0 comments - Add comment
I welcomed, with open arms, the new AssocRICS for Residential Managers and even more so the common sense solution that Members of the Institute of Residential Property Management (MIRPM) can transfer their qualification across.
Going forward, however, it will be the Betamax / VHS debate on which will prevail. Can the world of residential management accommodate both? Personally I am sceptical both would coexist.
At Chainbow, for example, a couple of our staff members will move over to AssocRICS and we will wait to see which organisation will prevail. In reality, this will be a short exercise because, being a long standing RICS Fellow, my natural home lies there and I would want my staff in the same fold.
Why would a firm pay two subscriptions and why wouldn’t the market want to see standardisation? Of course in dealing with the general public, the amount of media coverage, awareness and standing of the RICS does make the debate an easier win.
However, for the RICS to gain that stranglehold and take on board the mantle of residential property professionalism it needs a desire to be in that position. When I was involved with the RICS (mind you, over 20 years ago) there was always a reluctance to step into the residential arena for fear members would be thought of as estate agents. The bit that made no sense to me was that even then the public perception of a chartered Surveyor was an estate agent or a person with a theodolite!
Not a lot has changed in the intervening two decades (apart from hair loss and a couple of divorces)! The RICS has taken enormous strides in broadening awareness of chartered surveyors but despite its best efforts the public still think surveyors are estate agents!
My conclusion is that we should band together for the greater good and get behind the RICS to make a class of professionalism and standing hitherto unseen in residential management. Fingers-crossed the RICS do want to lead.
28 Jul 2011 12:27:55