Curriculum
To focus your studies in real estate at Columbia Business School, students should take Real Estate Finance plus at least three additional courses (9 credits worth) from the following group of recommended real estate electives.
Real Estate Finance, offered every term, is the gateway course into the Real Estate Program. A blend of finance theory as applicable to real estate and practical skills of project analysis, this course is essential for all students who wish to take further coursework in real estate. As of fall 2012, the division offers students the option to take an exemption exam.
Additional courses in real estate, along with their requisites, are listed below. Since these courses are only offered in a particular term, students are advised to carefully plan their schedules.
Additionally, the Real Estate Career Course Map is designed to assist students with their selection of related electives.
Course Descriptions
Courses are listed alphabetically after Real Estate Finance.
Real Estate Finance (B8331*)
Term(s) Offered: fall, spring, summer
REQUIREMENTS | DESCRIPTION |
Corporate Finance (B6300) is a prerequisite. Capital Markets (B8306) is a co-requisite. *EMBA course in summer term (B7331): Corporate Finance (B5300) is a prerequisite. Capital Markets (B7306) is a co-requisite. |
Real estate accounts for one-third of the world’s capital assets. This course provides students with a comprehensive understanding of real estate valuation, cycles, markets, investments, and decision-making. The bulk of the course covers income-producing (commercial) property, although we will discuss residential housing. This course provides a unified finance-based framework to answer real estate investment decision-making problems encountered in the real world. Doing so requires a good understanding of the institutional features that differentiate real estate from other asset classes and markets as well as modern finance and economics tools. A blend of finance theory as applicable to real estate and practical skills of project analyses, Real Estate Finance is essential for all students who wish to take further coursework in real estate. 3 credits. The division will offer students the option to take an exemption exam. 3 credits. |
Advanced Real Estate Seminar (B8340)
Term(s) Offered: spring B term
REQUIREMENTS | DESCRIPTION |
Corporate Finance (B6300), Real Estate Finance (B8331), and Real Estate Transactions (B8332) are prerequisites | This case-based course addresses and, where possible, simulates complex problem solving applied to real estate. The emphasis is on strategic decision making and the types of issues that principals and investors face in acquiring, financing, owning, managing, developing, and restructuring real estate. Using cutting-edge case materials developed for the Columbia MBA Real Estate Program, the course focuses on analyzing complex problems and developing a recommended course of action based on in-depth analysis, both quantitative and qualitative. The course aims to develop your understanding of and appreciation for the multiple dimensions – economic, financial, and institutional – that shape the decision-making environment for real estate investment. Drawing upon the participation of case principals in the classroom, the course also addresses the issues and tactics of how the various industry actors – public companies, private equity funds, and individuals – execute their strategies, including dynamics that constrain actors and organizations in the real estate business. The course is designed to challenge students with complex situations so that they can not only hone their analytical skills, but also develop effective means of communicating their analytical insights and conclusions to different audiences: investors, lenders, clients, and joint-venture partners. 1.5 credits. |
Distressed Real Estate Investing (B8469)
Term(s) Offered: spring A term
REQUIREMENTS | DESCRIPTION |
Corporate Finance (B6300), Capital Markets (B8306), and Real Estate Finance (B8331), are prerequisites. Real Estate Transactions (B8332) is recommended. |
The goal of this course is to make you knowledgeable and conversant about the principles of real estate investing as applied to purchasing distressed assets. The Covid crisis is only the most recent example of how changes in the economy or capital markets can have a profound impact on real estate investors. During the Great Recession and the US Savings and Loan crisis before that, real estate assets suffered appreciable losses, and thus also provided an opportunity for investors to find new opportunities to recapitalize and reposition troubled properties and companies. As both a physical asset and an investment asset with a defined location in space, real estate is strikingly different from other asset classes. It is a long-lived asset that depends on attractive financing, rental increases, and long-term appreciation to maintain its value. Real estate forms part of the alternative investment asset class and institutional investors target a substantial part of their alternatives portfolio in real estate. The class will cover both US and international distressed investments and across traditional and niche sectors. The goal is to provide students with the tools to identify and purchase distressed real estate assets globally and to target superior risk-adjusted rates of return. 1.5 credits. |
EMBA Block Week Course: Real Estate as an Asset and a Business (B7493)
Term(s) Offered: spring
REQUIREMENTS | DESCRIPTION |
Corporate Finance (B5300) is a prerequisite. Those that have already taken (B7331) Real Estate Finance should not enroll in this course as there will be overlap in content. |
The goal of this course is to make you knowledgeable and conversant about the principles of real estate. As both a physical asset and an investment asset with a defined location in space, real estate is strikingly different from other asset classes. Real estate benefits from several financing attributes that are especially beneficial to both the entrepreneur and the institutional investor; for example, the non-recourse character of much mortgage financing and favorable tax treatment makes refinancing a particularly advantageous way to monetize capital appreciation. These attributes in combination with low barriers to entry have made real estate an avenue to wealth for individuals and a source of portfolio diversification for investment entities. As an industry/business sector, real estate has grown in size and complexity over the past several decades. It has always been a capital-intensive business, so sources of capital and the structuring of transactions are essential components of operating in this field. The vast bulk of real estate assets represent almost everything around us—homes, apartments, retail, industrial, office, hotel, and recreational property, among other types—represent the existing stock. The business of real estate is the business of asset management, finance and investment, leasing, and acquisitions/dispositions of the existing stock, and these activities compromise the majority of real estate activity.
Please note any student that has already taken B7331 Real Estate Finance should NOT take this block week course as there will be overlap in content. 3 credits. |
Global Real Estate Investment (B8337)
Term(s) Offered: spring B term
REQUIREMENTS | DESCRIPTION |
Corporate Finance (B6300) and Real Estate Finance (B8331) are prerequisites. | Cross border investment, once considered exotic, has become increasingly common, despite economic cycles. However, it requires another dimension of risk analysis and execution skill. This half-term course will introduce students to the fundamentals of global real estate investment from an institutional perspective through an exploration of risk analysis and specific strategies for structuring global real estate investments and portfolios. It will provide students with an analytical framework and the tools to analyze and value cross-border real estate investments in developed and emerging markets. It will also provide a perspective on the effects of globalization on property and capital markets. 1.5 credits. |
PropTech and Real Estate Disruption (B8341)
Term(s) Offered: fall
REQUIREMENTS | DESCRIPTION |
Real Estate Finance (B8331) is a co-requisite. | The purpose of this course is to introduce students to the recent disruptions in the real estate industry and provide them with an understating of the economic rationale driving such solutions. A large part of the course will focus on PropTech, that refers to businesses using technology to disrupt and improve the way we buy, rent, sell, manage, construct, and design residential and commercial properties. Those insights can help students make better real estate investment and development decisions for the future, including the development or investment in disruptive technologies and applications. 3 credits. |
Real Estate Analytics (B8474)
Term(s) Offered: fall A term
REQUIREMENTS | DESCRIPTION |
Students need to be fluent in Python and the basics of business analytics. Python knowledge needs to be demonstrated by passing the CBS Python proficiency exam. Having taken Real Estate Finance is a strong plus but not a prerequisite. Familiarity with github and data base manipulation are a strong plus. For MBA students, it is strongly recommended to take this course after completing “Programming in Python” (offered in Fall 2021 for 2nd year MBAs) or “Python for MBAs” (offered in Spring 2022). For MBA students, pre-requisites are three core classes: Corporate Finance, Managerial Statistics, and Business Analytics. For M.S. and Ph.D. students, pre-requisites are Computing for Business research (B9122) and one advanced (B9 level) statistics or econometrics course. Finance Theory I is recommended but not required. |
Real estate accounts for one third of the capital assets around the world. You simply cannot ignore it in as an investor or in any business, whether the business is called real estate or not. The last few years have seen a rapid increase in the use of Big Data in the real estate industry. Much more data have become available that allow companies to radically improve their decision making and create value in ways that are rapidly transforming the real estate industry. This course will use tools from business analytics and new, large real estate datasets to help shed light on important questions in residential and commercial real estate. The course will foster both conceptual understanding and hands-on skill acquisition through coding in Python. This course is meant both for students with strong programming background who want to learn more about real estate and for students of real estate who want to beef up their data analytics skills. 1.5 credits. |
Real Estate Debt Markets (B8453)
Term(s) Offered: fall B term
REQUIREMENTS | DESCRIPTION |
Corporate Finance (B6300), Capital Markets (B8306) and Real Estate Finance (B8331) are prerequisites. |
The development of commercial real estate debt markets has revolutionized the commercial real estate industry providing unprecedented capital availability and pricing, reshaping valuation metrics, heavily influencing private capital formation and providing real estate and security investors with a greater array of investment, hedging and arbitrage opportunities. As the past several years have demonstrated, the integration of public debt markets also creates volatility that can be driven by factors well outside the realm of commercial properties. Indeed the flow of debt capital can often have a greater impact on property values than the trends underlying property market fundamentals. Why asks an owner, did Russia’s debt default prevent me from refinancing my Kansas City shopping mall? How did money market funds almost “breaking the buck” contribute to the collapse of commercial real estate property prices in 2008? Today’s professional real estate investor must have an investment view and strategy which are informed by and integrated with the opportunities and risks inherent not just in the property markets but in today’s capital markets as well. In 2007 many thought balanced supply and demand fundamentals might cushion commercial real estate from the free fall in the oversupplied residential markets. Yet a thoughtful understanding of the complex connection between the two via the bond markets would have quickly apprised them otherwise. Understanding the real estate debt capital markets is essential for every commercial real estate borrower, lender or investor.1.5 credits. |
Real Estate Equity Securities Analysis (B8454)
Term(s) Offered: fall A term
REQUIREMENTS | DESCRIPTION |
Corporate Finance (B6300), Capital Markets (B8306) and Real Estate Finance (B8331) are prerequisites. |
Real Estate Equity Securities Analysis will serve as a substantive introduction to the REIT and real estate securities sectors, conceptually, and as an investment. The course will provide the requisite analytical tools to value real estate stocks; we will utilize conventional securities analysis tools, on an applied basis. The ultimate goal however, is to look at real estate securities investing holistically. As such, the course will incorporate qualitative, strategic and technical considerations into the quantitative valuation analyses – the intent is to reach more rigorous and successful investment conclusions. We will utilize case studies and include senior guest speakers from issuing REITs as well as securities analysts and portfolio managers from the buyside and the sellside. Real Estate Equity Securities Analysis will provide the actionable skills and broad analytical insight to participate successfully in a sector that has emerged as one of the most important drivers of the real estate industry globally. Real Estate Equity Securities Analysis will serve as a substantive introduction to the REIT and real estate securities sectors, conceptually, and as an investment. The course will provide the requisite analytical tools to value real estate stocks; we will utilize conventional securities analysis tools, on an applied basis. The ultimate goal however, is to look at real estate securities investing holistically. As such, the course will incorporate qualitative, strategic and technical considerations into the quantitative valuation analyses – the intent is to reach more rigorous and successful investment conclusions. We will utilize case studies and include senior guest speakers from issuing REITs as well as securities analysts and portfolio managers from the buyside and the sellside. Real Estate Equity Securities Analysis will provide the actionable skills and broad analytical insight to participate successfully in a sector that has emerged as one of the most important drivers of the real estate industry globally.1.5 credits. |
Real Estate M&A Workshop (B8339)
Term(s) Offered: spring A term
REQUIREMENTS | DESCRIPTION |
Corporate Finance (B6300), Real Estate Finance (B8331), and Real Estate Transactions (B8332) are prerequisites. | High‐stakes real estate M&A transactions require consummate deal‐making skills and a thorough understanding of the underlying business, legal, financial and strategic frameworks. This Workshop will explore the relevant skill‐sets and underlying frameworks through a combination of class discussions and hands‐on exercises. The REIT and commercial real estate sectors have emerged from the financial crisis, poised for a new phase of consolidation and M&A. In addition, on a technical note, the last decade saw significant legislative improvement in the tax scheme that governs REITS, which has provided REITs with greater operating and transaction flexibility, and recent legislative changes improve upon the ability of foreign persons investing in publicly traded REITs. We have seen a number of going private transactions in the REIT industry over the past year and more are expected in the near term given that the trading value of public REITs is generally below NAV and there are significant amounts of private capital, including from foreign investors, interested in investing in U.S. real estate. These waves of transactional activity provide an ideal case study approach for learning the strategy and tactics involved in sophisticated real estate deal making, as well as the underlying legal and business building blocks. The class will take a multi‐disciplinary approach, based on the premise that an effective transactional lawyer must understand the business and financial goals and implications of the deal and, similarly, that an effective business or finance executive must have a solid grasp of the legal, tax, and structural underpinnings for the transaction. 1.5 credits. |
Real Estate Portfolio Management (B8336)
Term(s) Offered: spring A term
REQUIREMENTS | DESCRIPTION |
Corporate Finance (B6300) and Real Estate Finance (B8331) are prerequisites. Real Estate Equity Securities Analysis (B8454) and Real Estate Debt Markets (B8453) are strongly advised. | This six-week course provides students with an introduction to the challenges and decisions faced by real estate portfolio managers. The focus is “macro” aspects of portfolio management, such as strategy and diversification, rather than buy or hold/sell decisions and business plans for individual assets. Examples include: key decision that affect performance; assessing alpha opportunities; evaluating risk-return tradeoffs. After completing this course students will be familiar with issues that arise in constructing and managing a real estate portfolio, including elements of portfolio strategy, managing diversification and liquidity and measuring performance and risk. 1.5 credits. |
Real Estate Private Equity (B8334) formerly Real Estate Project Class
Term(s) Offered: spring
REQUIREMENTS | DESCRIPTION |
Corporate Finance (B6300), Real Estate Finance (B8331), and either Real Estate Transactions (B8332) or at least 1-year experience of real estate/ transactions experience with instructor’s permission. |
Real Estate Private Equity provides students who intend on pursuing careers in real estate the opportunity to learn how to design and execute projects of professional scope and quality under the guidance of an experienced professor and practitioner, as well as a specific company sponsor. The course will include instruction in project design, scoping, strategy, research, and execution. Presentation skills, both oral and written, are integral to the course and project. Two (occasionally, one) student groups, each group consisting of three or four students, will work with an outside project sponsor to create a project presentation based on a real-world sponsor project. 3 credits. |
Real Estate Transactions (B8332)
Term(s) Offered: fall
REQUIREMENTS | DESCRIPTION |
Corporate Finance (B6300) is a prerequisite. Capital Markets (B8306) and Real Estate Finance (B8331) are co-requisites |
Real estate is a transaction business, and a thorough understanding of legal structure and transaction documentation is essential to successfully execution of all types of business strategies in real estate: Our goal in the course is to provide you with an understanding of the institutional framework of commercial real estate transactions: business law, taxation, investment partnerships, and deal structures. It is the essential complement to the analytics of finance and investment. Real estate transactions draw upon a vast array of laws and regulations – property law, contract law, land-use law, environment law, securities law, constitutional law, corporate law, bankruptcy law, insurance law, and riparian law. Tax considerations similarly play a significant role in driving deal structure as real estate is highly sensitive to taxation at all levels of government and across all stages of property ownership. And investment structures shape who bears what type of risk. Our goal in the course is to provide you with an understanding of the institutional framework of commercial real estate transactions: business law, taxation, investment partnerships, and deal structures. It is the essential complement to the analytics of finance and investment. Real estate transactions draw upon a vast array of laws and regulations – property law, contract law, land-use law, environment law, securities law, constitutional law, corporate law, bankruptcy law, insurance law, and riparian law. Tax considerations similarly play a significant role in driving deal structure as real estate is highly sensitive to taxation at all levels of government and across all stages of property ownership. And investment structures shape who bears what type of risk. |
Residential Real Estate: Dirt, Debt, and Derivatives (B8463)
Term(s) Offered: fall
REQUIREMENTS | DESCRIPTION |
Corporate Finance (B6300) is a prerequisite. Capital Markets (B8306) is a co-requisite. |
The focus of this course is the $27 trillion US housing market, the largest real estate market in the world, a topic of ongoing interest but with particular resonance this year as the President and Presidential candidates debate how to privatize the GSEs and address the acute current lack of housing affordability that has resulted in decreased home ownership, greater renting, record homelessness, and a massive backlog in manufactured housing as first time home buyers are shut out of the traditional stick built market. The course’s objective is to teach the student how to develop, value, finance, and invest in residential real estate and residential real estate debt securities and derivatives as well as to understand how the US residential financing system works. Given its’ broad and deep sweep, students will learn about a wide range of topics ranging from the importance of fits and finishes in selling homes in a new subdivision, to how to entitle land, to how blockchain is being used to disrupt the mortgage origination process, to how to create an Agency residential CMO companion bond. A range of housing types will be covered including: single family subdivisions, market rate urban condominiums, low and moderate income housing, workforce and student housing, manufactured housing, and senior residential living communities, and rental apartments. 3 credits. |
Social Impact Real Estate Investing and Development (B8428)
Term(s) Offered: spring B term
REQUIREMENTS | DESCRIPTION |
Corporate Finance (B6300) is a prerequisite. Real Estate Finance (B8331) is strongly recommended. |
This course will explore what comprises, and how to develop and invest in “social impact” real estate projects. How do we define what constitutes “social impact” with respect to real estate projects? What are the financial building blocks and sources of capital available for developers and investors to utilize when putting together deals? Using examples of real deals, and focusing largely on U.S. urban markets, students will work through the challenges and opportunities of financing various types of projects, including: affordable and mixed-income housing, mixed-use, neighborhood retail, community facilities. Students will be exposed to a variety of financial tools (LIHTCs, tax-exempt bonds, NMTCs, etc.) and public sector programs that are necessary to make social impact projects feasible while also being asked to gauge whether the risk-adjusted returns warrant “doing the deal”. In addition, the course will explore the following questions: who are the players in the “social impact” real estate space? Who are the capital providers in both the public and private sectors? Who are the developers? Can you make money being a socially responsible developer? What role do non-profits play? Speakers will include: for-profit and non-profit developers, fund managers, government officials and financial institutions.1.5 credits. |
*Real Estate Finance is offered in the fall, spring, and summer terms. All other real estate courses are offered only once per academic year.