MRE Curriculum Details

The Master in Real Estate degree program provides students with foundational knowledge and technical skills required for investing in, developing, owning, and managing financially viable, well-designed real estate that seeks to achieve beneficial spatial, social, and environmental outcomes.

For nine on-campus months from late August to the end of May, students take a mixture of required and elective courses, including a development project course that simulates the multidisciplinary, holistic, collaborative, and transactional environment in which real estate projects are successfully launched. The concluding two-month off-campus summer term Practicum following the nine months of Harvard residency places students in a cooperating private for-profit, private not-for-profit, or public real estate organization to participate in projects and programs that seek socially and environmentally beneficial outcomes. Students subsequently return to the GSD for several days to reflect on their Practicum experience through presentations and discussions and turn in a Practicum paper.

Students possessing superior knowledge of material covered in most required courses may take a waiver examination and, if successful, substitute a specially created MRE elective course in fall or spring terms. MRE students take one elective course in the fall term and one in the spring term at the GSD or through cross-registering in any course offered by other Harvard schools, including the Business School, the Law School, the Kennedy School, and the College, as well as at MIT, as long as such non-GSD courses permit cross-registration. Students must follow the rules for cross-registration at the various schools. With program director permission, MRE students may take a second elective course in the fall and a second elective course in the spring.

fall Term (20 units) – required courses

SES-5204
Real Estate Finance, Development, and Management
Avis Devine, David Hamilton, Richard Peiser, Julie Perlman, Charles Wu
Fall 2025
Lecture
4 Units
SES-5249
Fall 2025
Lecture
4 Units
SES-5250
Fall 2025
Lecture
4 Units
SES-5495
Urban Economics and Market Analysis
Rachel Meltzer, Richard Barkham
Fall 2025
Lecture
4 Units
ADV-9850
Master in Real Estate Practicum Prep
Kristen Hunter, Frank Apeseche, Matthew J. Kiefer
Fall 2025
Discussion-based Seminar
0 Units

Fall Term – Specially created MRE Electives

Spring term (24 units) – required courses

SES-5103
Public and Private Development
Jerold S. Kayden, Rachel Weber
Spring 2026
Lecture
4 Units
SES-5251
The Development Project
Avis Devine, David Hamilton, Will Kohn Fleissig
Spring 2026
Project-based Seminar
4 Units
SES-5252
Real Estate Law
Nestor M. Davidson
Spring 2026
Lecture
4 Units
ADV-9850
Master in Real Estate Practicum Prep
Kristen Hunter, Frank Apeseche, Matthew J. Kiefer
Spring 2026
Discussion-based Seminar
0 Units

spring Term – Specially created MRE Electives

Summer Term (16 Units) – Required Courses

SES-5254
Negotiation
Mark Karlan
Summer 2026
Lecture
2 Units
SES-5255
Summer 2026
Lecture
2 Units
ADV-9851
Master in Real Estate Practicum
Frank Apeseche, Matthew J. Kiefer, Kristen Hunter
Summer 2026
Field-based Practicum
12 Units