The professional body for surveyors in land, property, infrastructure and construction, founded in London in 1868, which sets the standards, runs the qualifications and handles complaints about its members.
RICS, the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors, is the professional body for people who work in land, property, infrastructure and construction. A surveyor is a trained professional who measures, values, manages and advises on land and buildings, and RICS decides what good practice looks like. It describes itself as the world's leading professional body for qualifications and standards in these fields. It publishes international standards such as the Red Book for valuation and the Black Book for quantity surveying and construction, runs professional qualifications and continuing professional development, assesses people who want to become chartered, and keeps a Find a Surveyor directory so the public can check who they are dealing with. It also runs a Dispute Resolution Service.
The organisation began in London in 1868 as the Institution of Surveyors, when 49 surveyors met at the Westminster Palace Hotel on 15 June. It received a royal charter in 1881 and gained the Royal title in 1946, taking its current name in 1947. Its own words on its mission are that everything it does is designed to "effect positive change in the built and natural environments", and it says its purpose is to protect consumers and businesses by ensuring a high level of professionalism. Governance has been a topic: a 2022 independent review, the Bichard Review, called for the institution to change at pace and for its regulatory work to be more independent, and the organisation now has a separate Standards and Regulation Board.
In the UK, RICS has its headquarters in London, on the corner of Great George Street and Little George Street, and Wikipedia says its main support functions are in Birmingham. It also has offices and regional teams around the UK and in places such as mainland Europe, the Middle East, Singapore, China and Australia. As at 2025, Wikipedia reports 113,000 members in nearly 150 countries, with most in the UK.
RICS says it aims to be a responsible business and a responsible employer, and its public pages mention sustainability, modern slavery reporting, and diversity, equity and inclusion. It also supports young professionals through Matrics, a network for students and new surveyors, and a benevolent fund called Lionheart for members in need. We did not find staff numbers or independent workplace reviews.
The jobs at an organisation like this are not mainly surveying jobs. They include people who write and update standards, regulation and complaints staff, event and training teams, membership and assessment staff who look after candidates, policy and public affairs specialists, and the finance, technology and people teams any large charity-style body needs. If you are curious about the surveying profession itself, RICS says there is no single route in: it describes apprenticeships that do not need a degree, degree routes with over 1,200 accredited courses, and chartered status through an assessment of professional competence.
Website: www.rics.org
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