A licence might not be enough

Over 11 thousand people hold real estate manager licences in Poland, a higher number than in other European countries. This does not of course guarantee quality. Further professional training might, however.

Ph.D. in real estate
The Polish Real Estate Market Federation, (Polska Federacja Rynku Nieruchomosci)), has been organising courses with the CCIM Institute in Chicago for two years and the first group of students will finish this December. The successful students will gain the title: CCIM - Certified Commercial Investment Member..
"The CCIM course is a sort of Ph.D. level study of the commercial property market and entrants tend to be people who have already been working in the business for a few years," says Malgorzata Poreba of PREMF. ,The curriculum is too intensive for anyone without experience."
The full course consists of 200 hours of training and five parts. The first, ,An Introduction to the Analysis of Commercial Investments in the Real Estate Market", is followed by ,A Financial Analysis of Commercial Real Estate Investments", ,A Market Analysis of Investments in Commercial Real Estate", ,Analysing Users' Decisions when Investing in Commercial Real Estate" and finally ,An Investment Analysis of Commercial Real Estate". There is a written exam at the end of each.
The CCIM qualification is awarded to anyone who completes all parts, passes the final practical and theoretical examination, and has proven experience in commercial real estate. ,The students then write their resumé, on which they describe their professional experience," says Malgorzata Poreba. ,Before you get the certificate, you have to show that you have participated in at least 20 concluded transactions over the last five years."

Only one manager
Property Managers are unique among all the professions involved in the real estate market, for various reasons. Property value appraisal can be carried out by several independent experts, and their work will be tested by the market afterwards. More than one agent may work on the sale or purchase of a development, which however, can only have one manager.

There are too few of us
There are 22 holders of the CPM, (Certified Property Manager), qualification in Poland, which is awarded by the Institute of Real Estate Management in Chicago and its international representatives, (the Polish branch has been operating since 1999). Earlier, the Polish Real Estate Market Federation supervised the course.
"I think that the attitude of property owners to external managers is changing," says Lidia Henclewska, boss of the Polish branch of IREM. ,Those managers with the CPM qualification as well as their licence, are doing very well on the market. CPM holders include Adam Polanowski and Jacek Bobczynski, owner of Gestor."

Five exams, five years and one hundred hours
The CPM course consists of three training sessions, with an exam after each one. At the first stage, participants choose one of the following options: "Managing Office Real Estate", "Housing Communities' Properties" or "Flats for Rent". Next are "Managing a Development as an Investment", "Solving Problems in Real Estate Management - Ethics" and the ,The Management Plan", which involves writing a management plan for a selected existing property. "It took me 100 hours to write one," recalls Lidia Henclewska. Course graduates with at least five years' professional experience are awarded the CPM title.