2025 Property Sector Research Colloquium: Call for abstracts

The Property Practitioner Regulatory Authority (PPRA), in collaboration with Nelson Mandela University (NMU) and the National Research Foundation (NRF), invites you to submit your abstract for the 2025 Property Sector Research Colloquium, themed A Sustainable and Inclusive Property Market. This Colloquium will serve as a national platform for the advancement of thought leadership, academic research, and inclusive dialogue around the transformation, sustainability, and professional regulation of the property sector in South Africa. The Colloquium will take place at NMU in Gqeberha from 05-06 November 2025.

The Colloquium, which is an outcome from the 2023 PPRA-NRF Property Sector Research Conference, aims to advance the UN Sustainable Development Goal 9 (SDG 9), which emphasises innovation, sustainable infrastructure, and inclusive industrialisation as key drivers of economic transformation. It supports the PPRA Transformation Strategy by exploring how the Estate Agency Affairs Board can accelerate transformation within the estate agency profession to better reflect South Africa’s demographics. In addition, it aligns with the policy direction set out in the policy brief entitled Reinstating a Professionalisation Policy for South Africa’s Real Estate Sector, which seeks to strengthen education, training, processes, policies, guidelines, and procedures to enhance professionalisation and build a future-ready property market.

The objectives of the Colloquium are to:

Provide a platform for the dissemination of research by both academics and practitioners;
Encourage innovative approaches to sustainability, transformation, and sector professionalisation;
Foster partnerships across government, academia, industry, and civil society; and
Build a stronger knowledge base that informs progressive policy and regulatory frameworks.

We invite interested individuals to submit abstracts that align with one or more of the colloquium’s thematic areas listed below:

Utilising transformational instruments as a means of creating an inclusive and sustainable property market.
Exploring tangible measures for the acceleration of women and Black economic empowerment within the property market.
Leveraging the property market as a catalytic instrument for unlocking job creation and economic opportunities.
Understanding the benefits and gains of property sector professionalisation.
Exploring evidence-based approaches and research-driven interventions to enhance the functioning of the property market.
Leveraging property investment and global partnerships for the development of the South African property sector.
Leveraging 4th Industrial Revolution practices, digital transformation, and innovation to advance sustainable property sector development.