlos graduated from Reading in 2003 with a first class degree in Land Management and is now a graduate surveyor with CB Richard Ellis (CBRE). He was supported throughout his time at Reading by his grandparents who have since died of cancer. The family thought it would be a fitting memorial to establish the award which is open to second year Land Management students taking the "Property Management & Investment Appraisal" module. The student who achieves the highest mark in the module receives £500 and the top three students are interviewed by CBRE for the opportunity of gaining a summer internship. In this inaugural year of the award CBRE has offered two internships to Reading Land Management students; Jo-Ann Ciorra and Martin O'Donovan. Pavlos said "We are confident that this award will be beneficial both to the Department and, more importantly, to the students." Speaking on behalf of the Department of Real Estate & Planning, Colin Lizieri said "we would like to extend our thanks to Pavlos and his family for establishing this valuable award and to congratulate Jo-Ann on being the first winner". 

Promotions for Real Estate & Planning Staff
Following the recent round of academic promotions, it is a great pleasure to report that two members of staff from Real Estate & Planning have been promoted to Senior Lecturer. Joe Doak joined the Department in 1992 and is Director of Postgraduate Planning Programmes. He is currently leading a 3 year EPSRC-funded project researching the role of private sector investment in brownfield development as part of the ‘Sustainable Urban Brownfield Regeneration: Integrated Management’ (SUBR:IM) research consortium. After several years in practice and working at other universities Pat McAllister joined the Department in 1998. His principal research interests are in appraisal methods and processes where he has been involved in a number of research projects examining the appraisal of flexi-leases, liquidity, appraisal smoothing, the appraisal of serviced offices and bias in forecasting real estate markets. He is also Director of Flexible MSc Real Estate programmes with responsibility for the on-going development of our flexible block release programmes.

New Visiting Professor
We are very pleased to announce that the University has appointed Professor David Ling as a Visiting Professor from 1 August 2006. David Ling is William D. Hussey Professor of Real Estate and Director of the Center for Real Estate Studies in the Warrington College of Business at the University of Florida.

David is one of America’s leading real estate academics. He is both a Fellow and faculty member of the Weimer School of Advanced Studies in Real Estate; a Fellow of Real Estate Research Institute; an Academic Fellow of the Urban Land Institute; a Fellow of the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (FRICS), and has recently served as a Distinguished Fellow of The National Association of Industrial and Office Properties. During 2000 he was President of the American Real Estate and Urban Economics Association (AREUEA). Until recently he was co-editor of Real Estate Economics, which is the Association's journal.

At the University of Florida he teaches courses in commercial real estate finance and investment at the graduate level. His academic and professional publications have included articles on housing policy and economics, mortgage markets and pricing, private commercial real estate investments, publicly traded real estate companies, and performance evaluation. Colleagues in Real Estate & Planning are looking forward to working much more closely with David over the next few years.
 

CoreNet Global UK/Nelson Bakewell Student Essay Award
Thomas Dowman, a third year student from Real Estate & Planning has won the £1,000 CoreNet Global UK/Nelson Bakewell Student Essay Award. Thomas's essay, entitledExtras on the Side, Please,  was published in Estates Gazette in February. His essay focuses on changes to accounting standards relating to surplus property and how and why these changes might affect the way corporates regard such property and call for possible changes to lease structure, length and future flexibility. Thomas (on the left) pictured here at the award ceremony with Andrew Holden of Nelson Bakewell, said "I would like to thank Nelson Bakewell for sponsoring the award and The Estates Gazette for publishing my essay.  I am proud to bring this prize back to the University of Reading and I hope I have underlined the impact of changing accounting standards on surplus corporate real estate."

One Man's Efforts to Strengthen Japanese-British Relationships
Dr Gavin Parker (centre, lower row) has been awarded a research fellowship to Seikei University in Japan to study community governance issues. This follows on from Gavin's three month fellowship at the University of Tokyo in 2005. That award, funded by the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science, allowed him to study common resource management and community agriculture in Japan. The latest fellowship has been awarded for the Winter 2006-07 and will involve the study of local examples of community led schemes. As part of what will be a busy time in Japan he is expected to write and present a short article and a full research paper. 

Another Expert?
Colin Lizieri has been appointed to the expert panel for the Barker Review of Land Use Planning for the Chancellor and the Deputy Prime Minister. Kate Barker has been invited to consider how planning policy and procedures can best deliver economic growth and prosperity alongside other sustainable development goals. The panel, consisting of the great and good (and Colin), will provide expert advice in assessing submissions and commenting on analytic work by the review team.The interim report is due in the summer of 2006 with the final report expected later in the year.

Bidwells Property Advisers Sponsor Student Project
Bidwells, the Cambridge based property advisers, recently sponsored an Investment Appraisal Project for students on the MSc Real Estate programme. Seven teams of students prepared presentations on various investment types from equities to property. The top three teams shared a prize of £1000 donated by Bidwells. The photograph shows students from the winning teams together with representatives from Bidwells and the Department.

Much Anticipated Report Published
The final report of the 2 year research study into commercial property leases has now been published by the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister. The research team, Neil Crosby and Cathy Hughes from Real Estate & Planning and Sandi Murdoch from Law, have been monitoring the operation of the 2002 Code of Practice for Commercial Leases. The full text of the final report is available here.
 

Term Dates

Session 2006 - 2007

Autumn Term 
Monday 9 October 2006 (Tuesday 3 October 2006 for new students) – Friday 15 December 2006
Spring Term 
Monday 15 January 2007  -  Friday 23 March 2007
Summer Term 
Monday 23 April 2007  –  Thursday 28 June 2007

Autumn Term 
Monday 8 October 2007 (Monday 1 October 2007 for new students) – Friday 14 December 2007
Spring Term 
Monday 7 January 2008  -  Friday 14 March 2008
Summer Term 
Monday 14 April 2008  –  Thursday 20 June 2008

Autumn Term
Monday 6 October 2008 (Monday 29 September 2008 for new students) - Friday 12 December 2008
Spring Term
Monday 12 January 2009 – Friday 20 March 2009
Summer Term
Monday 20 April 2009 – Friday 26 June 2009

Autumn Term
Monday 5 October 2009 (Monday 28 September for new students) - Friday 11 December 2009
Spring Term
Monday 11 January 2010 – Friday 19 March 2010
Summer Term
Monday 19 April 2010 – Friday 25 June 2010