Emerald expands International Property Research opportunities

Emerald expands International Property Research opportunities

Emerald has recently played a major role in expanding electronic access to its portfolio of international property journals for the international community of property researchers.

This now sees our 3,000 property researchers world-wide using the Emerald on-line electronic database to ensure their literature searches are comprehensive and up to date. These researchers are from the various regional real estate societies, including the American Real Estate Society (ARES), European Real Estate Society (ERES), Pacific Rim Real Estate Society (PPRES), Asian Real Estate Society (AsRES), Latin American Real Estate Society (LARES) and the African Real Estate Society (AfRES).

With universities world-wide having reduced library budgets, this electronic access to Emerald will give members of these regional real estate societies valuable electronic access to Emerald's portfolio of leading international property journals, including the Journal of Property Investment and Finance, and Property Management. This will be particularly beneficial to LARES and AfRES members as they expand property research linkages with the more established regional real estate societies.

The main drivers behind this major initiative have been Elaine Worzala (ARES) and Jenny Pickles (Emerald) with this deal finalised at the International Real Estate Society (IRES) World Congress in Alaska in July 2001.

Most importantly, this valuable service for the international property research community is being generously sponsored by Freddie Mac (www.freddiemac.com) and the RICS Research Foundation (www.rics-foundation.org) facilitated respectively by Marsha Courchane for Freddie Mac and Stephen Brown, Head of Research at the RICS Foundation.

Freddie Mac is a major US corporation generating funds for mortgage lenders to support home ownership and rental housing in the USA. With over 30 years experience, Freddie Mac has financed homes for over 26 million families, or one of every six homes in USA. For example, in 2000, Freddie Mac purchased nearly 1.5 million single-family mortgages valued at over US$200 billion; the equivalent of one mortgage every 22 seconds. In doing so, Freddie Mac provides homeowners and renters with lower housing costs and better access to home financing.

The RICS Foundation was established by the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors in January 2000 to act as a focus for the development and promotion of the real estate research discipline. Through funding, promoting and disseminating research, the RICS Foundation seeks to provide solutions and insights into the major issues impacting on the real estate market. The RICS Foundation takes a global view of research and works to develop and implement its work across national and disciplinary boundaries.

Access for individuals will be via each regional real estate societies' Web site, with download facilities readily available.

Overall, this important initiative is a major benefit to members in all of the regional estate societies in expanding their property research capabilities. IRES and the regional real estate societies commend Emerald for supporting this initiative and acknowledge the generous sponsorship by Freddie Mac and the RICS Research Foundation in expanding international property research opportunities. Stephen Brown for the RICS said: "Research without dissemination is like bricks without mortar. The RICS Foundation is pleased to support this initiative to make information on research results widely known to the global real estate research community."

We look forward to seeing future articles in leading property journals such as the Journal of Real Estate Research, Journal of Real Estate Portfolio Management, Journal of Real Estate Finance and Economics, and Real Estate Economics with numerous key articles accessed from this Emerald electronic journals database.

For further information on this and other Emerald Partnerships see http://www.emerald-partnerships.com or e-mail Jenny Pickles at jpickles@emeraldinsight.com

Graeme NewellExecutive Director, IRES and University of Western Sydney