An update on Real Estate:UK
As you will know, AREF is coming together with the BPF and the IPF to form a new organisation to represent the UK real estate industry, Real Estate:UK. Legal integration is targetted in Q2 but significant progress is already being made on operational integration.
Our new shared office
We have all co-located in a beautiful new office at Uncommon in High Holborn, very near Holborn Tube station. I have to say that it is the best office space that I have worked in in my career and it is well worth a visit if you are passing by. Please do drop in. Simply being co-located is engendering a lot of cross-organisation working and team integration.
The Real Estate:UK website and digital infrastructure
A “holding” website has been set up at realestateuk.org. This gives details of our Mission & Vision, the Six Pillars around which we will be organising our activities, our common policy and events agendas, and the creation of Real Estate:Futures. A full website with an integrated CRM system, a Members’ Area and the ability to book events online is being developed and will launch later in the year.
A joined-up events programme
Those of you who were at the Vision 2026 event will have seen how extensive the joint events agenda is. For members of AREF, which is a largely London-based organisation, there will be an added geographical dimension as we gain access to the extensive regional English and Scottish programmes of BPF and IPF. Until the merger happens each organisation will be running its own events programme but we will be inviting each other’s members, subject to capacity, so expect to see some new faces.
Flagship RE:UK events in 2026
Continuing on the theme of events, outside the regular seminars and webinars there will be three flagship in-person RE:UK events this year: the Annual Dinner at Billingsgate in November, the RE:Futures Conference at Worcester College Oxford in September and the Annual Conference in June/July, venue still to be decided. Booking details of these will be posted in due course. Sponsorship opportunities are already available so please do get in touch if you are interested.
Real Estate:Futures and career development
I have already mentioned RE:Futures. This is a new Committee group developed by people from the AREF FutureGen, BPF Futures and IPF Future Leaders groups. There will now be two committees covering early career and mid-career issues, an extension to AREF FutureGen’s focus on early career.
Committee integration
Work on the integration of the other Committees is underway. With over sixty groups across the three organisations, it will take some work to ensure that we have as efficient a structure as possible which reflects the priorities of the new organisation, while including everybody who wants to be involved and maintain the strengths of the predecessor organisations.
Staying in touch
As you can see, there is a tremendous amount of work going on across the teams on which we will keep you regularly updated. If you have any questions, concerns or suggestions, please do get in touch.
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