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. The division offers students the option to take an exemption exam for Real Estate Finance.
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 |
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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 2/3 of the real 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! This course provides students with a comprehensive understanding of real estate valuation, cycles, markets, investments, and decision-making, using modern finance and economics tools. The bulk of the course covers income-producing (commercial) property, although we will discuss residential housing as well. This course is not a hodgepodge of vaguely connected methodologies and rules of thumb about real estate. Rather, it uses 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. 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. |
Global Real Estate Investment (B8337)
Term(s) Offered: Spring B term
Requirements | Description |
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Corporate Finance (B6300), Capital Markets (B8306) and Real Estate Finance (B8331) are prerequisites. | Cross-border real estate investment has become increasingly common over the past 25 years, despite periods of volatility caused by economic cycles. However, real estate remains a local business and cross-border investment 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 accelerating and decelerating globalization on property and capital markets. The course is open to both 1st year and 2nd year students who have already taken Real Estate Finance (B8331). |
Advanced Real Estate Seminar (B8340)
Term(s) Offered: spring B term
Requirements | Description |
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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 |
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Corporate Finance (B6300), Capital Markets (B8306), Real Estate Finance (B8331), and Real Estate Debt Markets (B8453) are prerequisites. Real Estate Transactions (B8332) is recommended. | The focus of this advanced real estate course is to understand what it means to be in a “distressed” situation or environment and to learn to analyze, underwrite and structure investment opportunities in this type of environment. Students will learn to: (i) value and model assets that require significant measures to stabilize; (ii) understand complex balance sheet structures; and (iii) develop strategies to successfully negotiate, structure and close complex distressed investments. Particular emphasis throughout the course will be placed on understanding risk and on presenting conclusions concisely and clearly. This class will help provide knowledge in key areas to help build expertise that can be used to purchase distressed real estate assets. For example, it is important to understand debt structures, as many assets are acquired when a property is unable to meet its borrowing obligations and a mezzanine lender or CMBS special servicer is in a position to determine the future of an asset. Similarly, when assets are suffering from key problems, it is even more critical to be able to understand and manage risk and conduct appropriate due diligence. 1.5 credits. |
EMBA Block Week Course: Real Estate as an Asset and a Business (B7493)
Term(s) Offered: spring
Requirements | Description |
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Corporate Finance (B5300) is a prerequisite. Those who 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, with many changes as the world has adjusted to the new circumstances of COVID-19. 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 forms part of the alternative investment asset class and institutional investors invest a substantial part of their portfolio in real estate. We will look at the investors in real estate and the investment management firms and how they are investing internationally. We will give an overview of investing in all major commercial property types: office, logistics, retail, hotels, and residential, niche sectors like senior housing and student housing, and the purchase of a home and consider how these are changing to a quickly evolving world. The goal is to give an overview of the international real estate market and provide you with the tool set to identify investment opportunities globally, certainly for investing but also to find a place to live and figure out how to work. 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. |
Real Estate Debt Markets (B8453)
Term(s) Offered: fall B term
Requirements | Description |
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Corporate Finance (B6300), Capital Markets (B8306) and Real Estate Finance (B8331) are prerequisites. | This half session “B” course is focused primarily on the commercial real estate debt markets and is complemented by the half session “A” course, Real Estate Equity Markets which precedes it. Students may wish to take both half courses sequentially for a complete understanding of the Real Estate Capital Markets or individually. The purpose of this course is to provide the student with a comprehensive understanding of the commercial real estate debt markets from the perspective of real estate debt capital providers, real estate debt capital users (the borrower/property owner) as well as real estate debt investors. The approach will be to make sure students first understand the debt products and then to apply that understanding to “reality”. Students will learn how to underwrite, size, and analyze a variety of different types of commercial real estate debt including balance sheet first mortgage loans, first mortgage loans for securitization and CMBS, and subordinate debt structures including mezzanine loans, B- notes and preferred equity. The course will also cover transitional lending (construction lending and bridge financing). To tie everything together from the perspective of a real debt capital user we will then have a senior debt user (guest speaker) discuss these various instruments and their application from the perspective of a borrower. 1.5 credits. |
Real Estate Development (B8337)
Term(s) Offered: spring
Requirements | Description |
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Corporate Finance (B6300), Capital Markets (B8306) and Real Estate Finance (B8331) are prerequisites. | This course will examine the real estate development process and review practical applications of acquisition strategies, capital stack development, site analysis and due diligence, design typologies, construction planning and sequencing, leasing considerations and risk factor analysis and mitigation. This will be accomplished through the use of case studies and project presentations, as well as outside speakers and site visits. 3 credits. |
Real Estate Equity Securities Analysis (B8454)
Term(s) Offered: fall A term
Requirements | Description |
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Corporate Finance (B6300), Capital Markets (B8306) and Real Estate Finance (B8331) are prerequisites. | REITs have existed as a legal form for over 55 years, but the modern REIT era can be traced to the early 1990’s. Since that time, the sector has grown from approximately $5.0 billion in assets to over $1.0 trillion. More importantly, the migration of assets and talent into the public markets has helped make REITs one of the primary drivers of value creation in the real estate industry as well as a repository of operating expertise. By some estimates REITs today comprise 15.0% - 20.0% of the investible commercial real estate market; given significant competitive advantages, that share is growing. The net result has been irrevocable structural change and increased stability across the real estate industry. The REIT sector has evolved into a very viable and credible investment class; the group now comprises a significant weighting in the major stock indices with its own industry classification. Real Estate Equity Securities Analysis will serve as a substantive introduction to the companies that comprise 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. It will also look holistically at the REITs as operating entities, specifically how these companies work and what they are worth. We will incorporate qualitative, strategic and technical considerations into the quantitative valuation analyses – to reach more rigorous and successful investment conclusions. . 1.5 credits. |
Capstone: Real Estate Investment (B8334)
Term(s) Offered: spring
Requirements | Description |
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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. | This course is intended to be a capstone course centered on the practical application of real estate and finance concepts to real estate investment decision making. Students will have the unique opportunity to work with an actual real estate firm sponsor on a semester-long capstone project to research, analyze, establish a business plan for, present, and defend a real-world investment opportunity. 3 credits. |
Real Estate Transactions (B8332)
Term(s) Offered: fall
Requirements | Description |
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Corporate Finance (B6300) is a prerequisite. Capital Markets (B8306) and Real Estate Finance (B8331) are co-requisites. | This class is for students who are interested in pursuing a career in any aspect of the commercial real estate industry: investment, development, lending, construction, capital-raising or advisory. 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 to closing and beyond with twin goals of capturing value and allocating risk across the various components of real estate transactions. As a means of integrating theory and practice, the course links business strategy and legal structure. It draws heavily on cases and other materials specially designed for this course. Leading attorneys and market participants bring their expertise and insights to class to discuss the legal risks, rights, and remedies underlying contract transactions, financial structures for debt and equity, distress and restructuring strategies, and M&A transactions in today’s real estate markets. 3 credits. |
Residential Real Estate: Dirt, Debt, and Derivatives (B8463)
Term(s) Offered: fall
Requirements | Description |
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Corporate Finance (B6300) is a prerequisite. Capital Markets (B8306) is a co-requisite. | The focus of this course is the $27 trillion U.S. housing market, the largest real estate market in the world. The topic is of ongoing interest but particularly relevant today as debate continues as to how to privatize the government sponsored enterprise (GSEs), and how to improve housing affordability which has resulted in soaring rents, record homelessness, and made the American dream harder than ever to achieve. Where possible we will also include reference to non-U.S. housing markets such as comparing their mortgage finance systems with that of the U.S. 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 and AI 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. At the end of the course, we will also focus on racism and real estate and explore not for profit affordable housing solutions. 3 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.