Top Tweeters for Students Studying Real Estate

Image from: http://www.criticalproof.com

I am really looking forward to taking over the undergraduate real estate Research Methods module next semester. As part of my preparations I want to create a list of property-related tweeters for students to follow. I'm doing this so that:

• students can see how brilliant Twitter is for real estate research, and 

• they can widen their focus of property beyond traditional commercial property to encompass retail, residential and niche property, as well as planning, urban design, and other related areas.

Putting to one side that you might 'expect' property students already to be following the property tweeters such as:

• the 'big' property companies;

• the trade publications;

• professional bodies such as the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) and the Chartered Institute of Building (CIOB),

... so the question is - who else should they follow and why?

Here is the beginning of my list of tweeters - any suggestions welcome! It definitely needs more retail representation, for example. I would love this to be a collaborative effort that could be shared with real estate students in other universities, so please help if you have a good suggestion. Note, I have not included any tweeters whose information or links are behind a pay wall/require a subscription.

UPDATE (September 2013) - thanks to those that suggested additions. I have added those that I think are directly relevant to students' learning.

Networking, career advice and employment opportunities:

@Sociable Surveyors
For the all expenses-paid internships with major firms for property students

@YoungSurveyors
Relaxed networking organisation for those new to the industry

@PRPTBLOG
UK focused tweeter/blog with APC advice

@EGPropertyJobs
Online commercial property jobs board for Estates Gazette

@PW4Jobs
Property Week board for senior and graduate surveying and related vacancies


Research focused:

@statisticsONS
Office of National Statistics in the UK. Updates on economic and demographic information.

@EGi_research
News, research, data and reports on UK commercial property market

Real Estate Organisations:

@BritProp
British Property Federation - body representing interests of those involved in real estate ownership and investment in UK

@modusmag
The magazine of RICS, covering land, property, construction and the built environment.


Residential Real Estate:

@propertini
UK residential focus

@PropertyTalk
Comment on residential property


Retail:

@retailmentoring
High Street individual retailers

@ellandi_mark
Shopping centre owner's perspective of the market
(Suggested by Mark Robinson)
Real Estate and Property News (mainly UK):

@Property_mall
Property news with UK focus

@ukprop
UK property news

@propertypr
London based property PR consultant - commercial and residential

@PropMatters_
News summary for property sector.

@TeleProperty
Property news and comments from the Telegraph


International:

@WPCWorldNews
Global news network for residential commercial and holiday real estate

@PropertyWire
Global property news including UK

Professional Standards and Corporate Social Responsibility in Property:

@ULIEurope

Urban Land Institute - research/education organisation focusing on land use and sustainable communities

(Suggested by PRPTBLOG)

@cpdfoundation
Group committed to raising professional standards in property and related sectors

@BritishLandCR
Corporate responsibility tweeter

Space To Think

The photos are taken in 'The Lab' at Oxford Brookes. It's not the kind of lab you'd expect to find at a uni. Instead this is a space created specifically to give people a different opportunity to engage with the campus redevelopment that's going on (and was the subject of my previous post). The idea is that students, staff and maybe interested others can see examples of the different colours, treatments, flooring and furniture that is planned for the new Library and Teaching Building and to comment on these, or ask questions about something other aspect of the redevelopment. When I visited a tasting session for different types of coffee for the new cafes was underway. The Lab is part of the Space to Think initiative at the university.

The Lab@Oxford Brookes with model of the campus redevelopment

Barista at work - will you choose coffee A or B?

This is idea of having space to think got me thinking on several fronts. First, what does it actually mean to have space to think? Does it have to a be a physical space, which is what's implied here by the massive building project that's creating a huge new lecture hall and other teaching rooms, as well as informal spaces for 'connecting' (I presume that means connecting to WiFi), along with a state of the art library.

A long time ago, I studied something called environmental determinism as part of an urban planning elective I did for my degree in environmental science. Environmental determinism basically holds that your surrounding (built) environment can affect your behaviour. It's the theory behind policies like designing out crime and creating active spaces. It follows then that by appropriately designing the new space at Oxford Brookes perhaps thinking by students and staff will be changed, hopefully for the better. 

But does space to think really have to be a physical bricks and mortar space? Couldn't it also be a virtual space - a cyberspace where all sorts of different opportunities to think and do are available. Or perhaps a space in your mind? In a way meditation is having space to think, clearing your mind to enable you to focus on a problem, or to go within yourself to find peace and quiet to relax. Neither of these spaces involves buildings.

This leads me to my question for The Lab about the new Library and Teaching Building...

What will happen if the need for the kind of 'space to think' we are currently creating through the campus redevelopment changes?

I've been thinking about this partly because of this article in the Washington Post. It talks about the traditional lecture being replaced by more interactive methods of teaching involving smaller classes.

The lecture has been the dominant teaching method for centuries in universities. The architecture of most universities is defined by the need for large lecture halls - which are very specific spaces to think. The real estate of universities revolves around the successful usage of this space. The article believes that the lecture hall is not a very good space to think. In the future, it suggests that, spaces to think will involve connecting online and/or being face to face in smaller, more active spaces than the lecture hall.

So if we are creating a new teaching building based on the need for large lecture rooms, it may not be space to think after all. Or maybe the prediction of the demise of the lecture (and the lecture hall) is exaggerated, as it has been so often in the past.

A University Grand Design

This is the BEFORE...

This photo is taken from the corridor in Department of Real Estate and Construction at Oxford Brookes University, where I work. The Department's building is due to be demolished before the end of the year and it will then reveal the secret that it has been hiding for the last year or so...the new Library and Teaching Building, which is fast rising out of the ground as you can see. The demolition will create space for a public square, forming part of the entrance setting for the new building - artist's impression of which is shown here. This will be the University's new 'front door' and faces onto the London Road - a major route into and out of Oxford.

...this will be the AFTER

It's quite apt that a department of real estate and construction should overlook the new development and it has been very interesting watching the different phases of construction take place. From the:

However, it's difficult not to have mixed feelings seeing buildings that you have known so well being quickly taken down. One thing that the property professions teaches you is that it's important that buildings are usable. That can mean different things.

Bill Bordass is one of the people behind a charity called the Usable Buildings Trust which looks at how buildings work for their users in environmental as well as economic terms. The charity has a website with a lot of resources here.