Real Estate Private Equity and Capital Markets [Module 2]
Through lectures, case studies, and expert panel discussions, this module will explore the evolution of institutional real estate capital markets with a particular focus on market activity over the past seven years. Capital markets embody a complex ecosystem of public and private equity and debt funding for real estate companies, property acquisitions, transformations, and new developments. The business model and investment objectives of capital purveyors depend on a variety of factors. Case studies will be used to highlight key real estate investment concepts such as identifying opportunities, public/private valuations, distressed investing, risk management, asymmetric investments, and alignment of interests. Industry experts will discuss the current macro environment, key market concerns, capital availability, cost of capital, acquisition and development economics, and opportunistic and thematic investment strategies. By the end of the module, students will have gained a functional framework and understanding of how real estate private equity and capital markets work under current and future circumstances.
MRE students who want to take this course should enter the Limited Enrollment Course Lottery and will be automatically enrolled.
Climate Change, Real Estate, and Public Policy [Module 1]
Climate change is increasingly affecting people and cities worldwide. The impacts of sea level rise, storms, heat waves, droughts, and wildfires are growing. Yet, while progress is being made, the world still remains on track to exceed global greenhouse gas emissions limits that could mitigate the damage. Today, buildings account for more than a third of total global greenhouse gas emissions. And in urban areas, where the majority of people live, buildings can account for as much as two-thirds of a city's greenhouse gas emissions. As a result, equitably tackling the climate crisis and adapting to climate change requires focusing on the policies and practices that will urgently improve public and private approaches to real estate and urban development.
In this interdisciplinary course, students will analyze development projects, portfolios, and policies in the United States and internationally, to develop and present their own recommendations for how the organizations they studied could have more effectively integrated climate change considerations into their work. Through assignments, lectures, discussions, and guest speakers, adaptation approaches such as building retrofits, strategic relocation, revised land use regulations and building codes, grey and green infrastructure, and regional climate governance are explored. Mitigation approaches such as building-scale emissions limits, energy efficiency, renewable energy, and building electrification will also be examined.
Additionally, students will participate in a facilitated multi-party negotiation simulation focused on understanding the competing interests, perspectives, and challenges of urban development in a changing climate. And students will have opportunities to hear directly from leaders in public housing, healthcare, affordable housing, and universities who work at the intersection of climate change, equity, and buildings. Lastly, after class each week, students are welcome to attend an optional brown bag lunch on campus to continue class conversations, discuss climate-focused careers, and network with guest speakers and other guests.
This course will equip students with an overview of key themes and career pathways at the intersection of urban development, public policy, and community needs shaped by the climate crisis.
MRE students who want to take this course should enter the Limited Enrollment Course Lottery and will be automatically enrolled.
International Real Estate and Urban Development
Real estate, in the international realm, is anchored at the intersection of economic activities, capital flows, and the spatial transformation of the environment. While different locales may entail distinct contextual elements embedded in real estate and design practices, fluid cross-border capital operation and increasingly connected institutional actors at the global scale constitute a formidable force in shaping and guiding the formation and operational mechanism of the built environment.
Through lectures, case studies, charrettes, and class discussions, this course provides students with knowledge and insights about the process and analytical frameworks of real estate development and investment from a comparative and trans-regional perspective. It begins by introducing institutional parameters that measure the comparative forces and disruptions framing the current landscapes of international real estate. It then proceeds to examine analytical frameworks assessing the risks, opportunities, and performance of international real estate based on asset types. The course concentrates on real estate practice models and emerging asset types that shape urban development and are deployed in selected locations of the world. Real estate financing strategies, institutional features, operational tactics, and physical design maneuvers of real estate projects located in countries and regions of Asia, Africa, Europe, and the Americas are analyzed and interpreted through a lens of the decision-making process at the project and urban dimensions.
The pedagogical goals of this course are threefold: 1) to establish conceptual frameworks for understanding international real estate development and investment at both macro and micro scales; 2) to help students grasp the fundamental logic and business models embedded in various real estate asset types and urban development typologies; 3) to help broaden students’ understanding of capital and risk when investing in international commercial properties, international REITs, and land markets; and 4) to expand students’ sensitivity and perspectives about commonalities and differences embedded in the real estate practices across various localities in the international realm.
Students will work independently and in teams on assigned cases and participate in organized charrettes. Students’ deliverables include an in-class presentation and a final research paper based on the investigative research framework set at the beginning of the semester. The class meets once a week and is open to registered students from the GSD and other Harvard Schools.
Students who took PRO 7452 in Spring 2022 cannot take this course for credit.
MRE students who want to take this course should enter the Limited Enrollment Course Lottery and will be automatically enrolled.
Modern Housing and Urban Districts: Concepts, Cases, and Comparisons
This course deals with ‘modern housing’ covering a period primarily from the 1900s to the present. It engages with ‘urban districts’ in so far as the housing projects under discussion contribute to the making of these districts and are in turn shaped by the districts in which they are placed. Cases draw from an international survey with emphasis on Europe, North America, and East Asia, although also including examples from the Americas, South and Southeast Asia, North Africa, the Middle East, and Oceania. The course introduces approximately 240 cases along with frameworks for organizing and thinking with this corpus.
We begin with two broad surveys of concepts germane to the discussion and design of contemporary housing, including 1) ideas of community and what constitutes a neighborhood across historical contexts and cultural milieu, and 2) territories, types, interiors, and other landscapes dealing with the constraints and dimensions of the external context and internal life. These are followed by cases, organized by key characteristics of the building or external context they engage. In each, contemporary examples provide the primary focus, while precedents within and adjacent to architecture are introduced to contextualize historical circumstances and trace the evolution of ideas. In Spring 2024, the categories include: 1) urban block shapers, 2) superblock configurations, 3) tall towers, 4) big buildings, 5) mat buildings, 6) housing and landscapes, 7) infrastructural engagements, 8) infill and puntal interventions, 9) housing special populations, and 10) temporary and incremental housing.
Each class is organized around a i) lecture, ii) student presentation, and iii) discussion. Beyond weekly participation and contribution to in-class discussions, the main deliverable of the course is the research, analysis, and presentation of case study projects. Students will be paired and assigned the cases at the beginning of the semester. The presenting students will meet with the instructor one and two weeks before the presentation. Short readings may also be assigned to augment weekly discussions.
Public Finance for Planners: Creating Equitable & Sustainable Communities
Infrastructure challenges are significant and rising. To meet these challenges, urban planners will need to acquire foundational knowledge and skills in the public finance discipline and gain a basic awareness of how such tools and levers are used by city leaders to raise money to fund infrastructure, neighborhood redevelopment plans, and other new capital projects. This course will introduce students to the spectrum of public finance strategies and approaches that are available to cities, states and localities and will elevate how each strategy can be considered in the development of urban planning strategies to enhance an urban planners work and position projects to achieve strong equity, sustainability, and other place-based outcomes. The goal of the course will be to educate students on tactical ways that public finance principles can be integrated into the urban planning process. To that end, students will learn how to make choices that position an urban planning project for stronger funding, for stronger economic development outcomes and to achieve growth that is inclusive. The course will combine various pedagogical methods that include lecture, discussion, and exercises that challenge students to consider their role as advisors to leaders in a city. Throughout the semester, students will learn how to evaluate the impact of alternative resource mobilization and public finance avenues that an urban planner may encounter by examining real projects. No prior course work or experience in public finance or economic development is necessary for students to succeed in the course, as the course will provide students with the necessary foundation to understand core concepts in the domains of public finance and economic development that will be covered.
Urban Design for Planners
This seminar course introduces planners and others interested in urban development to the history, principles, and processes of urban design and its indelible impact on people, places, and cities.
The course explores the role of urban design in creating beautiful, just, and resilient places. It considers the actors involved and the intersections and interplay with architecture, landscape architecture, public policy, real estate development, urban planning, and other disciplines. It examines the influence of culture and history, economics, and politics, and the benefits of advocacy and public engagement to advance ambitious civic visions and projects with social impact.
Over the course of the semester, students will gain an understanding of the history and evolution of urban design and the modes and methods of practice through readings and presentations, conversations with practitioners, and interactive class discussions and workshops. They will acquire knowledge, learn about and access resources and tools, and develop and practice skills to navigate and participate in urban design processes and projects.
Students will develop and refine skills of observation, exploration, and inquiry via semester-long research, evaluation, and documentation of a Boston development site. Weekly prompts and workshops will help students integrate, apply, and communicate ideas and lessons learned from readings and discussions. Students will share and discuss progress with the class via informal presentations and pin-ups.
The primary audience for this class is urban planners but it is open to anyone interested in learning about design and the urban environment. Urban design is, by nature, experiential and visual. Prior experience with design, planning, and visual representation is not required, however a keen curiosity and desire to observe, explore, and learn is expected.
U. S. Housing Markets, Problems, and Policies
This course examines the operation of U.S. housing markets, the principal housing problems facing the nation, and policy approaches to address them within the existing political, regulatory and market contexts. The course is structured around five central areas of concern for housing policy: the challenge of producing housing affordable for lower-income households generally; how best to subsidize rental housing, address homelessness, and provide protection for low- and moderate-income tenants; how to support successful homeownership for low-income households and people of color; the causes, consequences and policy responses to the high degree of residential segregation by race/ethnicity and income; and how housing policy operates at the neighborhood scale to address concerns about revitalization, gentrification, climate change, health and schools.
Each section of the course will develop a detailed understanding of the nature of the problem, how the operation of housing markets either produce or fail to address the problem, introduce the principal federal, state and local policy approaches available to address the problem, and wrestle with critical policy questions that arise in choosing how best to craft a response to the problem.
The goal of the course is to build both a foundation of knowledge and a critical perspective needed to diagnose the genesis of the nation’s housing problems, to identify the potential policy levers for addressing these failures, and to assess the relative merits of alternative approaches. Class sessions will be largely a lecture format but will include ample time for class discussion. Each section of the course will include several guests to provide a range of perspectives on the topics covered, including those from the public and nonprofit sectors, researchers, developers, and the communities served.
Students will be expected to come to classes prepared to be fully engaged participants in the discussions. Over the course of the semester, students will be required to prepare periodic reviews of assigned readings and prepare questions for guests which will be shared on Canvas. The principal assignments for the class will be a mid-term paper analyzing a housing challenge in a jurisdiction of the student’s choosing and a final paper assessing policy options for addressing the challenge and proposing a course of action. The course is intended for graduate students with an interest in US housing policy, although no previous background in housing policy or disciplinary training is required.
This course is jointly listed with HKS as SUP 670.
Project Management, Construction Management, New Technologies
This course focuses on three crucial aspects of real estate practice: project management, construction management, and new technologies.
The project management portion will cover the skills needed to manage the many disciplines and concurrent tasks that take place from start of a development project to finish. The class will explore multiple project management styles that can each produce successful or less successful outcomes. Examples will be drawn from industry.
The construction management portion will address how owners, developers, owner’s representatives and/or property managers can best manage the construction process. A visit to a major development project will serve as a live case study.
New technologies will explore recent technologies being utilized in the real estate environment including prop tech, smart buildings, artificial intelligence, construction management software, robotics. The course will ask the fundamental question: when and how is it better to use new technologies and what are the risks associated with such use. How can real estate catch-up to other industries that use AI and other software to support better outcomes?
Enrollment in this course is limited to students in the GSD Master in Real Estate program. The course schedule is January 2 through January 19, from 11-12:30 and 1-2pm daily. There is no class on January 15, Martin Luther King, Jr. Day. The course will take place in Gund Hall room 516.
Real Estate Law
This course examines, through the lens of the legal documents involved, the real estate law concepts relevant to the development, acquisition and operations of real estate ventures. We will review the major stages of commercial real estate projects including securing control of land, sourcing and raising equity, completing predevelopment steps such as agreements for design and construction and obtaining governmental permits for both initial construction and adaptive reuse, securing construction financing, leasing and other aspects of operating the project, and realizing capital returns from refinance and/or sale. A focus of the course will be an in-depth examination of public laws regulating real estate development. We also will consider steps which may be taken in the legal arena when the unexpected happens and a deal goes sideways, such as bankruptcy or litigation.
For each stage, we will analyze core real estate law concepts in actual negotiated agreements, including purchase and sale contracts, joint venture agreements, construction and design contracts, construction loan agreements, tenant leases, and permanent loan documentation. The course will include a mix of lectures, discussion of transaction documents and other course readings, individual exercises, and panel discussions with real estate professionals involved in major projects in the greater Boston area. A highlight of the course will be team mock negotiations and role-playing exercises relating to securing control of the land, formation of a joint venture, construction loans, and leasing.
The course goal is to enable students to get deep inside the series of transactions–and their legal documentation—involved in real estate projects, to understand key business and real estate law issues embedded in the legal documents, to gain familiarity with how these issues are commonly resolved, and to recognize how to manage legal risk and the risk/reward calculation.
Students who took SES 5434 cannot take this course for credit.
Cities by Design
Cities by Design is concerned with the in-depth and longitudinal examination of urban conditions in and among select cities in the world. The broad aims are: to engage in a comparative study for the purpose of broadening definitions of what it is to be urban; to identify characteristics that render particular cities distinct; to understand the manner in which geography, locational circumstances, and related infrastructural improvements both constrain and promote opportunities for city development; and to gain insight into the role of human agencies, planning institutions, and design cultures in shaping cities and their role in broader regions.
In Spring 2024, the cities under examination are Boston, Barcelona, Berlin, Los Angeles, São Paulo, Copenhagen, Shanghai, Aleppo, and Mumbai. Each will be the subject of two in-person lectures or a combination of asynchronous lectures and an in-person discussion with the speaker. In addition to city-specific lectures, broader comparative frameworks are provided by three lectures on Implementation, Metropolitan Spatial Dynamics, and Historic Conservation.
The class is organized around a twice-a-week cadence of lectures, discussions, and debates. Beyond participation and contribution to in-class discussions, the main deliverables of the course are student debates around city-specific topics mooted by the presenters. Students will be grouped and assigned the debate topic at the beginning of the semester and meet with the instructor one and two weeks before the debate. Cities by Design is required and limited to Master of Architecture and Landscape Architecture in Urban Design students.
This course is required for and limited to students in the GSD Master of Urban Design programs.