Real Estate Executive Series
Now Offered by the MIT Center for Real Estate
 
The Center for Real Estate—Education in the MIT Tradition
 
The Center for Real Estate at MIT has always been known for the excellence of its academic programs and the stature of its faculty. And in January of this year, Real Estate Economics ranked the Center as the second most influential research institution in the field. Educational programs at the Center for Real Estate (CRE) are two-pronged: the one year Master of Science in Real Estate Development, and the summer Professional Development Courses. We are pleased to announce the addition of a new Real Estate Executive Series to our summer Professional Development program.
 
 
New Executive Series
 
Three new courses targeting the needs of senior executives in the real estate industry form the core of the new Executive Series. Designed in response to feedback from senior executives in the real estate industry and tailored to meet their needs, the 2007 Executive Series courses are: Advanced Real Estate Development: Decision Making, Introduction to Real Estate Equity Derivatives, and Innovations and Entrepreneurship. All three courses are high level, heavy on practical tools and their applications to address the complex day-to-day needs of top real estate professionals in a global industry faced with increasing challenges.
 
"Reflecting MIT's cross-disciplinary culture, these new courses explore both the art and science of the real estate profession," said the Center's Managing Director, Marion Cunningham, "and they draw upon the Center's affiliations with the MIT School of Architecture, Department of Economics and the Sloan School of Management." 
 
Advanced Real Estate Development Course
The Advanced Real Estate Development course is an exploration of the emerging science of development, a matter that has commanded the Center's attention for the past few years. "For a generation, scholars around the world have been developing methodologies and analytical tools in the area of real options and engineering systems analysis, technologies that are relevant to design, planning and decision-making regarding large-scale, complex development projects in a world of uncertainty," said David Geltner, Director of the Center for Real Estate. "At the same time, financial and urban economists have been applying a market equilibrium perspective to potential applications in corporate finance and real estate. Increasingly, at the Center, we've been interested in the remarkable parallels between these two approaches and the Advanced Real Estate Development course will draw from both of these intellectual communities, exploring how these nascent tools can be adopted more broadly and successfully by the real estate industry."
 
New Derivatives Course
The New Derivatives course will provide a basic introduction to the exciting new way to invest in, or hedge, real estate: real estate index futures. Such derivatives could revolutionize the real estate investment industry, increasing efficiency by reducing transaction and management costs, promoting specialization, and allowing hedging or "market value insurance." The course will introduce the nature and mechanics of real estate equity index return swaps, present the fundamentals of correct pricing of such derivatives, and discuss the important considerations regarding the different types of commercial property price or return indexes that can underlie such derivatives, including appraisal-based and transactions price-based indexes.

Innovations and Entrepreneurship Course
Innovations and Entrepreneurship is designed to provide practical guidance on Entrepreneurship in Real Estate today and, more importantly, going forward. What has been successful to date? What are the current trends? Where is the industry headed? What lessons can be transferred from MIT's long history of entrepreneurship in technology applied to real estate? Bill Aulet, Senior Lecturer and Entrepreneur in Residence from the MIT Entrepreneurship Center will examine the basics of entrepreneurship and how they apply to the Real Estate industry by exploring the nuts and bolts of business planning, achieving a sustainable competitive advantage, value proposition and segmenting your market.
 
 
CRE's Industry-Recognized Research
 
One of the core values of an MIT education at is that teaching be informed by world-class research. The Center for Real Estate is strong in this MIT tradition. Under girding all of the Center's educational offerings are a trio of key research initiatives that ensure the Center's understanding of the global market and currency in the field are always on the leading edge and constantly undergoing refinement.
 
New Century Development
Through New Century Development the Center undertakes research and communications forums aimed at understanding and improving the physical real estate development process during the 21^st century. Both interdisciplinary and international in scope, it provides avenues to link across departments at MIT and between MIT and the community of professional practice.
 
Housing Affordability Initiative
The Housing Affordability Initiative represents a long-term commitment of the Center and the MIT Department of Urban Studies and Planning to focus on housing affordability issues.
 
Commercial Real Estate Data Laboratory
The Commercial Real Estate Data Laboratory (CREDL) gathers data and develops practical methodologies and tools to measure and evaluate the performance of commercial real estate.
 
About the Center
 
MIT seeks to develop in each member of the MIT community the ability and passion to work wisely, creatively, and effectively, for the betterment of humankind. In other words, MIT seeks to make the world a better place. The Center for Real Estate embraces that goal, and seeks to educate the next generations of leaders in the real estate industry, build the tools of tomorrow for real estate, and influence people to develop better real estate globally. MIT and CRE are uniquely positioned to raise real estate to a more efficient, socially responsible industry, to build in a way that will see the world through the 21^st century.
 
Founded in 1983, the CRE has dedicated nearly a quarter of a century to improving the quality of the built environment and promoting more informed professional practice in the global real estate industry. The Center is well connected to international businesses and institutions “ especially Cambridge University and Beijing's Tsinghua University “ and boasts a growing roster of sustaining and supporting partners that includes leading real estate firms from all over the country as well as Beijing, Shanghai, Montreal, London and Sweden.