What were you doing 40 years ago? In my case, I was still at university and I had just finished my degree and I was in my tutor's office to be told my result. His name was Andrew Baum and he had just published the first issue of the Journal of Valuation which he showed me proudly; a new academic journal for the property profession. This visit to Andrew's office was about to change my life completely. First, I had been offered a one year job at the university as a temporary lecture in valuation and investment but the post was dependent upon me achieving a 2:1 in my degree. But, second, Andrew asked me to become the assistant editor on the journal and to take over all the production and publication roles. Unsurprisingly, I said “yes” and the Journal of Valuation, later renamed the Journal of Property Investment & Finance, has been part of my life ever since.
The Journal of Valuation did what it said on the can and included insightful, yet practical, papers on the valuation of property assets in the UK. The editorial board, many of whom were to become close friends and mentors in my life, were the great and the good from academia and from practice. The journal had potential and was ahead of its time. At that time, real estate as an academic subject was its infancy. Most universities that taught the subject had no tradition of publishing in the topic area apart from a few two-page articles in the professional trade magazines such as the Estates Gazette. Writing a long, in-depth, research article was not in the DNA of most educators in the property world. And, indeed, initially the journal was a hand to mouth publication and Andrew was often on the phone cajoling and coercing people to submit papers.
But, it was like the now cult Kevin Costner film, Field of Dreams, where the mantra is “If you build it, he will come.” Andrew “built” the Journal of Valuation and eventually the papers began to flow. Slowly, the reputation of the journal grew and grew, and I was promoted to editor and I started to attend numerous academic conferences around the world where I was able to encourage submissions, which were initially from Europe, then the USA and now from Asia and Africa. The journal had become an international journal of some repute.
We are now in the lucky position of receiving approximately 100 good papers each year from every continent for us to review and determine the ones that merit publication. I am proud that we have maintained standards and we have established the Journal of Property Investment & Finance as one of the premier journals in real estate in the world. And for that I can only thank my wonderful editorial board members past and present who unstintingly support me so magnificently. So here we are 40 years later. So raise a glass with me and let's toast to the next 40 years albeit I am pretty certain that I will not be at the helm when we celebrate the journal's 80th anniversary. But I will try to hang on in there until the 50th birthday.
Oh and I got a 2:1 in my degree which qualified me to take that job at the university and so started my career in real estate education that, with one minor hiccup, has proved to be an absolute joy, and in no small part, due to my involvement with this journal. Thank you to everyone who shared that journey with me. I walked into Andrew Baum's office and, as they say, the rest is history.
