Real Estate Development Program Requirements

Under the leadership of Director Vishaan Chakrabarti, the Real Estate Development program’s expanded three-semester curriculum combines the fundamental skills of professional real estate with a holistic approach to urban development as a creative act. Graduates receive a Master of Science of Real Estate Development (MSRED) in an intensive calendar year spanning from May to May. Cross-disciplinary electives draw on the program’s access to the extraordinary offerings of GSAPP and Columbia at large, while required coursework immerses students in the three core tenets of urban real estate development: the physical, the financial, and the legal. Synthetic coursework encompassing development case studies, international real estate issues, and a thesis bring these three strands together into a unified whole, arming students with the full range of professional and intellectual skills needed to tackle the complex demands of global urban real estate development.

While core skills continue to be developed—particularly in finance, construction technology, and international real estate—students are given significant elective opportunities to broaden their theoretical and applied skill sets by concentrating on the unique finance or design course tracks available only at Columbia.