The Australian Property Research and Education Fund (APREF) has awarded Dr Christopher Phelps of Curtin University the 2021 Peter Barrington Gold Medal Award.
Dr Phelps took out the coveted award for his thesis, “Essays Connecting Australian Dwelling Price Growth and Subjective Wellbeing to Within-City income and Wealth Differentials”.
He completed his PhD at Curtin University with Professor Steven Rowley as his supervisor, with his PhD being conferred in 2021
The winner will present their research to Australian Property Institute (API) members as part of the APREF Research Seminar Series in 2022, as well as receiving complimentary annual API membership and a $1000.
The Peter Barrington Award, established in 1985, is designed to encourage research excellence in the study of land economy.
The award is open to students undertaking a Property Masters or PHD at an Australian academic institution.
APREF 2022 research grant winners announced
APREF has also announced the winners of this year’s research grant round, selecting three standout recipients from the 23 applications received from around the country.
This year’s APREF research grant winners are:
- Dulani Halvitigala, Judith Callanan and Rebecca Leshinsky from RMIT for their submission, “Towards more Inclusive Equality and Diversity for the Australian Valuation Industry”.
- Balamurugan Soundararaj, Prof Ali Soltani, Dr Chyi Lin Lee, Prof Chris Pettit, Mr Peter Rossini from the University of NSW and the University of South Australia for their submission, “Towards Understanding the Dynamics of the Regional Property Markets of Australia: Spatio-Temporal Analysis, Predictive Modelling, And Visualisation of Sales in Regional SA and NSW”.
- Qiang Li and Ameeta Jain from Deakin University for their submission, “Housing Market Resilience in Australia: 2000-2021”.
APREF outlined five key research topics for applicants to focus on this year, including the relationship between property values and inflation, wages and population growth. The other topics were evaluating the economic, public health and / or environmental affects to property; property profession workforce planning; future Australian cities; and future regional Australia.
The API established APREF to advance the twin arms of research and education, training and development; in the property industry specifically in valuation and land economy.
The Fund has Deductible Gift Recipient (DGR) status, and is a registered charity with the Australian Charities and Not-for-profits Commission.
