23 December 2003 Property Careers Need Urgent Profile Building

The ‘invisible professions’ of valuation and property management need urgent profile building if the country is to redress the desperate shortage of qualified personnel in these areas, says Lincoln University Senior Lecturer in Property Studies, John McDonagh.

"We need to get school-leavers and other young people to see the property-related professions as exciting and lucrative fields in which to pursue careers.

"Jobs like doctors, lawyers, scientists, teachers, airline pilots and the armed forces all have highly visible profiles, but not so property management and valuation, and this is hurting recruitment.

"The valuation and property management professions are seriously short of tertiary qualified staff. There are simply not enough graduates around to fill the vacancies and the current property boom is exacerbating the situation. However the root of the problem probably goes back to the schools, where students are not getting adequate information about this area of careers."

Quotable Value's Christchurch Manager Mark Dow, a Lincoln valuation and property management graduate himself, agrees.

"Typically as children and teenagers we don't have much to do with property," he says. "Our parents look after that side of things and it's not until later in life when we set about buying our own homes that we start having much to do with valuation and property professionals. Then we discover that yes, it can be an exciting and interesting field.

"That's why various courses often have people coming into them as mature students or career-changers. They 'discover' property later in life."

To encourage and support tertiary education in valuation and property related areas, Quotable Value has introduced a scholarship programme aimed at fulltime undergraduates from throughout New Zealand who are majoring in valuation and property management at either Lincoln, Massey or Auckland universities. The value of the scholarships will be $3500 to help pay for the final year of university study. Candidates must be intending to become registered as a Valuer.

In addition to the fees component, part of the scholarship deal is that scholars will receive an employment offer from Quotable Value at the completion of their studies.

Applications for these scholarships are open now and at Lincoln University the contact for details is Scholarships Manager Jane Edwards.

Valuation has been taught at Lincoln since the 1930s and over the years most of the senior personnel in valuation in New Zealand have been Lincoln graduates, including a number of Valuers-General.

Property management is a newer specialisation.

Eighteen months ago Lincoln University announced the closing of entries to its BCom (Valuation and Property Management) degree, due to uneconomic student enrolments. There was, however, an outcry from the property professions and recently Lincoln University re-launched a revised version of its long-established urban property degree – the B.Com (Valuation and Property Management).

The new structure of the degree reflects a process of consultation with the property profession and other affected parties that has taken over a year to complete.

In addition to the revised Bachelor of Commerce (Valuation and Property Management) degree, and in order to facilitate alternative routes into the property professions, Lincoln is now offering a Graduate Diploma in Valuation and a Graduate Diploma in Property Management.

"These diploma programmes are designed to facilitate entry to the property profession for those people who have bachelor’s degrees in areas other than property and are seeking a career change," says Mr McDonagh. "They are equivalent to fulltime study for one year (eight subjects) but may be completed on a part-time basis over several years.

"Development of the diploma programmes is one of a number of measures that the profession and the University have taken to increase the pool of qualified staff within New Zealand. Creation of a fulltime Education Manager's position by the New Zealand Property Institute is another such measure."

Ian Collins, Journalist, Lincoln University, Canterbury, New Zealand

John McDonagh, Property Group, Lincoln University, Canterbury, New Zealand