(WASHINGTON, D.C.) The International Property Measurement Standards Coalition (IPMSC), of which the Building Owners and Managers Association (BOMA) International is a member, has selected 19 real estate experts from around the world to join its Standards Setting Committee to develop a global standard for measuring property.  Among the experts selected for this committee were Kent Gibson, Vice Chair of BOMA International and a BOMA Fellow, and Peter Stevenson of Stevenson Systems, an official BOMA International standards interpreter.

The Standards Setting Committee includes academics, real estate fund and asset managers, residential professionals, valuers and specialists in development and construction with first-hand knowledge in 50 countries, across five continents.  The committee will act independently and is tasked with the job of drafting and consulting industry on a global standard measurement methodology.

Currently, the way property assets are measured can vary considerably from country to country, making it difficult for global investors and occupiers to accurately compare space.  The implementation of a global property measurement standard would create consistent measurement, increased global financial stability, more accurate and consistent financial reporting, stronger investor confidence and a more transparent marketplace.

“Property is a global business for international investors, corporate occupiers and their advisers, but floor space measuring practices vary from country to country and even between markets in the same country,” notes Max Crofts, chair of the Standards Setting Committee.  “Encouraged by our first meeting at the World Bank, we intend to create standards of measurement that will not only complement international financial reporting and valuation standards, but also enable the collection and use of reliable data across worldwide markets.”

“The committee has been set the challenging task of drawing together the intelligence that has gone before us across the world over the past decades and then creating what must be regarded as the World’s Best Practice for the measurement of buildings,” says Allen Crawford, vice chair of the Standards Setting Committee.  “We will know that we have succeeded when the new standard is embraced globally by the property industry.”

 The Standards Setting Committee will start work on the drafting of the new methodology immediately and aims to have a draft ready for widespread consultation in the early part of 2014.

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About BOMA International

The Building Owners and Managers Association (BOMA) International is a federation of 93 BOMA U.S. associations, BOMA Canada and its 11 regional associations and 13 BOMA international affiliates.  Founded in 1907, BOMA represents the owners and managers of all commercial property types, including nearly 10 billion square feet of U.S. office space that supports 3.7 million jobs and contributes $205 billion to the U.S. GDP.  Its mission is to advance the interests of the entire commercial real estate industry through advocacy, education, research, standards and information.  Find BOMA online at www.boma.org.