Northern Ireland Conference

RICS NI Annual Conference: “Building Value in a Changing Market”

Innovation, Insight and Impact - Bringing together the key professionals within the built and natural environment. 

Overview

The built and natural environment is changing faster than at any point in a generation and Northern Ireland’s surveying profession sits at the centre of it.  The annual RICS NI Conference 2026 brings together practitioners from across the industry to examine what this accelerating change means for how we build value in a changing market.

Northern Ireland’s housing system is under strain, where viability, retrofit and evolving building standards are reshaping professional practice.  For valuers, the paused Reval2026 raises questions about certainty and methodology in a challenging external environment.  In commercial property, changing occupier demand, growing ESG requirements, and the renewal of our town and city centres demand fresh thinking.  Across infrastructure, capacity constraints at NI Water are restricting development, while grid investment and the decarbonisation agenda will define what Northern Ireland can physically deliver over the next decade.

All of this is made more complicated by the rapid adoption of artificial intelligence and data-driven tools meaning that the pace of change is no longer a challenge for the future, it’s today’s operating environment.

Content

• AI in Practice: Building the Judgement Your Profession Now Demands - RICS's new professional standard on responsible AI use became effective on 9 March 2026. It requires members to develop and maintain sufficient knowledge to support responsible AI system use, but it doesn't tell you how. This session bridges that gap. Drawing on nearly thirty years of building technology for people who do real work in the built environment, Richard Scott cuts through the noise to show what AI actually is today, what it can do for surveying practice, and how to develop the judgement that turns compliance into genuine capability. Practical, grounded, and opportunity focused.
• PwC - How does PwC provide local and cross-border support to clients and exploring PwC’s perspectives on the evolving dynamics between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland, and how this is shaping investment, delivery, and opportunity across the island.
• Shannon McCluskey, QUB (RICS NI Research Excellence Awards Winner) - Dissertation title: Assessing the Implications of Adaptive Reuse in Regenerating Heritage Buildings: A Study of Barbour Threads Mill, Lisburn.
• Renewable Energy (Panel Discussion) - Northern Ireland has committed to 80% renewable energy by 2030, but delivery remains the principal challenge.  This panel brings together leading voices from policy, industry and the built environment to examine what’s needed to close the gap: grid capacity, planning reform, investment certainty and skills.
• Drones & Slam Scanners – As Surveyors, have you ever measured a property, drawn up your notes back at the office and realized you missed a critical wall thickness or ceiling height? Or faced a building condition survey where parapets, chimneys and roof valleys were simply impossible to inspect without quoting for scaffolding or a cherry picker?

Learning outcomes