A group, comprising around 50 professional bodies from across the world, has completed the first stage of its work aimed at creating the first International Ethics Standards (IES).
The group, otherwise known as the IES Coalition, was launched at the United Nations in New York last October and is tasked with creating standards aimed at reasserting the role of ethics in property markets across the world.
This week the Coalition announced the selection of its Standards Setting Committee, independent global experts who will write the first high-level ethics principles for real estate professionals.
The Committee will make a significant contribution to the Coalition’s reputation and status. They will review the many existing ethical codes, identify common themes and bring greater consistency and clarity to how ethics are used across the real estate sector. The Committee plans to publish a consultation document later this year.
Peter Bolton King, Chair of the International Ethics Standards Coalition and RICS Global Property Standards Director:
Although many firms and professional bodies might have ethics codes and different ways to implement those, there is not one universal ethics standard to which all professional real estate and trade organisations subscribe. The Standards Setting Committee has a very exciting task ahead of them and once the new International Ethics Standard is created, we expect to have a consistent and clear code which will enable us to improve the visibility and role that ethics plays in real estate.
The IES Coalition’s professional bodies, which includes RICS, represent many thousands of practitioners working in real estate sectors across the world, including the United States, Brazil, China, the United Kingdom, Ghana, South Africa and a number of European countries. They are united by the belief that business ethics play a valuable and prominent role in the global property profession.
