About.

The Trust is regulated by the UK's Charity Commission and Companies House.

Our Goal

The Trust aims to raise its global profile through cutting edge knowledge support for property professionals, end users, private, public and third sectors and the academic community for the public benefit. The Trustees look to provide a role model as a grant awarding entity in the disciplines of land, real estate, and construction. As a charity, the Property Research Trust supports, delivers, and disseminates high quality, independent reliable knowledge, and future thinking through funding rigorous, robust research.

Our Ambitions

• To be a role model as a grant awarding entity and a leader in excellence for research delivery.
• To have long-term balance, planning and focus where appropriate.
• To have high global engagement with the research community and their wider stakeholders.
• To have a proactive approach to applications.
• To look for proposals that address real knowledge gaps.

The Trustees

Chair
Rob Harris

Rob has over 30 years’ experience specialising in real estate research and consulting. He works with property investors, developers, advisors and policy makers; and he advises corporate occupiers directly, preparing corporate workplace strategies. Rob established Ramidus Consulting Limited in 2003 as a specialist, independent built environment research and advisory business. Much of Rob’s work involves providing insights into property market dynamics, socio-economic trends, investment opportunities and the changing needs of occupiers. He seeks to understand the implications of social, economic and technological change for the design, provision and management of real estate. His interests and knowledge range from the workplace to the city-region, all driven by the common theme of demand-led research. Rob writes and presents widely, and has published many industry reports.

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Trustee
Neil Blake

Neil is a Senior Economic Advisor at CBRE having been Global Head of Forecasting and EMEA Chief Economist until 2023.  He has also held the roles of Head of EMEA and Head of UK Research at CBRE.  He acted as joint head of CBRE Econometric Advisers. the Boston-based property market forecasting consultancy in 2021.  Prior to joining CBRE in 2012, Neil held positions of Director of Economic Analysis at Oxford Economics and Director of Economics and Forecasting at Experian Business Strategies.  He also worked for Wharton Econometrics (now IHS Global Insight) and the University of East Anglia.  Neil is an economist by background with over forty years' experience.  His role involves coordinating and developing forecasting services across global markets with the objective of generating coherent and consistent global views of economic and property market prospects which are then used as an input into both client and CBRE's own business strategies.  Neil has extensive knowledge of economic and property market modelling.  Property-related experience includes "Remote working: the potential impact on office demand", ""What interest rate normalisation means for global real estate investors", work for Barker Review on the economic effects of restrictions on housing supply, "Property and Inflation", for the IPF, demand for commercial and residential space in the Middle East as well as the development of investment strategies for major global property companies.  Neil received the 2024 Honorary Research Fellowship of the Society of Property Researchers in recognition of his outstanding contribution to the real estate research.

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Trustee
Samanthan Organ

Samantha is a building surveyor, a fellow of the RICS and Associate Member of the ICE.  She divides her time between academia and practice, and uses her expertise to provide strategic and guidance on sustainability for built assets.  As Director for ESG at a Building Consultancy, she advised a range of clients on ESG, sustainability and carbon reduction across built assets and portfolios.  Samantha has previously worked for the National Trust, Europe's largest conservation charity as a surveyor and in the directorate to provide national guidance on sustainability for built assets.

In Academia, Samantha is an Associate Professor for Building Sustainability at the University of the West of England, Bristol where her research primarily focuses on sustainability and energy efficient in existing buildings.  She has written numerous publications for a range of audiences, including academic papers, reports, professional and newspaper articles.

Samantha has previously actively been involved with the RICS through boards and committees, and has been involved with the RICS Building Surveying Conference and various webinars.  She mentors early career surveyors including through the Mentoring Partnership, and was awarded Young Building Surveyor of the year in 2020 to recognise her as  rising star of the profession and her contributions to the profession.

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Trustee
Tim Bellman

Tim was the Global Research Strategist at Invesco Real Estate based in Dallas, USA.  He led its global research function – advising clients on cross border strategies, establishing a modern data analytics capability and emphasizing the impact of climate change and resilience on portfolio and asset strategies.  Previously he held a similar role at ING Real Estate Investment Management based in London.  Resident in Hong Kong for sixteen years, Tim was the regional investment strategist for LaSalle Investment Management and Head of Research and Strategy for Asia Pacific for Jones Lang LaSalle.  He was the first Chairman of the Research Committee of ANREV, the association for non-listed real estate vehicles.   Tim is a member of the Royal Town Planning Institute, the Pension Real Estate Association Research Committee and the World Affairs Council.  For several years he served on the Advisory Board of the Real Estate Research Institute.  Now based in Virginia, throughout his career Tim has been an advocate of the importance of interaction between academic research and professional practice.  The Property Research Trust welcomes Tim’s breadth of experience. Throughout his career Tim has been an advocate of the importance of interaction between academic research and professional practice.

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Trustee
James Child

James is an urban research specialist and thought leadership expert with over 14 years’ experience in built environment ​market analysis. He specialises in the analysis of occupier, planning, investment and development trends in the real estate sector, and has delivered detailed socio-economic national investigations, providing insights into successful urban renewal and regeneration.  James is Head of Research at ING Media, the leading communications and pr agency working across the built environment. James acts as critical consultant to ING’s clients to help develop specific research and content strategies, offering insight from inception through to delivery phases. He supports clients by generating direct communications strategies from complex data sets through analysis and distillation.  Before joining ING in 2022, he was Senior Associate Director at BNP Paribas Real Estate, leading the industrial & logistics research tea, supporting developer and investor colleagues in acquisitions and disposals across the UK and Europe.  Prior to that James was Head of Research at EG, leading on data-driven insights across all property sectors in the UK’s regions and cities. 

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Trustee
Peter Papadakos

Peter is the Head of European Research at Green Street overseeing coverage of the Pan-European office and self-storage sectors. Since joining the firm in 2010, he has launched coverage of more than 40 property companies. Peter has played a central role in helping global investors from private equity funds, sovereign wealth funds and institutional portfolio managers understand U.K./European office, retail, residential, self-storage, industrial, health care and hotel property sectors and how they compare to Green Street’s U.S. coverage.
Before joining Green Street, Peter was a research analyst for J.P. Morgan Securities, Property Investment Research - an Australian independent property research company, and various real estate private equity funds. He received a first class M.Sc. (Hons) in Real Estate Finance and Investment from the University of Reading.

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Trustee
Whitney Bevan

Whitney is a Lecturer in Construction Management at the Scott Sutherland School of Architecture and Built Environment at Robert Gordon University. Whitney’s research surrounds sustainability within the Built Environment, skills for the construction workforce, low carbon building delivery and sustainable, healthy communities. Further research areas extend to pedagogy which supports her passion for student engagement and interest in the construction industry, in addition to student understanding of how theory meets practice. Whitney has previous experience as a Lecturer in Construction Management at Western Sydney University, Australia and started her academic career at the University of Reading, where she was a research assistant, studied her PhD and became a Teaching Fellow in Sustainable Technology. Whitney is also involved in CIOB activities and external committees supporting sustainability within the Built Environment.​  

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Trustee 
Chyi Lin Lee

Associate Professor Chyi Lin Lee is currently the discipline director of construction management and property at the University of New South Wales. He has published in leading property and multidisciplinary journals such as Housing Studies, Journal of Real Estate Finance and Economics, Habitat International, Journal of Cleaner Production, Journal of International Money and Finance, Energy Policy, and Transportation. He has received more than A$3.5 million in externally funded projects from AHURI, Transport for NSW, EPRA, CRC-P Value Australia etc. He has also received several awards to recognise his contributions to research and education​.

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Trustee
Sara Wilkinson

Sara is a chartered building surveyor and Australia’s first female Professor of Property. Sara has developed and led property programs in the UK, Sheffield Hallam Uni and Australia at UTS. As an active member of RICS and API, she contributes to accreditation of courses nationally and internationally. Her transdisciplinary research program sits at the intersection of sustainability, urban development and transformation, with a focus on green cities and preparing our urban environments for the challenges of climate change. She is interested in using new technologies to deliver sustainable building outcomes.
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Former Chair
Sarah Sayce

Sarah Sayce, FRICS, sadly passed away in late 2021 following a short illness.  Sarah led the Trust through its transition to independence from the RICS, an organisation whose Governing Council she sat for ten years.  She had a long distinguished career as a practicing surveyor and an academic.  At the time of her death, she was a Professor at the University of Reading, as well as Emeritus Professor, Kingston University and Chair of the Aubrey Baker Fund.  Sarah was an inspiring leader who will be remembered with great fondness and respect.

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How we are regulated

The Charity Commission

We are a charity registered in the UK and regulated by the Charity Commission.
Our Charity Commission Registered number is 1085587.​ Companies House registered number: 4044051.
Until January 2021, the Property Research Trust was known as the RICS Research Trust.

Property Research Trust
Registered office: 5th Floor, 167-169 Great Portland street, London  W1W 5PF (not for contact purposes please use email or contact form here 
Email: [email protected]