Driving the industry forward: The Association of Professional Standards for Asset Surveying (APSAS)

There’s a new industry association on the block! Mobiess are pleased to announce that we’re a member of a new professional association for the built environment which launched in April 2025, with the recent launch of the Association of Professional Standards for Asset Surveying (APSAS).

APSAS - The Vision

The vision of APSAS is to improve the quality of asset surveying across the UK, and also provide a defined and supported career pathway for existing and potential new entrants into the profession.

Competence

APSAS is on a mission to create clearly defined and agreed levels and standards of professional competence: at the basic, intermediate and advanced levels.

Progression

APSAS will create a career pathway for the training and assessment of asset surveyors – with an aim to upskill everyone across the profession.

Attraction

To encourage and retain new entrants into the profession, with established levels of knowledge and skills to be attained, through defined training and practical experience.

What is APSAS?

The new association is the result of an industry-wide asset surveying collaboration and various roundtable briefing events over the past several years. With guidance from the Institute of Asset Management (IAM) and the Institute of Workplace and Facilities Management (IWFM).

Started by Matthew Steptoe of TSA Surveying, Mark Spilling of Assets55, Karl Horner of Mobiess and Vanessa Mason and Mark Whittaker from Thomson FM, organisations such as TB&A, RLB, Bellrock and Mitie have already become founding members of APSAS.

The purpose? To improve the quality and competency of asset surveying across the UK.

Addressing the challenges that asset surveyors face

The asset surveying industry faces widespread challenges:

• • Inconsistent asset data and errors in survey reports
  • Missing or incorrectly classified assets, leading to data fragmentation
  • Inaccurate and incomplete asset registers that were costly to produce
  • Inconsistent terminology and data formatting, with no standard language across the industry
  • Poorly maintained asset inventories and unclear policies around asset management
  • A lack of long-term financial planning to support strategic decisions
  • Clear skill gaps, especially when it came to understanding key standards like SFG20 PPMs