Property Journal: January-February 2020

Real estate has to get creative with space. So, this new-year issue explores buildings from under the ground to above the roof, looking at planning for mega basements and extensions into airspace – which are fast becoming essential in space-hungry, land-poor cities around the world.

We need to think about sustainability creatively, too: smarter buildings that are energy-positive thanks to generation, storage and distribution of solar electricity and heat are one innovation, as demonstrated by an exemplar project at Swansea University. Meanwhile, researchers in Australia are looking at cutting waste during office strip-outs by applying the principles of the circular economy to re-use and recycle fixtures and fittings.

But sustainability involves people as well as buildings, and research into behavioural change and energy savings in Jes Rutter’s article shows how effective this can be. What could you do to encourage people to be more energy-conscious?

In a globalised real-estate sector, more property professionals are coming across Islamic finance in property transactions, and in this issue Sharifah Bakar-Ali explains how this process works. There’s also an important update for valuers about material uncertainty and when to declare it.

A case study in this issue meanwhile shows that digital transformation – however daunting it may sound – is just a matter of researching and trying out the right apps for your business. Could 2020 be the year to streamline the way you do business, using some of the many cloud-enabled products that are out there? Talking of apps, if you like to read the journal online, you can try downloading the free Issuu app from Google or Apple Play to your device, to give you a better experience.

Don’t forget to keep your skills up to date this year as well as your apps – RIC offers many opportunities for continuous professional development all year, whether face-to-face or online. And if you have knowledge you’d like to share yourself, please do get in touch with Property Journal.

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