“We will be discussing material we hope will challenge the audience. For example why haven’t Real Estate Investment Trusts (REITs) taken off? There seems to be reputational issues relating to management issues that have contributed to that lack of take up,” said Morgan.

“We want to find out the steps we can take to improve management in the industry. For instance, there is no objective basis for measuring residents’ satisfaction, so no one in the business can compare whether the service they are providing is really any good or not, nor are there any valid international comparisons.”

Morgan said that research carried out by Real Service, which benchmarks real estate service and represents a 30-strong group of major property owners and managing agents in commercial property, revealed lack of communication, poor responsiveness, lack of transparency, unnecessary bureaucracy, failure to treat people as individuals and in the worst cases, a lack of security and a failure to maintain buildings.

Real Service has focused on commercial property and includes Grosvenor, Land Securities, The Crown Estate, the Portman Estate, ING Real Estate Investment Management and leading managing agents such as Erinacious, CB Richard Ellis, Jones Lang LaSalle and DTZ.

It is expected to form a new interest group that will focus on improving management service in the residential market. Such an influential group could have a significant impact in the marketplace.

Christopher Hamer, the Ombudsman for Estate Agents, said that although complaints about letting and managing agents were fewer than those received about estate agents involved in selling, he still felt managing agents were failing to provide a level of service people expected.

Heading up the RESI 07 programme is keynote speaker Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, Ruth Kelly alongside economist Roger Bootle, Mark Clare, chief executive of Barratt and Nigel Hugill, UK chief executive of Lend Lease.

Radical shake-up

The two day networking and exhibition event will be held on September 11 and 12 at the Celtic Manor Resort, Newport, and reflects the convergence between the commercial property and house building marketplaces.
There will be an exhibition of this year’s Housing Design Award winners and runners up promoted by the DCLG and supported by the RIBA, NHBC and RTPI and the Housing Corporation.

Property Week editor Giles Barrie said, “what we’re seeing is a radical shake-up of how we develop and manage housing in the UK and a big shift in the culture of commercial and residential development.

“Investors and consumers want to see issues that concern them addressed. And increasing the supply of affordable homes is at the top of Gordon Brown’s political agenda, so we think RESI 07 will be a hot ticket,” he said. “Under Blair it was ‘education, education, education’. Under Brown it will be ‘homes, homes, homes.’

“It is about attracting more money to the sector and resolving some of the poor reputational issues. These issues have been addressed to a greater extent in the commercial sector and the market wants to see this happen in residential sector.”

Other main speakers include Nick Candy of Candy & Candy, Nick Ritblat, president of the British Property Federation, Tony Pidgley of the Berkeley Group, Grant Bovey, chief executive of Imagine Homes, Nick Johnson, deputy chief executive of Urban Splash, and many others.

12 breakout sessions, including two on the Housing Design Awards, construction and sustainability issues, will deal with topics including the stability of the buy-to-let market, marketing, regeneration, student and senior housing and the central London market, branding and a panel of press commentators including Rosie Millard of the Sunday Times.