International Real Estate Study Tour & Course
The purpose of the International Real Estate Study Tour & Course is to provide Nathan S. Collier Master of Science in Real Estate (MSRE) students with practical, first-hand exposure to international real estate markets. To obtain this first-hand experience, the class visits various businesses, institutions, and organizations in the selected country. The visits consist of site tours and presentations on relevant real estate topics. Historical and cultural site visits are also included to provide a more complete picture of life and business in the visited city and country. The first-hand experience obtained from the study tour enables students to better understand and manage international real estate operations, investments, and risk.
In August of 2012, MSRE students and faculty visited Santiago, Chile for seven days. The course contained three major components: (1) pre-trip meetings, quizzes, and presentations; (2) meetings, company visits, and property visits in Chile, and (3) post-trip student presentations on a proposed investment opportunity. While in Chile, the students learned how governmental influences, legal influences, market forces and capital requirements affect market values and commercial real estate investment decision making.
The MSRE students, working in groups, were tasked with representing an institutional U.S. pension fund that is looking to diversify into the Chilean commercial real estate market. Students needed to underwrite the risk of investing in Chilean commercial real estate, generally, and to place an investment value/reservation price on the selected property, in particular. The property and support for the case study was provided by the Santiago office of MetLife, a U.S. life insurance company with extensive real estate holdings. A week after returning to Gainesville, the six student groups presented their investment valuation and recommendation to MetLife’s “investment committee,” which consisted of several members of the UF Bergstrom Center Real Estate Advisory Board.
