The Annual Student Research Competition (Sponsored by the Seevak Family Foundation) involves the presentations of research by Wharton undergraduates and MBAs, as well as other students from throughout the University of Pennsylvania. Students work cooperatively in teams and develop a final report which is presented at the end of the spring semester and is judged by a panel of real estate experts. One course credit is provided.

Spring Term 2008

The 21st Annual Student Research Competition

“The End of the Real Estate Boom:
Where Is the Market Going and Where Are the Best Investment Opportunities?”
 

REAL399/ 899: Professor Joseph Gyourko

Office: 1480 SH-DH

Email: gyourko@wharton.upenn.edu

Information Session:

Preliminary Meeting This Term for Those Interested in Learning More About the Course: For those interested in speaking with me about the course prior to the start of next term, I will hold an information session on Monday, October 22, 2007, from 12noon-1pm in Room 240 of Huntsman Hall. If you cannot make that session, just email (gyourko@wharton.upenn.edu) to set a time to meet. Note that there is no requirement that you attend this meeting. We also will meet the first Tuesday of the Winter term

Topic: Research, document, and present an investment analysis of a specific property sector or geographical market(s), and then describe how you would invest some given amount of money in a deal or part of the market. Any sector of the real estate industry is open to analysis, and groups are not restricted to U.S. markets. The only restriction is that this cannot be a case study of a single property. Further, the research must include two components. The first involves documenting and analyzing the relevant supply and demand fundamentals facing the sector of the industry you choose to study. The second part of the project involves a more focused analysis of how and why you would deploy investment capital. This should include a clear documentation and defense of an investment strategy. Students should take the perspective of one of various possible types of investors when doing the analysis. Naturally, you should take into account the implications of recent changes in the capital markets for your proposed strategy and investment proposal. In sum, the goal of this year’s competition is to require you to think fairly broadly about the fundamentals of some sector or markets, and then to develop a more narrowly-focused investment thesis.

Various details will have to be determined in discussions with me very early in the Winter term. For example, you may not assume you have unlimited funds, but the exact nature of the strategy and investment amount will be decided in discussions with me. In addition, I can imagine that the timing of some investment strategies could be very short-term, while others could extend up to five years (e.g., for those interested in land investment strategies). Any proposal must be completed within five years for the purposes of your analysis.

     

NOTE: Following some introductory sessions to introduce you to the topic, the class will function like an independent study. That is, student research teams will meet periodically with the instructor, Professor Joseph Gyourko to review their progress.