Maximise Your Property Assets

Citation

McAllister, P. (2005), "Maximise Your Property Assets", Journal of Property Investment & Finance, Vol. 23 No. 4, pp. 386-387. https://doi.org/10.1108/jpif.2005.23.4.386.1

Academics delivering university courses in built environment subjects can be torn between the need to find a compromise between the sometimes conflicting requirements of education and training. In delivering courses in property management, we are often trying to strike a balance between taking an academically rigorous approach to the subject and providing materials that connect directly to chosen career paths. Often our students legitimately and understandably desire professional relevance. As academics we, equally legitimately, emphasise educational development. The aspiration to academic depth can be frustrated by the fact that professional roles and responsibilities can be diverse and multi‐disciplinary. The necessary breadth of skills can often preclude depth creating a risk of superficiality. At the core of academic enquiry is the question: “Why?” Why did outsourcing/privatisation/internationalisation emerge as a powerful force for change in the real estate sector? Why did real estate market participants and institutions react in certain ways? Why did certain changes occur or fail to occur? While this type of approach can be educationally valuable and stimulating, too much emphasis on these issues can preclude the development of practical skills creating a risk of irrelevance to professional activities.

John Organ's book most definitely provides materials that are closely linked to practical, real world, day‐to‐day problems and tasks that property managers deal with on a routine basis. It is an extremely readable text written in an informal, accessible manner. While attempting to provide “an occupiers (sic) guide to commercial property”, it is organised into seven sections: property as a business asset, running the portfolio, ways to reduce the cost base, managing the properties, extracting cash from the portfolio, disposals and acquisitions. The stress on providing practical guidance is reinforced by the use of 17 brief and illuminating case studies which are spread throughout the text to reinforce the analysis.

The book has no pretensions to be an academic text – there are few references and no bibliography. Its main weakness lies in its attempt to provide to cover all the bases. The result is that in places the discussion can be too thin. I suspect that it may be better to leave a review of planning processes and sources and types of finance to more detailed texts. However, I found the review of the various tax issues that affect managers useful. While the quoting of current figures and rates will quickly date the book, it passes the test of inclusion in the reading list. I will recommend that students read the book to find a generally user‐friendly, entertaining introduction to the roles and responsibilities of the property managers. However, I will also recommend that they buy the book as an invaluable aid to preparation to the RICS' Assessment of Professional Competence.

Finally, there remains a gap for a textbook on property management that can comprehensively integrate the ample theoretical material on management and the practical management tasks performed by property managers. In addition to the traditional material on property management, such a text also needs to include in‐depth discussions of health and safety issues, the implications of corporate social responsibility and socially responsible investment, environmental management systems, tenant failure (administration and receivership), procurement strategies, the use of IT systems, corporate property outsourcing inter alia. I suspect other readers can add to the list. Perhaps such a task is beyond a single individual and we need a multi‐contributor edited text.