Recommended CPD topics

• Fire and building safety (UK-specific legislation, regulation and competence requirements)
• The role of surveyors when acting as party representatives (such as a surveyor advocate)

• Fire and building safety (including local legislation, regulations and competence requirements)
• RICS Sustainability Report 2025: trends, outcomes and relevance to your area of practice
• The responsible use of artificial intelligence (AI) in surveying advice
• Practical steps for compliance around countering financial crime: bribery, corruption, money laundering, terrorist financing and sanctions violations
• Considering diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) in professional surveying advice and for your firm
• Contemporary consideration and management of conflicts of interest
• AI in Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR)
• Modern approaches and requirements for surveyors acting as expert witnesses

• Red Book UK national supplement: UK VPS 3 regulated purpose valuations and rotation (end of transition period)
• Test for negligence: Bratt v Jones [2025] EWCA Civ 562
• Impacts of UK MEES and EPCs on valuation considerations

• Asset valuation, including CIPFA rules and public sector valuation governance

• Secured lending valuation of properties in multi-storey, multi-occupancy residential buildings with cladding
• Residential property valuation for owner occupation

• Valuation of assets in the UK commercial renewable energy sector
• Valuation of UK licensed leisure property
• Valuation of UK medical centres and surgery premises

• Market and macroeconomic drivers of valuations: impacts of interest rates, debt market conditions and related factors
• Valuation methods and models, including DCF modelling, treatment of incentives, use of valuation software and automation, and the Depreciated Replacement Cost (DRC) method
• ESG and sustainability in valuation (commercial property, residential property and other assets), including valuing secondary assets that do not meet regulatory requirements, impacts of green leases, and income/efficiencies/costs from sustainability improvements
• IOSCO statement (November 2025) on the importance of high-value valuation information in financial reporting
• IVSC IVS exposure draft
• AI in real estate valuation
• Contemporary considerations and approaches to comparable evidence in real estate valuation
• Valuation compliance systems and documentation
• Valuation/professional risk and governance
• Practical application of VPS 1 to 6 of RICS Valuation – Global Standards (Red Book Global Standards), including terms of engagement and reporting
• Managing valuation uncertainty, material valuation uncertainty (MVU) and MVU declarations
• Financial reporting valuation: fair value measurement, practical application of IFRS 13/IAS 40, audit interaction and valuation scrutiny, and impacts of amended FRS 102 on valuation
• Bank lending valuations and mortgage lending value
• Bank lending: Basel 3.1 prudently conservative valuation criteria adjustments

• Grenfell Inquiry report and subsequent recommendations
• Building Safety Act
• Comparing NEC and JCT contracts
• Joint Contract Tribunal updates
• Regulated Asset Base (RAB) model finance
• Risks around existing site and structures (as in John Sisk and Son Ltd v Capital & Centric (Rose))
• Limitation periods and procedural time limits (as in Galliford Try Construction Ltd v Arcadis Consulting (UK) Ltd & Ors (2025))
• Termination clauses in the JCT Design and Build Contract (as in Providence Building Services Limited v Hexagon Housing Association Limited 2024)
• Policy development and possible establishment of a single construction regulator

• AI in construction
• ISO 19650-6: organisation and digitisation of information about buildings and civil engineering works, including building information modelling (BIM)
• Modern health and safety considerations
• All risks insurance
• Infrastructure cost auditing
• Global construction principles
• QS and PM construction practice guidance
• Data centre construction considerations

• Home survey standard
• Service charge residential management code
• Stock condition surveys: ensuring quality of existing social housing
• Residential retrofit and UK Minimum Energy Efficiency Standards (MEES)
• Creating new homes: government targets for 1.5 million new homes and new towns
• Home buying and selling process, including right to buy, stamp duty changes, capacity issues, material information and regulatory schemes. Industry focus on improving transparency, consumer protection and industry standards
• Residential tenancy reform: implications of the Renters Rights Act and advice for landlords
• New Decent Homes Standard (social and private rent)
• The background and application of Awaab's Law (note: the extension to the Private Rented Sector date is yet to be confirmed)
• (England and Wales) Leasehold and commonhold reform, including management, valuation and investment
• Housing disrepair

• Flooding and other physical risks and their implications for property professionals
• Creating new, accessible and high-quality homes, including in high-demand and challenging areas
• Damp and mould (moisture movement)
• Fire safety advice for landlords in rented and shared accommodation
• Domestic air source heat pumps
• Sustainability for residential property
• Residential auctions

• Landlord and tenant reform in England and Wales
• Business rates reform

• Alternative and specialist assets: data centres, life sciences, defence and clean energy — growth sectors with developing policy, regulatory and investment landscapes
• Accurately assessing climate-related risks in urban commercial property portfolios, particularly in respect of small and mid-sized properties
• Flooding and other physical risks and their implications for property professionals
• Commercial property service charges and the requirements of global standards
• Digital risks in buildings

• Building Safety Act (England and Wales), including dutyholder roles and competence requirements
• Principal Designer (Building Regulations), including forms of consultant appointment
• Spray foam roof insulation
• Defect liability extension
• Building Safety Regulator applications and legislative changes, including Gateways
• PFI asset hand-back surveys
• Changes to Approved Documents (England and Wales)
• Compliance Plan Manager (Scotland)
• Changes to the Technical Handbook (Scotland)
• Verifiers competence (Scotland)
• Wales and Northern Ireland: variance to England in legislation, regulations and guidance post-Grenfell
• Building pathology
• The background and application of Awaab's Law
• Modern methods of construction
• The circular economy applied to specification writing
• Climate change and climate resilience applied to specification writing

• Fire safety advice for homeowners, occupiers and residents
• Fire safety advice for landlords in rented and shared accommodation
• Domestic air source heat pumps
• Reinforced Autoclaved Aerated Concrete (RAAC) and supporting client and consumer professional enquiries
• Damp and mould (moisture movement)
• Reinforced concrete transfer slabs in buildings

• Environmental Land Management Scheme (England) and equivalent schemes for the devolved nations
• Regenerative agriculture
• Carbon developments: Biodiversity Net Gain, Nutrient Neutrality and Carbon Credits
• Implications of natural capital projects on land value
• Trade agreements and their implications for the UK agricultural sector
• UK inheritance tax: implications for those in the agricultural sector
• Developments in the tenant farming sector: work of the UK Farm Tenancy Forum
• Options and leases for renewable energy schemes
• Rural housing, including provision
• Energy efficiency of rural housing and retrofit
• Compulsory purchase: overview of developments and UK legislation changes
• Utilities: access, wayleaves and easements, including telecoms
• Woodland and forests: valuation and developments in the sector related to carbon, including available grants
• Sporting rights and land use
   

Note for members outside the UK: a substantial proportion of the rural membership is UK-based. If you are based outside the UK, you may wish to refer to the UK topics and apply them in the jurisdictional context of your local market.

• Relevant legal updates
• Relevant planning updates: National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF) changes following consultation and their implications for the rural sector

• Minerals: UK aggregates supply chain and its role in the delivery of UK housing and infrastructure plans
• UK minerals and waste industry decarbonisation and responsible sourcing of primary and recycled materials
• Marine minerals considerations for surveyors in the UK
• Waste Exemption Charges and Water Management: water infrastructure and construction effects on wastewater
• Fight against waste crime and ways to combat it

• International land performance
• Resource management: improving efficiency and reducing waste
• Circular economy: a consistent approach to sustainability and carbon assessment in the minerals and waste sector (Whole Life Carbon)

• (England) Assessing viability in planning under the National Planning Policy Framework: current and developing legislation and policy
• Valuation of land for affordable housing
• New towns: opportunities and challenges
• Land agreements for development purposes
• Assessing biodiversity net gain in urban development

• Digital transformation of geospatial surveying: BIM, digital twins and data integration
• Reality capture and automation: UAVs, mobile mapping and AI-enabled processing
• Data governance, ethics and professional standards in geospatial practice
• Geospatial data for sustainability, ESG and climate resilience
• Commercial awareness and client value in a changing market

• Boundary disputes, working with Land Registry and Determined Boundary submissions
• Expert witness (specialist): in court and with UTT
• Party walls (pending practice guidance)

• New UK telecoms legislation: what the 2026 regulatory shift means in practice
• Electronic Communications Code (ECC): upgrades, sharing rights and ADR
• Data centres as critical national infrastructure: regulation, planning and resilience
• Expert witness and dispute resolution for telecoms in a changing tribunal landscape
• Telecoms valuation: applying the Red Book Global Standards and the telecoms practice guidance
• Telecoms code of practice (for agents and landowners)

Recommended topics are suggestions to help guide your CPD. They are not mandatory. You are free to choose your own topics, provided they are relevant and appropriate to your work and have a clear learning outcome.

No. Some topics may be listed against your professional sector but may not be relevant to your specific area of practice. If a topic does not apply to your work, you do not need to undertake CPD on it. RICS has three mandatory CPD topics set out in the CPD rules: RICS global professional and ethical standards; sustainability; and AI, data and technology. You can find example CPD for these here.

RICS has content related to many of these topics across rics.org, our journals and the Online Learning Academy, including both free and paid resources. Further support is also available through the member CPD support package.

In addition to the sector-specific content, the 'Whole profession' section covers topics relevant to many members across different areas. If you cannot find topics relevant to your work, explore other RICS resources and those of other providers.