IPMS Board Convenes From Around The World To Discuss Building Measurements

The International Property Measurement Standards Board of Trustees convened from all corners of the globe to hold a six-hour strategy meeting today.

Established in 2013, IPMSC, a coalition of more than 80 real estate organizations, including founding member BOMA, creates uniform standards for measuring office, residential, industrial and retail properties. 14 members of the board traveled from London, Tokyo, Canada, New Zealand and other far-off locations to convene at the BOMA International Conference & Expo. The Sunday morning breakfast featured a speaker from the IMF discussing emerging markets. 

Without uniform standards, the way properties are measured up until now has varied widely. For instance, some measurements have included common spaces like communal hallways in the total square foot measurement of a commercial building, while others have not. This is the problem IPMS has set out to solve, board chair Ken Creighton said. 

"People actually realize its a problem that can be solved and its only this kind of group of organizations that can solve it, there's no other entity in the world that can solve it," Ken, who works in London at the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors, said. 

IPMS released its first set of standards, focused on office building measurement, in November 2014. The standards setting committee recently finished its draft for residential measurements standards and is currently working on its industrial standards. 

The focus of today's board meeting was to discuss and make recommendations on the residential and industrial standards, as well as overall implementation of the standards. 

The standards have been adopted by more than 300 companies. Ken says the standards can only achieve their purpose if implemented across the globe. 

"We're not just creating a standard but we're getting it marketed and implemented, which is what makes it special," Ken said.