Curriculum & Course Descriptions

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.

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.

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. 

This block week course is designed to provide you with an intensive dive into the fundamentals of commercial real estate finance. It will cover several broad topics:

1. Scope and Character of the Global Real Estate Industry,
2. Real Estate Finance and Investment; and
3. Technological Disruption.

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.

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 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 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.

 More information.

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.

How and why do transactions come out the way they do? This is the practical question underlying the structure of this course.  You should finish the course knowing how the terms and conditions spelled out in a term sheet find their way into particular sections and provisions of a transaction’s legal documentation.  To succeed in this business, you will need to be savvy consumers of legal expertise, notwithstanding the knowledge and expertise of your attorney. 

The course is designed to address a broad range of considerations that arise as a real estate transaction moves from term sheet to legal documentation. 3 credits.

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.

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.