RPP People within Research on Property and Planning

Professor Neale Blair

Interim Head of the Belfast School of Architecture and Built Environment

Neale Blair is Professor of Urban and Regional Planning in the Belfast School of Architecture and the Built Environment (BSABE) at Ulster University. He was appointed Associate Head of BSABE in 2017. Neale is an expert in spatial planning policy and practice. Neale holds a PhD in regional spatial planning and is an active member of Ulster’s Built Environment Research Institute (BERI) and Centre for Research on Property and Planning (RPP).

External connections include chartered membership of the Royal Town Planning Institute (RTPI), Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (Advance HE), and member of the National Planning Knowledge Group for the Office of the Planning Regulator (OPR). Neale is currently Deputy Chair of the Planning Schools Forum, which represents RTPI-accredited Planning Schools, and is a member of the RTPI's Education and Lifelong Learning Committee (ELLC). Neale chaired the Advisory Group that reviewed the Subject Benchmark Statement for Town and Country Planning (2024) and was External Examiner at the University of Manchester 2019-2023.

Current research interests include spatial governance and analysis; urban planning pedagogy, planning education in developing countries; visualisation of data to inform stakeholder engagement and decision making; and the use of technology – including Gen AI – to enhance participation in planning processes.  Neale has twenty years’ experience of research in cross-border spatial planning, working with stakeholders in the public, private and community sectors. Neale has been an external and internal PhD examiner and is an active PhD supervisor, currently supervising three doctoral students in Planning at Ulster. Publications include topics such as a social-ecological resilience agenda for urban design; 3D technology for enhancing resilience in the built environment; and the Dublin-Belfast Economic Corridor (DBEC).

Dr Kate Crinion

Lecturer in Construction Management

Dr Peadar Davis

Senior Lecturer

Peadar is a Chartered Surveyor and Senior Lecturer in Property Appraisal and Management. He was previously employed in private practice as a property valuer and asset manager. He gained his first Degree and Doctorate at Ulster University, with Masters Degrees from Aberdeen University and Exeter University in between.

He specialises in providing research, consultancy and training solutions for property taxation in developing/transitional jurisdictions. Recent property related work includes: advising the World Bank, FAO UN and the Ugandan Government on Government property valuation process modernisation and the introduction of CAMA; advising the Ethiopian Government on appropriate valuation training reform; advising the Dubai Land Authority on the creation of property market indices and advising Housing Associations on matters of investment and development strategy.

Previous research has been instrumental in informing the review of Northern Ireland, Ugandan and Egyptian property tax policy and training of consultants in Kosovo. Peadar is heavily involved in EU research concerning urban security, resilience, disaster recovery and critical infrastructure protection. Peadar is the Editor (Property) for the Journal of Financial Management of Property and Construction (www.emeraldinsight.com/journal/jfmpc).

Dr Karen Davison

Lecturer in Building Technology and Materials

Dr Saul Golden

Senior Lecturer

Dr Saul Golden, SFHEA, is a Lecturer in Architecture and Spatial Design, a Chartered UK architect and academic with over twenty-years of international practice/research/teaching expertise across architecture, interior and urban design.

Saul's research and teaching are underpinned by peer-reviewed publications and field-based projects through his UK trademarked, Urban Research Lab, which promotes trans-disciplinary, inter-sector collaboration across architecture, interior, and urban design related to mapping and influencing policy on more sustainable shared and diverse urban spaces, critical spatial practice, and innovative performative public engagement methods. His 2016 doctoral thesis, Beyond Architecture: Other Influences on Approaches to Practice and Urban Space, combined architectural and social sciences approaches to uniquely examine the changing nature of architecture practice, and changing roles architects undertake as critical spatial practitioners. Saul currently has four PhD supervision roles across architecture, engineering, art-practice, and social sciences topics.

In 2017-2018 Saul was Principal Investigator for a GCRF Pump-prime project in Ghana titled Sustainable Design and Shared Space (SDSS), integrating research into urban-rural design, off-grid energy, and clean water infrastructure for deprived communities in partnership with the Ghana Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), NGO Just Ghana, and Ulster University's Centre for Sustainable Technologies. Since 2016, Saul has also been a Visiting Academic with the Bamford Centre for Mental Health and Wellbeing undertaking research on architecture, interior and urban design relative to smart-ageing and dementia challenges, ageing-in-place, and healthy communities in the UK, US, and China.

Outside of his academic roles, Saul enjoys a strong international professional network through his practice, Gillespie-Golden Architects, and elected positions as a Trustee of the RIBA and RSUA; from 2012-2018 he was also a Director of built environment outreach charity PLACE Ltd.

Professor Martin Haran

Professor of Real Estate and Urban Studies

Dr Lesley Hemphill

Senior Lecturer

Dr Lesley Hemphill is a lecturer in sustainability and Course Director for the BSc Hons Real Estate programme. Having undertaken her undergraduate at Ulster University in Estate Management, Lesley remained in academia to pursue her PhD (also at Ulster University) in quantifying the Sustainability Impacts of Urban Regeneration projects.  Upon completing her PhD, Lesley continued her passion for sustainability through initially research positions before moving into lecturing.  Lesley teaches sustainability to a diverse range of courses in the School of the Built Environment and combines this with her real estate specific research. 

Her research interests lie in the areas of sustainability assessment, urban indices, urban governance, regeneration and professional real estate practice and standards. Lesley has been actively involved in a number of high profile research projects for the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) including the role of international valuation standards within emerging and established markets and an international review of residential property measurement standards and practice.  She acts as an expert reviewer for a number of international journals including Urban Studies, Cities, Environment and Planning B, as well as serving on the editorial board of the Journal of Corporate Real Estate. Lesley has also held external examiner roles at other Academic Institutions.

Dr Jasmine Lay-Cheng Lim

Senior Lecturer

Dr Lay Cheng (Jasmine) Lim is the Director of the MSc Real Estate programme and a chartered member of the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS).  Through the ERAMUS programme, Jasmine was a visiting lecturer at the University of Alicante and has held external examiner appointments at the Limerick Institute of Technology, Society of Chartered Surveyors/Dublin Institute of Technology, University of West England and PhD examiner at Liverpool John Moores University. She holds a number of academic and professional memberships including membership of the Editorial Board of the Journal of Property Valuation and Services and the Journal of Property Tax Assessment and Administration. 

Jasmine is a core member of the Built Environment Research Institute (BERI) and was part of the 2008 and 2014 submission to the Research Assessment Exercise/Research Excellence Framework.  She has received numerous research awards from government department and local councils and publishes widely in the UK, US and Asian research journals. Her research projects have included the Reform of the Domestic Rating System and the Rates Appeal System in Northern Ireland; Land Value Taxation; Vacant Domestic Property; Independent Review of Policy on Location of Public Sector Jobs; Rating Revenue Impact Analysis for Belfast City Council; EU FD7 BESECURE project; RICS Global Valuation Standards and Practice, and an international review of residential property measurement standards and practices.

Sean MacIntyre

Senior Lecturer in Environmental Health

Dr Michael McCord

Reader

Dr Michael McCord is a lecturer in Property Market Research within the School of the Built Environment and a Core member of the Built Environment Research Institute. Having enjoyed his academic studies, Michael gained a thirst for research which led him onto a PhD pathway where he obtained PhD in Property from the School of the Built Environment, University of Ulster, winning Best PhD Thesis in School of the Built Environment (2010).

His principal teaching areas are in the fields of real estate analysis and econometrics, property finance and capital markets. His current research interest's centre on house price dynamics, market modelling and wider investment analysis related to capital markets.

Michael has a sizeable portfolio of esteemed commissioned research projects, peer reviewed journal publications, book chapters and international conference papers. He serves on the editorial boards, and is an expert reviewer for a number of prestigious international journals. He has received international recognition for his research endeavours, receiving an Outstanding Reviewer Award for the Journal of Financial Management of Property and Construction in 2013 and receiving a best paper award at the ARES conference in Hawaii in 2014.

Dr Linda McElduff

Lecturer in Planning

Linda McElduff is a lecturer in planning in the School of the Built Environment and an Associate Member of the Built Environment Research Institute. She graduated from Ulster University in 2011 with a MSci (distinction) in Planning and Property Development and completed her PhD in 2014. Her doctoral research investigated the regeneration and resilience of small coastal resorts on the island of Ireland.

Linda's primary research interests focus on coastal resort degeneration and regeneration; coastal and marine planning; community resilience; social-ecological resilience; governance; and property rights. She is a member of Planning, Law and Property Rights (PLPR), Association of European Schools of Planning (AESOP) and the Irish Seas Maritime Forum.

Dr Gavan Rafferty

Lecturer in Spatial Planning and Development

Dr Gavan Rafferty, PhD, MSc, BA (Hons.), MRTPI, Pg Cert HEP, FHEA, is a Lecturer in Spatial Planning and Development at the Belfast School of Architecture and the Built Environment, and is a member of the Built Environment Research Institute (BERI). He joined Ulster University in 2009, having previously worked as a Lecturer (2007-2009) and Research Assistant (2005-2007) at Queen's University Belfast, and a Development Control Officer (2004-2005) at the (then) Planning Service in Northern Ireland.

His doctoral research comprised a longitudinal study of ‘contested space’ and ‘shared space’ in Belfast, examining the relationship between ‘people’, ‘place’ and ‘power’.  Gavan has a Master of Science (MSc) in Town and Country Planning, with Distinction, and a Bachelor of Arts (BA) in Geography from Queen's University Belfast.

Gavan's research interests include: the interplay between community planning (integrated service delivery) and spatial planning (land use development); community engagement and participation; regeneration and urban governance in post-conflict societies/contested spaces; inclusive planning for creating healthy places; European and cross-border spatial planning. He was project coordinator of the ERASMUS+ (Community Participation in Planning - CPiP) project at Ulster University, collaborating with Community Places (UK), the University of Aveiro (Portugal) and the Politecnico di Milano (Italy) to co-design, teach and test different ways of engaging stakeholders in both spatial planning (place-making) and community planning (service delivery).

Gavan is a member of the Association of European Schools of Planning (AESOP), Fellow of the Higher Education Academy, and chartered member of the Royal Town Planning Institute (RTPI) - and is a past Chairperson of the RTPI Northern Ireland Branch (2009-2010). He is Ulster University’s representative on Antrim and Newtownabbey Borough Council’s Community Planning Officers Working Group, and representative on Belfast Healthy Cities’ Healthy Places Group.  He has worked with a number of local authorities and government agencies in the fields of spatial/land use planning, community planning and community engagement.

Dr Daniel Lo

Research Fellow: Real Estate and Infrastructure Investment

Dr Marie Vaganay Miller

Senior Lecturer