Agents warned about keeping up with changes in IT

Estate agents who are not keeping up with advances in IT will see their business go rapidly backwards, warned Wendy-Jane Catherwood, president of the Irish Auctioneers and Valuers Institute (IAVI) at its annual conference held in Derry last weekend.

Property sales via the Internet and online auctions will increase as the technology becomes an everyday tool and estate agents need to keep themselves informed of these changes and use them in their business, she said. "It is imperative that we keep ourselves, not only up to date with the developments and trends that are taking place but we need to be predicting them, analysing them and shaping them," Ms Catherwood told delegates at the Everglades Hotel.

The same message was delivered by Prof Alistair Adair, of the University of Ulster, who told delegates that improving technology - and particularly the Internet - will revolutionise the way they do business over the next decade. In his paper entitled Educating the Profession for the 21st Century, Prof Adair warned estate agents that the Net could have an overwhelming effect on their business.

"In five years time, successful businesses will be Internet-centred as e-business creates a raft of new opportunities such as procurement, e-commerce, auctioning and advertising.

"The Net is about to overwhelm all businesses, including property as traditional methods of marketing will be transformed.

"The challenge facing the profession is to ensure that the qualified practitioner remains at the centre of the property deal," he said.

Attracting better-educated graduates into the profession is vital if it is to take advantage of the new opportunities for doing business, said Professor Adair, a fellow of the IAVI, who will take over the presidency of the organisation in 2002. Referring to UK statistics, he warned that top-performing students are not being attracted into the profession and that there is a perception among young people that the property profession is "lacking in stimulation and financial rewards".

Changing that perception and attracting a higher calibre of student should be one of the main concerns of the profession and the institute, he said.

"If we don't attract the right calibre of people, or we equip them with the wrong skills, then will our profession and our institute be able to prosper and survive over the longer term?"

He suggested that a radical rethink of the educational courses serving the profession is needed. Recruitment to the profession is also a crucial issue, he said, with the ideal employee being "a graduate who has technical qualifications in an appropriate field, is well versed in information technology, has a good understanding of business and management and speaks at least one foreign language competently".