Competency expectations for property professionals in Australia
| Date | 01 April 2014 |
| Pages | 256-281 |
| Published date | 01 April 2014 |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/JPIF-12-2013-0068 |
| Author | Joanna Poon,Michael Brownlow |
| Subject Matter | Property management & built environment,Real estate & property,Property valuation & finance |
Competency expectations for
property professionals
in Australia
Joanna Poon and Michael Brownlow
School of Management and Marketing, Faculty of Business and Law,
Deakin University, Melbourne, Australia
Abstract
Purpose – The aim of this paper is to identify the competency expectations for property
professionals in Australia. It further discusses differences in competency expectations between
property professionals who have different professional backgrounds, such as valuers or non-valuers,
and property professionals who work in different sectors or different-sized companies and who have
differing amounts of experience. The competencies identified in this paper include knowledge areas,
skills and attributes.
Design/methodology/approach – This paper presents the research findings of a questionnaire
survey sent to Australian Property Institute members, which aimed to gather Australian property
professionals’ views on the knowledge, skills and attributes required to perform their roles effectively.
The percentage of the respondents who provided different choices of given answers for each of the
31 knowledge areas, 20 skills and 21 attributes was identified and discussed. The professional
backgrounds of the respondents were also identified to see whether these impact on competency
expectations for property professionals. Content analysis was used to analyse written comments
collected in the questionnaire.
Findings – The most important categories of knowledge, skill and attribute for Australian property
professionals are valuation, effective written communication and practical experience, respectively.
The least important are international real estate, second language and creativity. Knowledge of rural
valuation is very important in Australia, although this has not been mentioned in previous studies.
Professional backgrounds have a large influence on Australian property professionals’ views on
knowledge requirements, but less so on skills and attributes.
Practical implications – The findings of this paper can be used as guidance for property
professionals in their professional development plan. In addition, property course providers can use
the research findings of this paper to inform their curriculum development and redesign.
Originality/value – This project is the first to identify the comprehensive competency expectations
of property professionals as a whole in Australia. At the same time, it identifies differences in the
competency expectations of property professionals who have different professional backgrounds.
Similar types of study have been conducted in the UK, the USA, Hong Kong and New Zealand but not
yet in Australia. An understanding of the knowledge, skills and attributes required for property
professionals is important for continuing professional development, curriculum development and the
redesign of relevant property courses in order to maintain performance and competitiveness in the
property sector.
Keywords Skills, Knowledge,Attributes, Competency expectations, Propertyprofessionals
Paper type Research paper
The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available at
www.emeraldinsight.com/1463-578X.htm
The authors gratefully acknowledge the Australian Property Institute (API)’s assistance on
distributing the online questionnaire to their members. The authors would also like to thank the
property professionals who completed the questionnaires.
Received December 2013
Accepted February 2014
Journal of Property Investment &
Finance
Vol. 32 No. 3, 2014
pp. 256-281
qEmerald Group Publishing Limited
1463-578X
DOI 10.1108/JPIF-12-2013-0068
JPIF
32,3
256
1. Introduction
The property industry is an important sector for Australia. For example, property is
the largest industry in Victoria, contributing $36.9 billion or 12.2 per cent to the gross
state product. In addition, the property sector is the second largest employer in
Victoria. It directly employs 312,165 full-time workers and their total salaries are worth
$15.7 billion (Hopkins, 2012). However, the property discipline as an area of study is
still relatively small-scale, and remarkably under-represented in public funding.
Except for those closely involved in the relevant profession, property as a discipline
also lacks recognition (Hefferan and Ross, 2010).
There have been changing demands both in the property market and for property
services in Australia since the early 1990s (Newell and Eves, 2000; Hopkins, 2012;
Hefferan, 2013). The property profession in Australia has been historically dominated
by valuation (Newell and Eves, 2000). However, only 20 per cent of property graduates
work in the valuation profession as of the early 2000s (Newell and Eves, 2000). With
the addition of other property professionals in investment, finance, development,
management, law and market analysis, property curricula have changed significantly
to reflect the changing dynamics of the property industry (Newell and Eves, 2000).
Hefferan and Ross (2010) commented that property is a growing discipline with more
and differing specialist areas being developed.
There is no lack of research discussing the need for reform of property education
in Australia in order to meet changing demands in the property sector (Boyd, 2007;
Hefferan, 2011; Hefferan and Ross, 2010; Parker, 2012). Criticism of existing property
courses centres around the fact that they may not meet the requirements of the broader
property industry, or the senior management of universities seeking to implement
federal government education policy (Parker, 2012). In addition, the underlying content
of existing property courses is mainly focused on specialist areas like valuation and
analysis, which arguably no longer suit the needs of industry, as a much wider range
of property specialism is required (Hefferan, 2011; Hefferan and Ross, 2010). Although
previous research has stated concerns about the property sector in Australia, it has
yet to identify and discuss competency requirements and expectations for property
professionals; such competencies are vital to maintain performance and
competitiveness in the property sector.
There has been extensive research into the qualities expected of property
professionals in the UK, Hong Kong, Nigeria, the USA and New Zealand (Callanan
and McCarthy, 2003; Davies et al., 1999; Oladokun, 2012; Poon et al., 2011; Weinstein and
Worzala, 2008). Gibler et al. (2002) identified the key areas of knowledge and skills
required for corporate real estate managers in Australia, Hong Kong, the UK and the
USA. Warren and Heng (2005) explored whether the skills sets demanded by industry
aligned with the knowledge sets offered by educational institutions for facilities
managers in the UK, the USA and Australia. Whilst these two studies investigated
the competency expectations for property professionals in Australia, they concentrated
on particular professional areas. In addition, these studies only focused on the
requirement for knowledge and skills.
The Australian Government has placed great emphasis on the development
of employability skills for more than a decade (DEST, ACCI and BCA, 2002; DIICCSRT
and DEEWR, 2013; Precision Consultancy, 2007). DEST, ACCI and BCA (2002)
identified new requirements for generic employability competencies that industry
Competency
expectations
257
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