A new ‘super body’ is being created to be a powerful voice for the commercial property sector and to represent its interests.

The boards of three major organisations announced they are talking about merging to form one single representative body.

These are the Association of Real Estate Funds (AREF), the British Property Federation (BPF) and the Investment Property Forum (IPF) which would merge into more organisation, representing commercial property but in particular new kinds of ‘asset class’ including the build-to-rent and co-living sectors.

Powerful voice

They say their shared vision is to build on the individual strengths of each organisation to create “a single powerful convenor and voice for the sector”.

A shadow board made up of representatives from each organisation has been established to oversee the next stage of the discussions.

Each organisation will be consulting with its members over the next few months, and the shadow board will bring forward a formal proposal for members to consider next year.

We can see value in a stronger voice for the industry.”

Paul Richards, CEO at AREF, tells The Neg: “At a time of great political, regulatory and industry change we can see value in a stronger voice for the industry, especially when we have very important roles to play in important societal issues such as addressing the housing shortage and getting to net zero.”

Jessica Hardman, Chair at BPF, says: “Our sector is changing. In response to this change the BPF is already working hard to deliver a programme of continuous development and improvement, but the BPF Board I chair believes we can go even further working with the Boards of AREF and the IPF to deliver a new larger body building on the strengths of each individual organisation.”