In 1926, a small group of property professionals saw the need for an organisation that would set and protect the highest standards of skill, behaviour and practice for the profession. One hundred years on, that organisation is the Australian Property Institute, and the Excellence in Property Awards exist to recognise the individuals and organisations still setting those standards today. 

Nominations for the 2026 Excellence in Property Awards, marking the API’s centenary year, are open now and must close 26 August. Six categories are open for entry, each recognising a different way excellence shows up in the profession, from bold innovation to a career of quiet, sustained contribution. Finalists are announced in October. 

Winners are revealed at the API Gala Awards Night in Adelaide on 5 November – the same event marking 100 years of the API. Life Fellows and Fellows receive a complimentary invitation.

START A NOMINATION

Why put a nomination forward 

An EIPA nomination is recognition that comes from the profession itself. The judging panel is made up of State and Territory Chairs of the API: senior practitioners judging nominations against the standards they hold themselves and their own teams to. That’s what gives a finalist placement or a win real weight with clients, employers and peers alike. 

2026 adds another layer to that. Being recognised in the year the API marks its centenary means a nomination isn’t just measured against this year’s field, it’s part of the story of a hundred years of the profession’s standard-setting. For individuals, that’s a meaningful marker in a career. For teams and firms, it’s independent, peer-tested proof point to put in front of clients and prospective staff. 

It’s also, simply, a chance to make visible the work that usually isn’t. Most of what earns this kind of recognition happens quietly: the systems built, the clients served well for years, the colleagues mentored along the way. A nomination is what turns that into something the rest of the profession can see and learn from. 

The six 2026 categories 

Innovation in Property Award 

Team Award 

Every profession has to future-proof itself, and property is no exception. The Innovation in Property Award recognises the teams and companies building the projects, technologies and systems that will carry the profession forward for decades to come. This is the category for work that changed how a problem gets solved, not just work that solved it well. 

Best suited to: a team or company that has developed and implemented a genuinely new project, product, technology or system, and can point to a real benefit it has delivered to the property industry or the wider community. 

Valuation Team of the Year 

Team Award 

Good valuation work rarely makes headlines, but it’s the foundation everything else in the profession stands on. This award recognises a company or team whose valuation practice consistently upholds API standards, giving clients and end users genuine confidence in its objectivity, independence and reliability across commercial and residential work. 

Best suited to: a valuation team that can demonstrate both a strong commitment to best practice and measurable gains in client satisfaction and outcomes through its quality management systems. 

Young Professional of the Year Award 

Individual Award 

The future of the profession is already being shaped by the people entering it now. This award honours one early career professional whose work already reflects the standards the rest of the industry is judged against, and who is emerging as a genuine role model for their peers. 

Best suited to: an early-career individual who can show a consistently high standard of professional excellence and ethics, alongside real, personal contribution to API’s community of young property professionals as a volunteer, advocate or role model. 

Regional Valuer of the Year Award 

Individual Award 

Regional and remote practice comes with its own demands, and its own standard-bearers. This award recognises valuers working outside the metro centres whose practice and professional standards set an example for the next generation of the profession in their community. 

Best suited to: a valuer based in a regional or remote area who can demonstrate a consistently high professional standard, ethics and dedication to valuation, alongside a genuine contribution to their profession and community. 

The Lesley Bennett Women in Property Award 

Individual Award 

This is an enduring tribute to the women who have shaped the profession’s progress and culture, open to women from every discipline within property. It recognises leadership that has genuinely opened doors for the next generation. 

Best suited to: a woman in property who can point to real leadership impact across the industry, along with a wider contribution to the profession and the community. 

Outstanding Contribution to Property Award 

Individual Award 

API’s highest individual honour. This award isn’t for a single achievement, it’s for a career’s worth of them: sustained, profession-defining contribution to property and to the Institute itself. 

Best suited to: a practitioner who can demonstrate long-term commitment to API’s vision and strategic goals, personal contribution as a volunteer, advocate or role model, and sustained service to the sector and the Institute. 

START A NOMINATION

Nominate yourself, your team, or someone else 

Nominations aren’t limited to one kind of relationship to the nominee. Whichever of these fits, the process is the same: 

  • Nominate someone else: a colleague, mentor, employee or peer whose work you think deserves this. This covers every individual category: Young Professional, Regional Valuer, Lesley Bennett Women in Property, and Outstanding Contribution. 
  • Nominate your team or company: for Innovation in Property and Valuation Team of the Year, put forward the team or company behind the work, not an individual name. 
  • Nominate yourself: self-nominations are genuinely welcome across the individual categories, including Outstanding Contribution. If you’ve built the standard others are judged against, don’t wait for someone else to say so. 
  • Nominate with others: co-nominators are encouraged. Bringing in a colleague who can add weight, context or a different angle to the nomination often makes for a stronger submission than going it alone. 

Before starting, it’s worth setting aside 20 to 30 minutes, and having any supporting material on hand: case studies, references, testimonials or project documentation. Progress is saved as you go, so a nomination doesn’t need to be finished in one sitting. 

Key dates 

  • 26 August: Nominations close 
  • 27 August: Judging period begins 
  • October: Finalists announced 
  • 5 November: Winners announced at the API Gala Awards Night, Adelaide, marking 100 years of the API