Johannesburg, March 30, 2015 – On Wednesday 25 March, the Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) Global Summit 2015, proudly sponsored by Colliers International, hosted leading property practitioners, investors and academic experts from around the world and across the continent. 

RICS selected Johannesburg as the location to host its 2015 Africa Summit, with this being only the fourth time the professional body has held the event outside the UK. It has previously been held in China, India and Brazil. 

RICS is a leading global professional body. With a presence in all the major political and economic centres around the world, it promotes and enforces the highest qualifications and standards in the areas of land, real estate, construction and infrastructure.  

Mike Blair, CEO of Colliers International South Africa commented: “Colliers was proud to sponsor the prestigious RICS Africa Summit, as RICS embodies international standards and ethics that will encourage transparency and raised levels of confidence in both our local and regional markets.  As a result, a more secure business environment will be created, thereby increasing investment and growth in Africa.” 

Mark Walley, Managing Director of RICS EMEA said: “We were delighted to have Colliers International as our sponsors for the RICS Africa Summit. It is easy to partner with a firm that demands the highest of standards from their people, as is shown through their adoption of the RICS standards. These standards drive investor confidence, which leads to growth.” 

At a time when Africa’s built environment is undergoing unprecedented change, there seems little doubt that the continent would benefit enormously from a larger pool of built environment professionals. If, across Africa, measurement standards could be implemented in conjunction with ethics standards, and these could all be effectively, and independently regulated, together it might be possible to create market conditions in which investors, clients and the public as a whole have high confidence, and in which growth is sustainable.