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Melbourne University, Australia

2005 - The 11th Annual PRRES Conference in Melbourne, Australia

Property Investment
January 23 - 27, 2005
Melbourne University, Australia

Conference Summary

Welcome to the 11th annual PRRES conference in Melbourne.  Melbourne was the venue for the first conference held under the name of PRRES in January 1995 at RMIT. Previous conferences were held under the auspices of the Australian Real Estate Educators.  The annual PRRES conference circuit has become an established forum for regional and international property researchers. 

Potential Topics

Strong links have grown between the members of the International Real Estate Society (IRES) of which PRRES is a member.  Other members of the IRES network include the American (ARES), European (ERES), Asian (AsRES), African (AfRES), Latin American (LaRES) and Middle East (MeRES) Real Estate Societies.  The various Society meetings provide many opportunities for researchers who desire a forum to present their work and develop joint research projects with colleagues in other countries and regions.

Since its inception PRRES has sought to develop links with the property industry.  This is evident from the continuing sponsorship relationship that is now in place with API (the Australian Property Institute), NZPI (New Zealand Property Institute) and RICS (Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors).  The inclusion of a specific industry forum as a keynote conference session, such as the Round Table on Thursday, has also become an important feature of our three-day event.

The PRRES journal, Pacific Rim Property Research Journal, now published four times a year, which together with the annual conference is a key element of PRRES’s strategic objective to promote and foster property research in our region.  A special edition of the journal will be devoted to the conference theme ‘property investment’.  Details of the call for papers for the special edition are included in this program.

We congratulate the joint conference hosts; the University of Melbourne, Monash and RMIT universities and the organising committee for their efforts in organising this conference.  We wish all participants a successful and enjoyable conference.

2005 Conference Gallery

Peer Review

PRRES 2005 is offering double blind review of full papers. These papers will be published on the PRRES Inc. website

Thank you to our conference organisers

Proceedings from the 11th Annual Conference PRRES Conference

Delegate Papers

Papers shown as "refereed" have been refereed through a peer review process involving an expert international board of referees headed by Dr Dulani Halvitigala. Full papers were refereed with authors being required to make any changes prior to presentation at the conference and subsequent publication as a refereed paper in these proceedings.   Non-refereed presentations may be presented at the conference without a full paper and hence not all non-refereed presentations and/or papers appear in these proceedings.  All authors retain the copyright in their individual papers.

Keynote Speakers

Professor Neil Crosby

Professor Neil Crosby

Neil Crosby, Ph.D, ARICS is Professor of Real Estate in the Department of Real Estate and Planning at the University of Reading.

He is a Chartered Surveyor with experience of property management and valuation practice as well as a long academic career at Nottingham Trent and Oxford Brookes Universities, before moving to Reading in 1994.

He specializes in commercial property appraisal and the commercial Landlord and Tenant relationship and has undertaken a series of major research studies funded by the UK Government and the UK property industry in these areas since his return to Reading. In 2002 he was awarded the International Real Estate Society’s annual achievement award for his work in real estate research, education and practice.

He is a frequent speaker on property valuation related topics at international and national academic conferences and has given keynote addresses at the World Valuation Congress, mainly for practitioners, and The Pacific Rim Real Estate Society Conference, mainly for academics, both in Australia.

He sits or has sat on various education and research committees for the Investment Property Forum, Property Valuation Forum and the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors and sits on the editorial boards of three of the major international academic real estate journals. He was the academic member of both the two major RICS committees which have examined property valuations in the last 10 years, the Mallinson Committee in 1994 and the Carsberg Committee in 2001 and has recently sat on the Editorial Board of the new 2003 Red Book.

Crocker Liu

Crocker Liu

Crocker Liu, Associate Professor of Finance. BBA Real Estate/Finance (1976) University of Hawaii, MS Real Estate (1980) Wisconsin, PhD Finance/Real Estate (1988) Texas. Professor Liu joined the Stern School of Business in 1988. He is currently the Co-Editor of the Journal of Real Estate Economics, and is on the editorial board of the Journal of Property Research. He also was on the editorial board of the Journal of Real Estate Finance and Economics and the Journal of Real Estate Finance. He currently serves on the advisory board of the Real Estate Research Institute. He has served on the board of directors of the American Real Estate and Urban Economics Association (AREUEA).

His research interests are focused on issues in real estate finance, particularly topics related to agency, organizational forms, market efficiency, and valuation. His research has been published in the Review of Financial Studies, the Journal of Financial Economics, the Journal of Business, the Journal of Financial and Quantiative Analysis, the Real Estate Economics Journal (formerly known as the AREUEA Journal) and the Journal of Real Estate Finance and Economics.

Professor Liu won the AREUEA doctoral dissertation award and also won a 1991 postdoctoral award from the Homer Hoyt's Weimer School of Advanced Studies in Real Estate and Land Economics. He has received the "Best Research Paper Award" from the American Real Estate and Urban Economics Association in 1992 (co-authored with Aswath Damodaran), and 1993-1994 (co-authored with Jianping Mei). In addition to this, Crocker is the past winner of the Wiley Award (1990) for Best Paper in the Journal of Real Estate Research and was named Undergraduate Teacher of the Year (1996-1997 and also 2001- 2002) and Executive MBA in Finance Teacher of the Year (1997, 1999). In 1999, he became a Distinguished Teaching Fellow.

He has been a professional realtor in Hawaii for a number of years and was a Vice President with Prudential Real Estate Investment Group. He has consulted with RREEF, Milliman and Robertson, and Standard and Poors among others.

Michael A. Goldberg

Michael A. Goldberg

Michael A. Goldberg is the Herbert R. Fullerton Professor of Urban Land Policy in the Sauder School of Business and the Associate Vice President International at the University of British Columbia. He was Dean (1991-97), and at UBC since 1968 after finishing a PhD in Economics at the University of California at Berkeley.

He has been Chair of the Real Estate Foundation (1988- 91) and a governor (1985-92); was a Commissioner of the British Columbia Housing Management Commission (1989-1992); was a member of the Deposit Insurance Advisory Committee serving Canada’s Minister of Finance (1992-94); is a member of the Investment Committee of the B.C. Workers Compensation Board; is or was on the Boards of Directors of Redekop Properties (1994- 2000), Catamaran Ferries International (1996-97); Imperial Parking Ltd. (1991-94); Vancouver Land Corporation (1991-93) and of Lend Lease Global Properties Fund (2001- present). He was the Chair (1992-94) (Vice-Chair 1991-92) of the Canadian Federation of Deans of Management and Administrative Studies, and on the International Marketing Committee of the American Assembly of Collegiate Schools of Business (1993-7).

His research has continued to focus on cities and real estate markets, increasingly in an international setting as in his book The Chinese Connection: Getting Plugged in to Pacific Rim Real Estate, Trade and Capital Markets, (Vancouver: UBC Press, 1985) which examines real estate investment behaviour of Southeast Asian ethnic Chinese. He has also worked widely in housing and property markets and policy, advising businesses, trade associations and governments at all levels around the world on housing and real estate. In sum, he has wholly or partly authored 9 books and more than 200 academic and professional articles largely dealing with facets of real estate and urban/regional economic analysis and policy.

C. F. Sirmans

C. F. Sirmans

C. F. Sirmans is the William N. Kinnard, Jr. Professor of Real Estate and Finance and Director of the Real Estate Center at the University of Connecticut. He has also taught at the University of Illinois, University of Georgia and Louisiana State University.

He has published articles in numerous real estate, finance and economics journals including the Journal of Financial Economics, Journal of Finance, Quarterly Journal of Economics, Review of Economics and Statistics, Real Estate Economics, Journal of Law and Economics, Journal of Legal Studies, Journal of Real Estate Finance and Economics, Journal of Urban Economics, and others.

His research interests include spatio-temporal modeling of real estate prices, real estate securitization and real property law and economics. He has served as a consultant to a variety of real estate professional associations, government agencies and real estate firms.

Professor Sirmans specializes in the analysis of real estate. He has written, lectured, and consulted extensively on a wide range of real estate topics, including real estate investments, mortgages, lease valuation, and housing.

Sirmans_Trends_In_Real_Estate_Research.pdf Sirmans_Trends_In_Real_Estate_Research.pdf (44kB)

Property Industry Round Table

Anthony De Francesco (Chair)

Anthony De Francesco is Head of Research at Colonial First State Property. He is responsible for developing House views on (direct and listed) property markets and undertaking strategic research on property investment.

Anthony has over 10 years experience in various research roles, including 5 years in property research. Anthony is involved in client presentations and seminars. Anthony’s research experience involved reviewing international markets (both economic and property fundamentals).

Prior to joining CFSP Anthony was Senior Quantitative Analyst with Commsec, responsible for asset allocation modelling. Prior to this, Anthony worked at Lend Lease for over three years where he was Head of Research.

David Rees

David Rees

Director – Investment Strategy, Knight Frank

David is responsible for the research activities of Knight Frank in the Australasian region. The purpose of research is to provide information and insights to commercial and institutional clients, as well as to assist them in the development of optimal strategies for the management and performance of their property assets.

Prior to joining Knight Frank David was at Commonwealth Bank where he was Head of Investment Strategy, responsible for advising on investment opportunities across the major asset classes – property, shares, bonds and a range of other securities.

David has an extensive background in research and investment banking. He is involved in the education programs of the Securities Institute of Australia and the Property Council of Australia, as well as providing corporate briefings to a range of financial and corporate clients.

Rees_Australian_Property_Market_Economic_Overview.pdf Rees_Australian_Property_Market_Economic_Overview.pdf (764kB)

Nick Vrondas

Nick Vrondas

Current role (since 2000):

Joint Head of Real Estate Equities Research at Goldman Sachs JBWere. Researching and analysing listed property securities such as Stockland, Mirvac, Investa and Multiplex along with a specialisation in Office trusts such as ING Office and Commonwealth Property Office.  Nick also covers US related trust Macquarie ProLogis and has a special interest in US related Australian listed securities.  Nick is responsible for a team of 4 analysts.

Former roles: (1998-2000)

Senior Analyst covering the Office and Industrial sectors.at Burdett Buckeridge & Young.  

(1993-1998) JLW Advisory in the role of Economist and Econometrician with a view to establishing econometric models for forecasting returns in most of the national property sub-markets, and to establish performance monitoring models for those markets.

Education:  B Ec (Economics and Econometrics) University of New South Wales

Vrondas_Australian_Reit_Sector.pdf Vrondas_Australian_Reit_Sector.pdf (140kB)

Trent Alston

Trent Alston

General Manager, Wholesale Funds

Trent oversees the operation of 10 wholesale funds and two mandates that total over $7 billion of investment grade real estate assets under management. In this role, he has overall responsibility for developing Colonial First State Property’s unlisted property funds management business. Trent commenced with Colonial First State Property in July 1998.

With over 15 years experience, Trent has held a number of senior management positions within the group including Fund Manager of several funds and more recently General Manager of Colonial First State Property Corporate Portfolios.

In November 2001, Trent was appointed General Manager, Corporate Portfolios, responsible for the strategic planning, implementation and management of Commonwealth Bank of Australia’s 1,000,000sqm property portfolio. Trent was previously with Lend Lease for 13 years, working across both domestic and international projects in various roles including project manager, developer, investor and fund manager.

Alston_Wholesale_Funds.pdf Alston_Wholesale_Funds.pdf (515kB)

Bill Grounds

Bill Grounds

General Manager Unlisted Funds at Investa Property Group. The Unlisted Funds business has approximately $1b of property funds under management across eight property syndicates and two wholesale funds.

Investa is one of Australia’s largest property companies and is the largest listed owner of commercial office buildings in Australia and is the fourth largest property syndicator.

Prior to Investa Bill held various project and senior management positions during his 14 years at Lend Lease including Project Director Stage1 Olympic Games Projects, General Manger NSW and Executive Director of Civil & Civic and Lend Lease Property Services.

Grounds_Property_Syndicates.pdf Grounds_Property_Syndicates.pdf (454kB)

Peter Studley

Peter Studley

Peter is Head of Research for DB RREEF a major property investment group managed in partnership with Deutsche Bank. He is responsible for investment strategy and the view on real estate markets across the Asia Pacific region.

Peter holds a Masters of Applied finance and an Associate Diploma in Valuation. He is an associate of the Australian Property Institute and an active member on the Property Council of Australia Capital Markets Committee (NSW). His previous roles have been in the fields of property finance and economics.

The DB RREEF group manages more than 200 properties throughout Australia and the US valued at more than nine billion dollars. This puts them in the top six property fund managers in Australia. Along with a variety of private property funds and syndicates, DB RREEF manages DB RREEF Trust, a diversified stapled entity on the Australian Stock Exchange.

Studley_Stapled_Securities.pdf Studley_Stapled_Securities.pdf (93kB)