MCRES-Monarch Center For Real Estate Studies

Dr. Henderson, Director of MCRES

The world of real estate accounts for as much as 50% of all the wealth accumulation in society. Yet, even with such a large portion of society’s wealth held in real estate assets the academic field of real estate tends to be understudied or under-represented within business schools.

The term “Real Estate” covers a vast area of study from personal real estate and home ownership issues to professional real estate development and urban economic issues of the built environment. Importantly, issues of sustainability are increasingly linked to the real estate sector as a large percentage of emissions originate from real estate stock.

In the last two decades Real Estate in its many forms has been a focus of increased investment by both individuals and institutional investors looking to diversify their holdings away from stocks and bonds while still obtaining strong returns. The increases in personal wealth due to investment in residential real estate, and the resultant crashes from the over-investment that has been shown to ensue, are today well known by even the average market participant. Pension funds which control vast sums of investment capital have also increased their holding from a meager 5% of their total portfolio allocation to percentages reaching between 10% and 15%. These powerful actors have even ventured directly into the real estate industry by purchasing the largest commercial development companies and becoming market makers themselves. Passive investing has mutated into active investing and capital has become the primary driving force behind the real estate industry.

Dr Antoniou, Co-Director of MCRES

With the shift in the industry from entrepreneurial firms run by private investors to more institutional style, fully diversified commercial development companies along with the increasing awareness of the perils of residential real estate cycles many important questions can be asked as to where real estate investing, development, policy, sustainability and the industry itself is headed. This is the focus of the MCRES-Monarch Center For Real Estate Studies: To explore the important issues facing the real estate sector and the potential future changes that will affect one of the largest portions of equity build-up and generational wealth transfers in society.