In Conversation with Yolande Barnes
3 September 2021

SPR Fellow Yolande Barnes, Chair of the Bartlett Real Estate Institute, spoke to Lucy Greenwood about her long career in real estate research.

Like so many of the successful researchers that have featured in the SPR In Conversation webinars, Yolande said that she had come to property research ‘by accident’, but it was clear that having started out as a researcher with Healey & Baker in the early 1980s, she had an innovative plan that she was committed to follow through.

Seeing that virtually no research was being done into residential property, and indeed that the potential of the sector was being ignored – the Pru had sold their last London mansion block just before – she determined to make this niche her own.

Executing the plan involved making use of her committee membership at the newly formed SPR – where she was responsible for events – to sit next to the person who could help her get the role she wanted at the Society’s first Annual Dinner. Savills’ agricultural researcher was suitably impressed and this led to further introductions ultimately ending up with Yolande beings given the opportunity to start up a new residential research team at the company.

In light of her experience, Yolande advised young researchers just starting out to ‘follow their passion’, as having that level of interest will make you invaluable to your employers, as well allowing you to stand out from the crowd.  Everyone is involved with the built environment and has their own perspective to share, which makes this a realistic ambition.

Allied to this, she suggested that imagination is often undervalued in research, as it can help in making connections between apparently disparate trends.  Research is not just about burying oneself in spreadsheets, and more diverse companies are often the best at recognising the value of people who think in different ways.

During a wide-ranging discussion, Yolande also talked about moving from head of World Research at Savills to academia and noted that the change was perhaps not as great as people might expect.  ‘I’ve spent most of my career teaching, either as one of the senior members of a research team or presenting to clients,’ she confessed.

Yolande suggested that an academic role tends to be more solitary than a corporate one, but she clearly relishes the chance she now has to ‘rethink real estate’ in a post-Covid world, with the broadest possible remit.  This includes considering the impact of real estate on wider society, particularly the effect on social inclusion and environmental issues, where she thinks that ‘we need to understand the connections much better.’ There is also the opportunity to look into the potential of new data sources, including approaches that go under the heading of ‘place-based science’, linking the quality of places to value.

Clearly, following her passion has worked out well for Yolande, as she has been able to spread her wings and soar well beyond the confines of UK residential.  She encouraged other researchers to aspire to the role of ‘polymath’ too, although she was too modest to admit that this description is entirely apt for her.
 

Tim Horsey