HONG KONG -- (BUSINESS WIRE) --

The built environment sector must do more to make real estate assets work harder to stimulate sustainable growth.

This was the message from Dr. Lawrence Summers, former United States Secretary of the Treasury under US President Bill Clinton and former chair of President Barack Obama’s National Council of Economic Advisers. He delivered the opening address at the first RICS World Built Environment Forum* in Washington DC on 4 April 2016.

Dr. Summers underlined the built environment’s central role in ensuring sustainable growth. He expected historically low interest rates and high levels of saving rates, combined with low rates of investment to continue for some time. But “we are underinvesting in energy efficiency” he says despite the very significant threat posed by climate change. The nations represented at last year’s climate summit in Paris “did more than expected” but not yet enough, says Dr. Summers.

Dr. Summers argued that governments were “missing an opportunity” to invest in much-needed infrastructure renewal. He cited political and investor doubts that projects will be delivered on time and within budget as an important factor in underinvestment. This is a key area where built environment sector professionals could make a significant contribution.

He also pointed out that sector professionals are well-positioned to boost market confidence, trust and transparency through professional standards, financial innovation and appropriate levels of regulation as long as they are able to take a longer-term view.

Given the importance of investment capital flows, Dr. Summers expects future inter-governmental trade agreements to be less about access to markets and more about responsible business practices, notably transparency, ethics, and measures against corruption and money laundering.

RICS Chief Executive Officer, Sean Tompkins says that Dr. Summers struck the right chord by challenging the built environment sector to think of the broader responsibility to the global economy.

“Dr. Summers touched on key issues that are crucial to our sector and our profession. Transparency, ethics, and sustainability are all priorities for RICS as a leader and regulator of professionals around the world. We are working with others to develop international standards to promote market transparency and ethics for the property sector. Dr. Summers threw down the gauntlet for us to work in the interest of more sustainable growth in our sector. We are eager to pick up that gauntlet,” said RICS Chief Executive Officer, Sean Tompkins.

The RICS Economics team has analysed a number of key themes that emerged from Dr. Summers’ remarks and have crafted a response on what this means for professionals and the sector more broadly. Read RICS Senior Economist Jeff Matsu’s response here.

Note to editors:

* The RICS World Built Environment Forum (WBEF) is a global network of built environment professionals and their stakeholders aimed at combining knowledge, skills and resources to create and manage the built environment that global populations need. It sets the standard for dialogue and co-operation that is vital for our sector. The inaugural World Built Environment Forum was held at the fourth RICS Summit of the Americas in Washington DC from 3 to 5 April 2016.

See www.rics.org/wbef on Twitter See: #wbef

About RICS

Confidence through Professional Standards

RICS promotes and enforces the highest professional qualifications and standards in the development and management of land, real estate, construction and infrastructure. Our name promises the consistent delivery of standards – bringing confidence to the markets we serve.

We accredit 118,000 professionals and any individual or firm registered with RICS is subject to our quality assurance. Their expertise covers property, asset valuation, real estate management; the development of infrastructure; and the management of natural resources, such as mining, farms and woodland. From environmental assessments and building controls to negotiating land rights in an emerging economy; if our members are involved the same professional standards and ethics apply.

We believe that standards underpin effective markets. With up to seventy per cent of the world’s wealth bound up in land and real estate, our sector is vital to economic development, helping to support stable, sustainable investment and growth around the globe.

With offices covering the major political and financial centres of the world, our market presence means we are ideally placed to influence policy and embed professional standards. We work at a cross-governmental level, delivering international standards that will support a safe and vibrant marketplace in land, real estate, construction and infrastructure, for the benefit of all.

We are proud of our reputation and work hard to protect it, so clients who work with an RICS professional can have confidence in the quality and ethics of the services they receive.

About RICS Asia

RICS Asia supports a network of over 20,000 individual professionals across the Asia region with an objective to help develop the land, property and construction markets in these countries, by introducing professional standards, best practice education and training. We promote RICS and our members as the natural advisors on all property matters. We also ensure that services and career development opportunities are provided to members.

RICS Asia region serves local member associations located in Brunei, Japan, Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand, The People’s Republic of China, Hong Kong SAR, Taiwan and South Korea. It also has members working across the region such as Bangladesh, Bhutan, Burma/Myanmar, Cambodia, Indonesia, Kiribati, Laos PDR, Macao SAR, Mongolia, Nepal, North Korea, The Maldives, The Philippines, Timor East and Vietnam. For more information, please visit: www.rics.org.

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