Letter from Center Leadership
It is with great pleasure that we present this annual report, highlighting the 2024–2025 academic year at the Paul Milstein Center for Real Estate. This report captures the depth and diversity of activity, thought leadership, and specialized expertise that define our work and reflect the ongoing dynamism of the real estate industry.
At the heart of the Center’s mission is a commitment to supporting and advancing the renowned MBA Real Estate Program at Columbia Business School. We strive to complement its rigorous academic foundation by amplifying cutting-edge faculty research, fostering meaningful engagement with leading industry practitioners, and cultivating a vibrant community of students, alumni, and professionals.
Throughout these pages, you’ll find clear examples of our core priorities in action: from student-centered programming and original research to high-profile events and cross-sector collaborations. You’ll also see new and forward-looking initiatives that signal the Center’s continual evolution as a platform for learning, innovation, and connection. We’re especially excited to share that, beginning in the 2025–2026 academic year, we will be formally launching two major new initiatives: the Milstein Center Research Lab and the Real Estate Forum podcast—each designed to expand and amplify the reach and relevance of our academic and industry impact.
- The Milstein Center Research Lab conducts rigorous academic research in a collaborative setting and aims for
its work to foster meaningful dialogue with business innovators and public sector leaders. An important output
of the Lab is its Featured Viewpoints; short but thoughtful analysis of the most pressing issues in real estate markets, written by both CBS faculty and expert practitioners. - The Real Estate Forum podcast offers insights into the evolving real estate landscape—from candid conversations with thought leaders to cutting-edge research from the Milstein Research Lab. Hosted by Raphael Sidelsky ’99, episodes feature Columbia alumni, faculty, and industry experts exploring the ideas and innovations shaping the future, from capital markets and development to sustainability and strategy.
All this is made possible by the strength of our community. The dedication of our faculty, the energy of our students, the commitment of our alumni, and the generous partnership of industry leaders
are what drive the Center’s continued success. We are deeply grateful for your support and look forward to building on this momentum together.
We hope this report offers a closer lens into what’s happening in the classroom, across campus, and throughout our global real estate alumni community. We encourage you to stay engaged—and to stay tuned for all that’s next at the Paul Milstein Center for Real Estate and Columbia’s MBA Real Estate Program.
With appreciation,
- David Sherman ’82, Co-Director, Paul Milstein Center for Real Estate
- Stijn Van Nieuwerburgh, Earle W. Kazis and Benjamin Schore Professor of Real Estate
Co-Director, Paul Milstein Center for Real Estate - Kristin Svenningsen, Senior Managing Director, Paul Milstein Center for Real Estate
- Enrollment in real estate courses reached nearly 900 across the curriculum.
- A third section of Real Estate Finance, the foundational course, was added due to increased demand.
- The Real Estate Circle presented regional alumni events in six major cities including London and Dubai.
- Through the Circle, the Milstein Center continued to deepen its engagement with the CBS global real estate alumni community, engaging 443 alumni across the full suite of Center-led and -sponsored events and programs.
- The MBA Real Estate Program welcomed two new adjuncts who each redesigned and refreshed an existing course.
- Increased financial support for important experiential learning opportunities such as case competitions, employment treks, and international study tours.
- Real Estate faculty were regularly highlighted by major publications such as The Wall Street Journal and Forbes for their expertise, and most notably on the topic of remote work, Professor Stijn Van Nieuwerburgh was referenced in the Economic Report of the President of the United States.
287
Real Estate Association Numbers
136
Real Estate Circle Members
73
Guest speakers in Classroom
33
Real Estate Forum Members
29
Events presented for Alumni & Industry
25
(+)
Events presented for Students
3
Events presented for Faculty
Curriculum
13 Real Estate Courses
- 6 full-term, 7 half-term electives
- Due to demand, added a third section of Real Estate Finance in the spring; enrollments for Real Estate Finance reached an all-time high of 463 since the program’s inception
- Redesigned and reintroduced Global Real Estate Investment into curriculum after a 2-year hiatus
- Enhanced and redeveloped the former Real Estate Private Equity course: Capstone: Real Estate Investment
Executive Education
- Real Estate Investing (2 sessions/year, in person on campus)
- Real Estate Investing Strategies (Online, 6-week sessions, ongoing)
- Custom Real Estate Executive Education programs
Teaching
- 4 Full-time Faculty Members
- 12 Adjunct Professors
- Newly appointed adjuncts: Gregorio Schneider ’96 (Global Real Estate Investment) and Jane Yang ’10 (Capstone: Real Estate Investment)
Key Center Resources
- Dedicated staff supporting real estate faculty and adjuncts in the classroom, as well as onboarding of new faculty members
- Dedicated staff supporting real estate alumni relations and development
- Student grants that underwrite and offset various experiential learning opportunities
The Paul Milstein Center Research Lab
- 4 dedicated Staff Officers of Research for real estate
- A dedicated computing environment, data, tools, subscriptions, and memberships (for research, teaching, and student recruiting/ research)
- Real Capital Analytics, CoreLogic, Trepp, Green Street, CompStak, NAREIT, ARGUS, PREA, RS Means, NCREIF, A.CRE Accelerator
CBS RE: A dedicated alumni communications and online networking platform that supports and connects CBS alumni throughout the real estate industry from 39 different countries. The community currently includes an active directory of over 1,800 members with graduation years spanning 1964 to 2025.
Faculty Highlights, Recognition, Applied Research
Stijn Van Nieuwerburgh won best paper award at the National Meeting of the American Real Estate and Urban Economics Association for “An Alpha in Affordable Housing?”—May 30, 2025.
He was also referenced in the Economic Report of the President of the United States, released in January 2025. The report devoted an entire chapter to “How Remote Work Is Reshaping the Economy” and cited several of Professor Van Nieuwerburgh’s papers that discussed the implications of remote work for housing markets and office values and how cities should adjust to this new environment.
Brian Lancaster was awarded the 2025 Singhvi Prize for Scholarship in the Classroom.
New Adjunct Faculty Professors
Gregorio Schneider ’96, Co-Founder, Chief Investment Officer, TC Latin America Partners, joined in the spring to teach Global Real Estate Investment.
He is the co-founder and chief investment officer of TC Latin America Partners, an institutional real estate fund manager that invests with a thematic approach in Latin America. Before forming TC Latin America Partners in 2012, he was managing director and head of emerging markets at OchZiff Capital Management.
Gregorio holds a BA in business administration from the Instituto Tecnológico Autónomo de México (ITAM) and an MBA from Columbia University Business School.
Jane Yang ‘10, Founder, Cooper Square, joined CBS in the spring to teach Capstone: Real Estate Investment.
She is the founder of Cooper Square, a real estate investment firm focused on acquiring, owning, and operating manufactured home communities nationally. Before forming Cooper Square, she held senior investment roles at multiple institutionally backed real estate private equity funds.
Jane holds an AB from Harvard University and an MBA from Columbia Business School, where she was a Bodini Real Estate Fellow. She is a member of WX New York Women Executives in Real Estate and serves on the Board of Directors of NYPEN Real Estate.
Select Publications and Thought Leadership
Commercial Real Estate Distress and Elevated Interest Rates Pose Solvency Risks for Banks
Authors: Amit Seru, Erica Jiang, Gregor Matvos, Tomasz Piskorski
Earth Week: Research Insights for a Sustainable Future
Authors: Vanessa Burbano, Shivaram Rajgopal, Stijn Van Nieuwerburgh, Gernot Wagner
The Economics of Net Zero Banking
Authors: Adair Morse, Parinitha Sastry
Exorbitant Privilege Gained and Lost: Fiscal Implications, Journal of Political Economy
Authors: Zefeng Chen, Zhengyang Jiang, Hanno Lustig, Stijn Van Nieuwerburgh, Mindy Xiaolan
Higher Rates, Higher Rents: How Monetary Policy Affects Housing Costs
Authors: Boaz Abramson, Lu Han, Pablo De Llanos
The Surprising Profits in Affordable Housing
Author: Stijn Van Nieuwerburgh
Understanding Rationality and Disagreement in House Price Expectations, Review of Financial Studies
Authors: Zigang Li and Wang Renxuan, Stijn Van Nieuwerburgh
Working From Home and the Office Real Estate Apocalypse, American Economic Review
Authors: Arpit Gupta, Vrinda Mittal, Stijn Van Nieuwerburgh
Faculty Media Highlights
Members of the faculty conducting research under the auspices of the Milstein Center were cited for their perspective and expertise more than 40 times in the press this year.
MBA Real Estate Program Enrollments
(based on Fall, Spring, and Summer semester sequence)
| REAL ESTATE COURSE | 2023-2024 | 2024-2025 |
|---|---|---|
| (E)MBA Real Estate Finance (Fall, Spring, Summer) | 367 | 463 |
| Real Estate Transactions (Fall) | 42 | 41 |
| Real Estate Equity Securities Analysis (Fall) | 42 | 37 |
| Real Estate Debt Markets (Fall) | 39 | 55 |
| Advanced Real Estate Seminar (Spring) | 30 | 29 |
| Global Real Estate Investment (Spring) | Not offered | 43 |
| Capstone: Real Estate Investment (Spring — formerly RE Projects Class) | 26 | 25 |
| Real Estate Development (Spring) | 34 | 44 |
| Real Estate M&A Workshop (Spring) | 11 | Not offered |
| PropTech and Real Estate Disruption (Fall — new course as of 2019) | 47 | Not offered |
| Residential Real Estate: Dirt, Debt, and Derivatives (new course as of Fall 2019) | 71 | 73 |
| Distressed Real Estate Investing (new course as of Spring 2021) | 36 | 34 |
| Real Estate Analytics (Spring — new course as of 2022) | 30 | Not offered |
| EMBA Block Week: Real Estate as an Asset and a Business (Spring) | 72 | 52 |
| Total | 847 | 896 |