EPRA Chief Executive Philip Charls says he does not see the listed property sell-off to 60% and 70% below net asset value at the depths of the crisis as causing long-term damage. "I don't have any indication that people say, 'Okay, this brings so much volatility in my portfolio with regard to valuation or in the behavior of my stock that I'm not going to approach that market'," he says. More portfolios are being readied for flotation, but much will depend on short-term stock market performance. In markets such as Spain, banks have taken over large swathes of real estate and may use stock market IPOs to sell at least some equity.

EPRA has most publicly been involved recently with a lobby to head off the London-based International Accounting Standards Board re-setting accountancy rules. In a loose alliance called the Real Estate Equities Securities Association (REESA) which includes America's NAREIT, The Property Council of Australia, Asian Public Real Estate Association and the British Property Federation, EPRA led resistance to IASB plans to require valuations and rental income to be removed from balance sheets and reclassified as financial assets.

EPRA Director of Finance Gareth Lewis described the move as a potential shockwave. He says the issue now awaits a definitive decision around the end of this month from the IASB and the Financial Stability Board, housed in the Basel-based Bank for International Settlements. But he added: "We're very hopeful. There are still some board members, both at the IASB and FSB, who are opposed in principle to excluding a particular sector from new leasing rules… But it simply isn't appropriate for investment property and we're just trying to address a few specific arguments to make that clear… EPRA has led on this issue because it is such a big issue for European property firms."

Another relatively recent initiative has been the release, by a team led by EPRA Research Head Fraser Hughes, of data series on net asset value across Europe. These now allow comparisons of latest portfolio valuations with share prices, tracking the indices that EPRA produces in concert with NAREIT and the UK's FTSE. "We now cover all companies in the European part of the index - the European part including the UK, in total around about 80 companies," Hughes says. "We do a number of different splits that directly mirror indices we run with FTSE. So for example we run a UK NAV index, we run a Europe ex-UK index, and we do Europe with UK and ex-UK pooled together. We also break that down into sectors and split it down between REITs and non-REITs. You can really slice and dice the European market as you like." Tying in with its work on best practice, it is encouraging all European property firms to produce an EPRA-based NAV and an EPRA triple-net NAV to allow direct comparisons across firms, sectors and countries.