RICS property measurement: changes in the 2nd edition

Taking your measure

9 March 2018

Some significant changes have been made to the RICS Property Measurement second edition professional statement in response to consultation, as Alexander Aronsohn outlines

Further to extensive consultation, we have made several significant changes to the second edition professional statement on RICS property measurement, to ensure that it meets the needs of the market and is more user-friendly.

The statement has, for instance, been revised to incorporate International Property Measurement Standards (IPMS) Residential, along with IPMS Office Buildings and the recently published IPMS Industrial Buildings.

The first major change relates to the structure of the statement, which has been revised to incorporate 2 elements:

  1. Professional statement: Property measurement, which applies to all properties and includes IPMS measurements for office and residential buildings only
  2. RICS IPMS Data Standard (see the related isurv feature: Data standards: linking RICS and proptech).

The professional statement reflects the first two standards, IPMS: Office Buildings and IPMS: Residential Buildings, and will be updated over time to comply with others in the suite as they are published.

As a result of the inclusion of IPMS: Residential Buildings and a continual review process, new definitions have also been added to the glossary, for the terms Clearance Height, Covered Area, Patio, Residential Building and Veranda.

Professional statement

The first part of RICS property measurement, comprising the professional statement on property measurement, is divided into the following 4 subsections:

IPMS: Residential Buildings as applied under the professional statement.The main changes relate to the

  1. application of this professional statement
  2. technical definitions
  3. IPMS: Office Buildings, as applied under the professional statement
  4. IPMS: ResidentialBuildings as applied under the professional statement

The main changes relate to the first of these, which rather than just concentrating on IPMS, as in the first edition, now focuses on professionalising measurement across all specialisms, whether IPMS are adopted or not.

In addition, the section on the use of IPMS has been revised to say: 'RICS members are expected to advise their client or employer on the benefits of using IPMS. However, it is understood that IPMS [are] not suitable in all circumstances and in these circumstances RICS members must state the reason for departure'. It also requires that: 'RICS members must use IPMS terms (i.e. IPMS 1, IPMS 2, IPMS 3 etc.) when calculating or reporting the area of office and residential floor space on an IPMS basis'.

The Component Areas in the technical definitions have also been revised so that their sum now equals IPMS 1, and, subtracting the new Component Area B1 (External Walls), equals IPMS 2 Residential Buildings.

RICS members must use IPMS terms (i.e. IPMS 1, IPMS 2, IPMS 3 etc.) when calculating or reporting the area of office and residential floor space on an IPMS basis

In addition to the revised Component Area B, which contains subsections on internal structural and non-structural elements as well as external walls, there is also a new Component Area G called Living Space, defined as 'the area available for use by residential occupiers'. Some of the Component Areas A–G in this table can be further used for IPMS 3 if required.

Another major change to part 1 of the professional statement is the addition of subsection 4 on IPMS: Residential Buildings as applied in the professional statement, which contains the following 3 measurement standards.

  • IPMS 1 can be used by parties for planning purposes or the summary costing of development proposals, and is defined as 'the sum of the areas of each floor level of a building measured to the outer perimeter of external construction features, which may be reported on a component basis for each floor of a building'.
  • IPMS 2 Residential Buildings can help the property sector make efficient use of space and benchmarking data, and is defined as: the sum of the areas of each floor level of a residential building measured to the internal dominant face, which may be reported on a component-by-component basis for each floor of a building.
  • IPMS 3 Residential Buildings itself includes three different measurement bases, which the IPMS Standard Setting Committee felt were required to meet global market needs: IPMS 3A, IPMS 3B and IPMS 3C. Some markets require only one of these, but others may use two or more for different purposes.
    • IPMS 3A is an external measurement of the area in exclusive occupation and equates somewhat to Gross External Area (from Code of Measuring Practice, 6th edition)
    • IPMS 3B is an internal measurement including internal walls and so on in the area in exclusive occupation, and equates somewhat to Gross Internal Area.
    • IPMS 3C is an internal measurement, excluding internal walls and so on, in the area in exclusive occupation, and equates somewhat to Effective Floor Area.

The final main change in the second edition is the inclusion of part 2 on the data standard.

Alexander Aronsohn FRICS is RICS Director of Technical Standards

Further information

 

Download a complete “RICS property measurement: changes in the 2nd edition” PDF