Masters in Real Estate

Program Overview

The MSc Real Estate program equips students with a comprehensive understanding of global real estate markets and techniques. It offers a mix of core and elective modules, allowing for specialization in areas like development, valuation, and fund management. Graduates enjoy high employability rates and typically secure positions in top real estate firms and investment banks. The program is fully accredited by the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS), ensuring recognition and credibility in the industry.

Program Outline

Degree Overview:

The MSc Real Estate program is designed to provide students with a comprehensive understanding of the workings of real estate markets and the techniques applied within them. The program aims to equip students with the necessary skills to pursue a wide range of careers in the global real estate industry.

Objectives:

• Understand the workings of real estate markets and appropriate techniques applied in them.
• Gain key skills necessary for a variety of careers in the global real estate industry.
• Develop expertise in core areas such as investment appraisal, economics, real estate finance, valuation, international real estate, strategic rural land management, development, fund management, law, and sustainability.
• Specialize in areas like Fund management, Development, or Valuation and asset management through module selection.
• Equip students to deal with the full spectrum of real estate activities, from direct to indirect, national to international.
• Emphasize global relevance in curriculum design.
• Focus on employability.

Outline:

Semester 1:

• Focus: Core knowledge and skills in Economics, Finance, and Investment Appraisal.
• Modules:
• Real Estate Investment Appraisal (REMF60):
Develops understanding of financial, technical, and market contexts of investment appraisal, particularly in real estate. Students learn different concepts of value and their relation to decision-making in the property investment market. They apply cash flow models to pricing individual property investments, primarily in commercial real estate markets.
• Introduction to Real Estate Finance (REMF61): Introduces students to basic finance concepts for investment appraisal of assets, particularly real estate.
They apply and critically evaluate different investment pricing techniques. The module helps students understand the decision to invest in any real estate project using a rigorous framework.
• Real Estate Business and Professional Practice (REMF62): Develops students' understanding of the real estate business and professional practice.
It emphasizes commercial awareness of the sector, its key players, and the wider operating environment.
• Understanding the relevance of contemporary business and professional values to professional practice in the real estate sector.
• Developing commercial awareness through lectures, seminars, field work, visiting speaker seminars, and professional development workshops.
• Real Estate Economics (REMFRE): Covers economic principles underlying urban and rural economics, planning, and real estate commercial and residential markets.
The module aims to build a solid foundation in the economics of property markets, providing insight into the application of economic principles and models to land use, city growth, urban and rural development, planning policy, and the property market.

Semester 2:

• Focus: Specialized knowledge with elective module choices and a capstone module.
• Modules:
• Real Estate Opportunities (REMF56):
Integrates and applies core and specialized knowledge obtained in the MSc Real Estate or MSc Real Estate Finance Programs. Students demonstrate originality in understanding and applying this knowledge through team assignments related to an International Field Trip, an Industry Challenge, and a Real Estate Strategy Game. The module emphasizes experiential learning.
• Independent Study in Real Estate (REMF67): Integrates and applies core and specialized knowledge obtained in the MSc Real Estate Program.
Students demonstrate originality in understanding and applying this knowledge.
• Real Estate and Planning Dissertation (REMDISS): Provides a vehicle for in-depth understanding of a chosen area of real estate economics, real estate finance, and investment practice.
Students select a relevant topic or issue for further research and analysis, displaying academic rigor in carrying out research, presenting findings, and producing a high-quality, fully referenced dissertation supported by appropriate data.
• Elective Modules:
• Basket A:
• Real Estate Valuation (REMF63):
Builds on the REMF60 Real Estate Investment Appraisal module and studies the market valuation process. It examines both the valuation process and methods, preparing students for the workplace and critically examining property valuation practice at theoretical and applied levels.
• Real Estate Development (REMF64): Provides students with an understanding of the real estate development process, including activities, agencies, events, relationships, skills, and tasks involved.
It explores factors influencing the process and its outcomes, as well as the types, characteristics, utility, and quality of buildings and schemes. The module also explores methodologies involved in the appraisal and financing of development projects.
• Real Estate Securities (REMFRES): Provides students with knowledge of market structures and the pricing of financial products available for indirect investment in real estate.
It develops a critical understanding of the different features of real estate securities and overall market products, challenging the implications that specific characteristics of real estate assets have on the pricing of such securities.
• Investment in Rural Assets (REMIRAS): Introduces students to the range of financial, economic, and asset management skills required to offer strategic advice in the rural sector.
It covers the core influences on rural land as an asset class and the ability to analyze and project long-term financial performance.
• Basket B:
• Heritage and Development (REMF59):
Introduces students to concepts and practices in conservation of the historic environment, both in the UK and internationally. It explains the roles of actors involved, the underlying philosophies of conservation, their history, and how heritage is managed through legal frameworks and policy. The module also considers matters relating to real estate processes and the shaping of both urban and rural environments. It covers international market analysis, analysis of European real estate markets, and an introduction to global market analysis.
• Real Estate Law (REMF66): Helps students develop a conceptual and practical understanding of the legal environment in which real estate operates in England and Wales.
Students gain a systematic appreciation of the legal framework governing the rights and obligations attached to owners and occupiers of real property. They explore key issues of ownership, transfer, use, and enjoyment of freehold and leasehold land relevant to a real estate professional in their practical and commercial contexts.
• Environmental Planning and Policy (REMP59): Provides students with an understanding of the range of issues and tools deployed to address environmental planning challenges using a blend of theory and practice-based examples.
It explores the critical role of planning in addressing environmental and climate change-related issues globally and locally.
• Rural Property Law and Valuation (REMRPLV): Prepares students for providing advice on rural landlord and tenant law and valuation issues in professional practice.
It covers the law as applied to property in England and Wales, with content on differing statutory codes in Scotland and Northern Ireland included where relevant.
• Basket C:
• Real Estate Asset Management (REMF44):
Explores the real estate management process from the perspective of both investors and public/corporate occupiers. Students apply qualitative and quantitative techniques to analyze the real estate management process and make better judgments on investment and tenure opportunities. The module emphasizes the application of practical tools and conceptual understanding of the real estate management business.
• Real Estate Portfolio Management (REMF52): Enables students to develop and deepen their understanding of investment strategy, portfolio selection, and performance measurement and their application to property markets.
It aims to further develop students' analytic capacity. Upon completion, students should understand key theoretical concepts in investment strategy, be able to critically appraise published work in the field, and apply this knowledge to the analysis of practical real estate problems.
• Housing Markets and Policy (REMF53): Provides students with an awareness of the economic principles that underpin residential property markets and relevant government policies.
It explores why global, national, and local housing markets operate as they do and the implications for economies and societies. It also examines how different types of policy (town planning, fiscal, monetary, etc.) can shape housing markets.
• Sustainability and Real Estate (REMF55): Focuses on developing a conceptual understanding of sustainable development principles and their applications in real estate markets.
It emphasizes the adoption of sustainability and ESG in the UK property industry throughout real estate life cycles, including how this is relevant and manifests itself at various life cycle stages (development, design, construction, operation, refurbishment, retrofitting, and regeneration).
• Urban Regeneration (REMP34): Provides a theoretical and practical understanding of urban regeneration.

Teaching:

• Faculty: The program is designed and delivered by internationally-renowned experts with a wealth of academic and professional experience.
• Teaching Methods: The program features a mix of core and optional modules, allowing students to tailor their degree towards their individual interests and career ambitions.
Teaching methods vary depending on the chosen program and include lectures, workshops, tutorials, individual and group assignments, case studies, and site visits. All full-time postgraduate programs include a residential study tour.
• Research: The School's research is internationally renowned for its academic rigor and policy relevance.
It has a major influence on the programs and is fully integrated into teaching. Postgraduate students have access to this cutting-edge research, a vital resource that keeps them at the forefront of the latest thinking.
• Environment: The School aims to create a stimulating academic environment where students are encouraged to develop individual interests and general skills as a basis for a career in the property industry, a related field, or for further study.

Careers:

• Potential Career Paths: Graduates from the program have been regularly employed by the largest and most prestigious global real estate service firms, as well as within the wider real estate sector.
• Opportunities:
• Real Estate Service Firms: CBRE, Cluttons, Cushman & Wakefield, Drivers Jonas Deloitte, DTZ, Jones Lang LaSalle, KingSturge, Knight Frank, and Savills
• Investment Banks: Barclays Capital, BNP Paribas, Deutsche Bank, Goldman Sachs, JP Morgan, Merrill Lynch, and Morgan Stanley
• Institutional Investors and Investment Funds: Aviva, Invesco, Legal & General
• Consultancy Firms: Accenture, Ernst & Young, PriceWaterhouseCoopers, and Property Portfolio Research
• Investment and Development Companies: British Land, Grosvenor, Hines, Land Securities, and SEGRO
• Outcomes:
• 98% of students are employed post-graduation.
• 93% of students would recommend their program.
• The average salary one year post-graduation is £36,214.
• 94% of students said the careers team had a positive impact on their career.
• Support:
• The School has an award-winning careers team that supports students throughout their postgraduate studies and for four years after graduation.
• The School of Real Estate & Planning has a worldwide reputation and a long history of providing postgraduate education in real estate.
• The Reading Real Estate Foundation (RREF) organizes career development and recruitment events for real estate students throughout the year, including an evening lecture series with key industry speakers and an annual Careers Fair.

Other:

• The program is fully accredited by the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS).
• The School is the largest in the UK for teaching and research in real estate and planning.
• The School is the only major UK real estate and planning center to be located within a business school.
• The School enjoys a worldwide reputation for excellence in both teaching and research and is consistently highly ranked in all major league tables.
• The School undertakes internationally recognized, leading-edge research into real estate, planning, and land.
• The School offers a comprehensive range of courses, all of which are accredited by the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS).
• The School's programs are held in high regard by leading employers, many of whom come to the School each year to recruit graduates.
• The School is proud of its outstanding employment record, with more than 95% of students entering graduate-level jobs within 6 months of leaving.
• The School produces graduates who will ultimately form the thought leaders and practice innovators of the future.