The International Consortium of Real Estate Associations (ICREA), a Consortium of the world’s leading real estate associations, is committed to the right to own and transfer real property. ICREA sets standards for international real estate practice and facilitates worldwide real estate transactions through its website, WorldProperties.com. Contact ICREA at icrea@worldproperties.com.

ICREA and its member associations are committed to high standards of professional conduct for member brokers. Each member association has a country-specific code of conduct and, collectively, the organization has adopted a statement on International Principles of Conduct.

Why A Consortium?
As national real estate associations worldwide look to respond to industry issues for a global marketplace, several factors have converged that dictated the need for a strong global alliance:

• Globalization has had an immediate and powerful impact on real estate markets, attracting the attention of real estate professionals worldwide. Practitioners with a local focus are seeking to expand their businesses into the international sphere, and look to their real estate associations for advice and assistance.

• The rapid growth of the Internet has made the international market accessible to millions of consumers. Current estimates are that more than 650 million people are online and by 2004 the number will have reached close to 1 billion. Most of the growth will take place in Asia, Latin America and parts of Europe.

• The value of commerce connected to the real estate industry is staggering. Residential real estate sales in 2000 for the U.S. alone approximately one trillion U.S. dollars. As a result, many companies view the global real estate market as a source for significant revenue potential who may not have the interests of the real estate agent or the consumer in mind. Professional associations need to work together to keep real estate practitioners central to the transaction and endorse ethical business practices.

In August 1999, representatives from nine national associations from Europe, Asia and the Americas met to discuss the globalization issues facing their respective members. The outcome was a consensus that an international forum was needed where real estate associations could come together to share information, discuss the forces of a global economy, and facilitate their member's international activities. Participants agreed that for meaningful transnational business to take place, international norms and standards were needed to govern the real estate profession globally. Another identified need was an Internet-based networking system that would link association Web sites, facilitate transnational referrals among association members, and provide ready access to foreign market information.

Subsequent meetings of this group resulted in the formation of an international consortium made up of the leading real estate associations serving national markets. In November 2000, 24 real estate associations signed a letter of commitment to the Consortium. After nearly two years of laying the foundation, 23 associations signed the formal agreement on May 13, 2001 in Washington, DC, officially launching the International Consortium of Real Estate Associations (ICREA). Since then, membership has continued to expand.

Three regional/umbrella groups also signed with "Observer" status. The Observer status has evolved in to a new "ICREA Affiliate" membership status, available to allied industry groups that are not eligible for full Association Membership in ICREA based on their organizational structure and/or member constituents. Organizations interested in learning more about being an ICREA Affiliate should click here.

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Real estate professionals around the world are looking for ways to better serve their clients and customers who wish to buy property outside their country and/or who are seeking to sell a property with worldwide appeal. Until now, obstacles to providing these services included a lack of readily available information on foreign markets, the absence of international real estate norms and standards, uncertainties associated with foreign market practices/legal systems, and the absence of an efficient international referral network that assures payment of earned fees and commissions.

ICREA set out to address these obstacles, reflected in its mission:

"ICREA is a Consortium of the world’s leading real estate associations who believe in the right to own and transfer real property. The Associations set standards for international real estate practice and transactions for the benefit of the industry professionals and the public they serve".

The tangible value for both global and domestic practitioners includes:

1. The availability of an Internet-based menu of services including immediate access to current industry business practices, global industry news, a real property advertising system, and more.
2. A set of international standards for professional ethics, best practices, and data transfer.
3. Networking and referral tools including a roster of member association constituents and transnational referral system that includes an arbitration system in the event of a dispute.
4. Advocacy role to protect and promote private property rights and best practices worldwide.

Individual practitioners receive these benefits by virtue of their respective association’s membership in ICREA. There is no option for individual practitioner or company membership.

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In today's market, real estate is complex enough when the transaction is local. Adding an international element to the deal makes it even more so. ICREA helps consumers understand the global market business practices and can assist both buyers and sellers. Using online resources, buyers and sellers can learn about how real estate is transacted in the country of interest, so they are prepared for the differences from the practice in their home country. Buyers can search for properties among more than 3 million listings, and locate a broker who will work in a cooperative manner with a broker in another country to ensure the best possible service. Sellers can locate a broker who will market their properties to a worldwide market. This is especially important for sellers with distinctive properties that will attract buyers from around the globe in search of a vacation, resort, or luxury property, or simply one that's unique within its local market. ICREA's greatest value to consumers, however, is the ICREA network of brokers-more than 1 million-who are affiliated with leading national organizations and adhere to a code of ethics that commits them to professionalism and service to their customers and clients.

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The impetus for a Consortium may have been grounded in need to help facilitate transnational business but member associations also realize benefits that serve their members involved primarily in domestic transactions. The Consortium is an international "community of commerce", providing opportunities for significant cost savings for its members on business products and services. Involvement in an international Consortium should appeal to domestic constituents of associations as it positions them to more easily facilitate an occasional transaction with a non-domestic component and exposes their listings to a wider audience. More importantly, ICREA’s efforts to ensure technology doesn’t displace practitioners, but instead keeps them central to the transaction, is a vital benefit to all members.

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ICREA is structured around a series of rights and obligations based upon a multilateral agreement. This agreement binds member associations and, through them, the business entities and individuals that make up their membership, to a series of "basic commitments". These basic commitments oblige each member association:

• To maintain its own Web site, link to the ICREA Web site, consent to a ICREA site link to its site, and provide specified and accurate content to the site in English

• To abide by the terms of technical standards relating to electronic data transfer;

• To maintain in force a code of ethics governing the conduct of its constituents and to inform its constituents that its existing code of ethics shall apply to all transnational real estate transactions with respect to which any one of its constituents is a party;

• To make current membership information available at the ICREA site;

• To bear financial responsibility for its own involvement and pay a proportionate share of the operational expenses.

These basic commitments, however, are just the framework for success. True success will be achieved when standards are applied to all transnational transactions undertaken by the real estate professionals represented by its member associations. A second order of standards and best practices will be developed as "protocols".

Protocols are subordinate agreements and member associations can choose which protocols, if any, to sign. To gain access to the processes, entitlements, and obligations embodied in a particular protocol, a member association must sign it, signifying agreement to be bound by its terms, rules and standards, and to provide its members the opportunity to voluntarily agree thereto.

ICREA is governed by an nine-member Executive Committee, which acts as the equivalent to a Board of Directors. Two co-chairs preside over this Executive Committee. The work of the Executive Committee is done through ad hoc Working Groups established to deal with a variety of business issues, including international referrals, membership, and compliance and enforcement professional, business and technical standards. Any member association may participate in a work group.

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Although the current member associations represent approximately half of the world’s GDP, ICREA welcomes expansion of membership to all countries that support organized real estate, strong standards of business practice and uphold a code of ethics. ICREA will seek other alliances, as needed, to ensure full global representation. Each country may be represented by a single entity, so where multiple national brokerage organizations exist within a country, these groups are encouraged to join together as a single alliance for purposes of ICREA membership only. In doing so, these groups agree to coordinate the information provided for the Web site and to come to consensus on business matters before the full membership in order to place a single vote.

ICREA membership is not open to individuals or individual real estate companies or firms. Individual practitioners will benefit from ICREA affiliation through membership in a national real estate organization. Individuals located in a country where there is an ICREA member organization should contact that organization directly to explore membership opportunities. Links to ICREA member organizations are available on the country home page at this site. Select from the pull down menu available at the top of this page. Individuals located in a country where there is no ICREA member may wish to identify an organization that seems appears to best fit ICREA membership criteria, and encourage that organization to contact ICREA to pursue membership affiliation.

Associations interested in joining ICREA must understand the obligation to participate in the ICREA Web site. A basic commitment under the multilateral agreement, it requires ICREA members to provide current membership data and to "exclusively endorse" the ICREA Web site as each member association's means of promoting real estate internationally. ICREA dictates no use for this information domestically so associations are free to determine how this same information is available within the respective member country, e.g. from a national association Web site. Real estate associations interested in pursuing membership in the International Consortium of Real Estate Associations may contact the Secretariat at icrea@worldproperties.com.

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