How would people rank some of the more well known Real Estate Msc programs. Can they be broken into target /semi-target similar to the Msc of Finance programs? Career goal is REPE acquisitions /asset management.
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Cass MSc real estate investment - based in London so you can network with all the biggest investors in Europe.
Thanks - Do you think networking opportunities will be negativity effected with classes going online in recent months?
Cambridge is the best one
good luck networking in Cambridge lol.
Hard to argue with Cambridge. Their program’s placement in Europe is absurd (in a good way).
Cambridge is 1h away from London. It’s like saying good luck networking from Harvard for NYC roles. On top of that all firms come recruit on campus.
When you do your masters in Cambridge, you don't need to network as much. Firms and recruiters come to you.
it’s very different being able to go from lectures to a pub in Mayfair in 20 mins on a Thursday evening as opposed to taking a 1.5hr train and tube transfer which you have to try and organise a couple weeks in advance to try to get everyone booked on the same day.
I know people on that course and this was their key concern over the time there.
Starting in Spain in the fall. I’ll keep y’all posted.
LSE has an RE Finance course worth checking out. Not sure how well it places but you get the benefit of a solid brand name and being located in a financial hub for networking/interviews
I did the MSc Real estate economics and finance at LSE and it is a solid programme. You do learn about standard RE valuations and modelling, but that would be in the second term (Jan onwards) which isn't helpful for recruiting (typically happens from September). That said, you can learn the stuff on your own and get the formal teaching later. Would say that the course is quite theoretical, you would read a lot of papers (on the economics side) and do plenty of research (dissertation and research projects form half of your course). Surprisingly, this part is more interesting, you learn stuff like why cities form, how RE cycles are explained (bubbles) etc. Some detest this part of the course as it is less practical, but I personally found this section more valuable since anyone could pretty much self-learn NOI Pro-forma easily online.
That said, would say this course is probs more similar to the RE finance MPhil at Cambridge (mix of theory and practical). LSE is very international (class size around 50, but 90%+ are international, with 80% from China). By nature, many grads choose to return to their home countries. Those who do choose to stay UK/ Europe land at many brokerage firms (Savills, Cushman). A handful also land REPE firms every year (boutiques and larger names like Macquarie, MSREI). We have networking events with alumni and good support from the school to connect with alumni in industry.
In terms of other courses, people I have met at assessment centres for RE, notable names are Reading and CASS. Their masters from my understanding tend to be more practical/industry-driven and won't have a focus in theoretical/research. Reading also runs a massive selection of RE programmes with a cohort of 200+, and sometimes RE firms go to Reading to run recruiting cos of the sheer size.
Hope this helps!
Did many end up in IB/corp fin or was it mainly to brokerages?
REEF doesn't place many into standard IBD (M&A) if thats what you mean. This is largely due to the cohort itself and has little to do with the course I think. Like I said, most people on the course are international and some (from China) intend to return to their home country (with a job lined up prior to the Masters). For Europeans, they tend to apply for RE-specific roles. For standard IBD, you will find a much larger cohort from the MSc Finance or MSc A&F at LSE.
More go to brokerage (Savills etc.) to do a mix of RE roles, not just fixated at advisory but development as well (by their own choice). I would add many hv different backgrounds (non-finance) some from architecture/ engineering so that might be why.
In terms of IB, some get offers for MIRA/ MSREI/ Eastdil. You will get definitely get interviews from LSE for RE roles.
I graduated from the LSE REEF program in the early to mid 2010s. At the time, the economy was just starting to pick up steam and recruiting did so as well. We heard that prior to the recession recruiting was very strong but prior to our year it was virtually non-existent. During our year, recruiting was fairly strong although it seemed stronger coming from other finance roles outside of CRE. Historically I believe that about 50% of graduates ended up in Real Estate while about 50% ended up landing elsewhere for their first roles but the last time I looked at those figures was 2015. There are more recent statistics for placements somewhere on the LSE website.
I only know of one person who ended up going the Investment Banking route but i also know that they went through (not sure if they ended up completing) law school in Canada after graduation. A couple of people went into Venture Capital and I know a couple of people that went into S&T. The rest mostly either landed straight into REPE or Brokerage. Most of the people that landed into brokerage or asset management transitioned into high profile acquisition roles within 2 years. Generally speaking, the people that landed straight into acquisitions had prior experience but that may have been a result of timing. My closest friends from the program are currently working at Tristan, Benson Elliot, Gaw, Macquarie and Blackstone however they are all at the Senior Analyst - Associate level.
Overall I think that the program was very good in certain areas but there were a couple of drawbacks. About half of the program focus was on research and economics (an economic research project and a dissertation requirement). The advantage of this is that it allows for more diversity in exit options into academia and research roles for those who wanted to pursue them and looking back it is a good way to differentiate yourself later on in your career since everyone knows how to model (just take an ACRE course) but very few people have a solid understanding of the underlying economics driving the CRE markets. The downside is that there is only one course that is particularly practical in CRE which is the Real Estate Finance course. Even then, the course lacked certain level of detail since it is only 10 lessons with a couple of them focused on CMBS and REIT finance. There were 2 case studies which were very good and incredibly useful. The other drawback is that they put a class called Real Estate Market Practice (or something along those lines) into the first semester. It was a useful class with high level real estate professionals discussing important topics within CRE but there was little context behind it since at that point, we haven't learned anything about Real Estate yet.
I think that the general approach of the professors who ran the program was that CRE was easy and that if given the academic tools and basic but solid financial foundation, everything will come easy. In most ways they were correct however at the point of graduation, the people that came into the course without any CRE experience had little idea of who the top players in the industry were, how the CRE ecosystem worked and what the roles were in the industry. For example, I had to teach myself how to model a waterfall structure prior to my first interview since I didn't recall learning about them in the first place and we certainly never modeled them.
In general I would say that the program is 10/10 for professionals coming into the program with prior experience. For those that are coming straight from undergrad, I would recommend also doing the ACRE course either before or alongside it (frankly I wish it were a thing when I was graduating). However, when coupled with modelling and practical experience, I think that program is arguably the best in the world.
Thanks for the insight. do you think the part time Msc program as LSE has the same opportunity’s?
Absolutely. I would say almost all those who do part-time over 2 years tend to be working full-time. We have people in development, architecture, engineering, general Finance roles, trying to pivot towards the finance side, or just gain more credentials (have that LSE brand name if their undergrad school is weaker).
The course itself is tough, especially the research and economics side, (2-3 people get distinctions, and c.30% get a pass only). Contact hours are sparse but you do need to do a lot of work on your own (weekly presentations/ readings/ econometrics regressions and data mining). So would need to consider how busy your current work is before committing to LSE to make the most of it.
A vote for the REF masters is Reading here. They have a great career services office that can put you in contact with virtually any firm and other than Cambridge being Cambridge, it offers a more technical and comprehensive course (in the case of the Msc REF) if the finance side is where your interests lie.
Additionally, the networking benefits of 200 students doing the straight real estate masters, large pool of available alumni to reach out to in PE and Sell side given the age of the course, and a 25 minute train into London for events are also benefits. As a last note having spoken to colleagues of mine in LSE, Cambridge and Reading in the REF course, they all place similarly and all will get you in the door,(it was the same faces at most interviews) after that is is up to you.
A side note on CASS, other than being directly in London it is arguably a tier below Cambridge, LSE and Reading in London but will still get you past the first stage of interviews. (Disclaimer, the last note is purely based on my observations looking at representation at superdays).
You will definitely have an advantage in REPE recruiting (considering most students do the masters straight from undergrad and have much less meaningful experience). Not sure whether it would be straightforward to get an associate role. I know of someone who got an MBA with a RE concentration and had significant work experience but could only get analyst positions.
To latch onto this thread - does anyone have any reservations or thoughts about starting a MSRE right now bc of Covid etc?
I'm curious to know if anyone expects real estate hiring and general activity to slow down over the course of the next year? Not sure whether doing an MSRE this year is risky or not.
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