ABSTRACT

Research findings of a survey on 'the Internet and the Property Profession' by The College of Estate Management (Dixon, 1998) show that the profession has much augmented its access to and use of IT. The most important use overall of the Web is 'research'. Despite substantial quantities of data and information being posted on the Web from which to conduct such research, respondents to the survey did not consider their role as 'information broker' under threat. Nor did they see the Internet impacting

on location and land use decisions in the short term. Nevertheless, it is clear that the Internet is having a substantial impact on business and the professions. Commercial use of the Web is rapidly expanding in all sectors with 1995 figures suggesting about 1,500 businesses becoming newly connected each month as users are estimated to top 40 million and increasing by 10% a month (KPMG, 1997). Electronic commerce (ecommerce), that is, purchasing business-to-consumer and business-tobusiness over the Internet, is the new business frontier with turnover in Europe alone predicted to triple between 2000 and 2002 to ECU600 million and creating some 500,000 jobs related to the network economy (Condrinet, 1998).