A new international measurement standard will soon offer more clarity and consistency to users of residential property services, whether they’re buying, selling, renting or investing.
The International Property Measurement Standards (IPMS): Residential Buildings will provide a uniform global method to determine the size and dimension of floor space measures that can be used anywhere in the world.
Currently, the way residential property is measured can vary significantly from one market to the next. As a consequence, owners, occupiers and investors in domestic property are often left confused or misinformed when it comes to the reported floor space. This causes substantial issues when property is listed off-plan or bought by investors, but it has also led to disputes where rental calculations and service charges have relied on erroneous measurement information.
Published by a Coalition of more than 80 property organisations around the world, and drafted by an independent group of 18 experts from 11 countries, IPMS: Residential Buildings is the second in a series of global open-source standards aimed at creating a uniform approach to measuring buildings. Representing many hundreds of thousands of property professionals globally, the IPMS Coalition conducted a public consultation giving property professionals everywhere a chance to have their say on this landmark residential standard.
“IPMS: Residential Buildings addresses a simple but challenging reality: How do we provide transparent and consistent measurements for domestic properties when the methods used to perform these measurements differ across global markets? For many, owning a home is the most important investment they’ll make,” says Alexander Aronsohn, RICS Director Technical International Standards. “This new standard will enable investors, estate agents, developers, consumers and other users of professional property services, to make more informed decisions. IPMS: Residential Buildings is ultimately about protecting the investments we make as individuals, investors or industry leaders.”
Evidence of the variance in residential measurements is also highlighted in a new RICS Research report “Residential Property Measurement Practice” (September 2016), written by Dr Lesley Hemphill and Dr Jasmine Lay Cheng Lim of Ulster University. The report investigated local measurement practice in locations across the world and compared the variance to using the new globally benchmarked IPMS: Residential Buildings. The difference in measurement for residential apartments, for example, varied by as much as 27 per cent while measuring residential homes can vary by up to 58 per cent.
To provide a little more detail on this issue for multifamily investors, this report shows a marked difference in practice on apartment floor plans between the Americas and Asia/Middle East compared to mainland Europe, the U.K. and Oceania. The Americas and Asia/Middle East have a much higher prevalence of including dimensions for the core living space such as living rooms, kitchen/dining room, bedrooms, and bathrooms (all 78 per cent). This compares to just 38 per cent for the same rooms in mainland Europe and the U.K., and only 29 per cent in Oceania.
Earlier this year, RICS Property Measurement, 1st edition, which incorporates IPMS: Office Buildings, became the mandated standard to use for all RICS Professionals who perform measurements on commercial properties. A number of governments, corporate occupiers and employers of property professionals are adopting IPMS to benchmark their property measurements around the world.
Over the coming months RICS Professionals will be encouraged to share their expertise and shape the Professional Statement to include IPMS: Residential Buildings as an update to the Code of Measuring Practice.
