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Nigel Crowe, a Director of Chrystals,  is pictured  being congratulated by Mr. See Lian Ong,130th President of the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors on his election as a Fellow. The President’s reception was organized at the Institution’s Westminster Headquarters, to honour recently elected Fellows. The award is made to senior Professional Associates with significant achievements in their profession, in related academic study, or through involvement with RICS itself.

Nigel is currently the Vice-Chairman of Isle of Man Chartered Surveyors, which  co-ordinates activities organized for the local members of the Institution, and acts as a channel of communication with Government and the other professions. Island members are engaged in a wide variety of roles in the fields of landed property and construction, including not only valuation surveyors practicing in the field of property consultancy and estate agency, but also QS, development and building surveyors serving the construction sector,  geodetic and land surveyors. The Manx  Government service employs chartered surveyors in a variety of roles which include that of Government Valuer and deputy, and professional estate managers.

Nigel is keen to acknowledge the help he received, in formulating his submission, from Fellows Andrew Berry and Keith Kerruish, who sponsored his Fellowship application. Andrew (principal of Berry & Co.) is current Chairman of IOM Chartered Surveyors, while Keith is one of the senior figures in the Manx property profession, former RICS Branch Chairman, and now a consultant to Chrystals, after some 40 years steering the  firm’s progress as partner and director. 

Nigel commented that See Lian Ong’s keynote address to the cadre of new Fellows had touched on two areas seen as critical by the Institution, the increasing internationalization of the profession, and the importance, in a challenging financial climate,  of looking beyond traditional fields of practice to seek out new opportunities and specialized markets

Commenting on his main field of activity  within the Manx commercial market-place, Nigel was convinced that professional expertise, local knowledge, and the benefits of town-centre representation remained as important as ever. He commented that his 23 years’ experience with Chrystals  had convinced him that the bringing together of a buyer and seller (or landlord and tenant) was a highly complex process of arbitrage, which potentially called on all the resources of the professionals involved. The internet was tremendously important as a shop-window, but he thought that it should only be seen as a useful adjunct; ‘increasingly in the present market place, commercial and residential clients are realizing that there is no substitute for the in-depth knowledge of the market-place, and  of the legal and institutional context, that property professionals have at their fingertips. ‘Firms such as ours (going since 1854) have lived with the ups and downs of the market, and believe it is still important to provide a walk-in office, and  support the local markets as town centre owners, rent or rate-payers, and significant employers..’     

 Nigel’s interests span a broad range of issues in the Manx property world. His special achievements, beyond his agency, valuation and professional expert work within Chrystals, include the publication of the Historical Survey of Douglas, dealing with the layout  and ownership of all the property in the early town, which has  unexpectedly proved useful for establishing the title to properties; a particular interest in the period houses on the Island, particularly in identifying and documenting the oldest Manx homes, and the origins of the traditional farm-holdings, the Manx quarterlands. He has been working on the last project in his off-duty moments for more than five years, and this should culminate in the award of a Master’s degree.  Nigel comments that he is now getting the knack of ‘reading the landscape’, using aerial photos and historic mapping. ‘This research is proving very productive, eventually it will filter through into the way the Island presents the countryside and its history’.