INDS 292 Real Estate Investment Decisions Seminar

The real estate investment decisions analysis process uses an integrated systems-based approach for determining feasible real estate development alternatives in the real estate space market. The seminar will examine opportunities and systemic barriers to sustainable investment solutions, which include institutional, political, and financial constraints, uncoordinated development planning and land use policies, lack of knowledge and technical capacity, and limited engagement of stakeholders in decision-making. The interdisciplinary requirements of real estate investment projects draw from the humanities, social science, engineering, and environmental studies disciplines to consider the dynamic interaction of the developer, the space consumer, and the public infrastructure ( the social, political institutions, and community). These abstract entities interact to limit and define the possible, permissible, and profitable investment options that can be placed on a site. A project must meet the space users' socio-cultural, functional amenity, and occupancy cost requirements, the space producer's architectural, engineering, capital budget, equity return, risk concerns, and the public infrastructure (tax revenue and service cost balance) reflected by community concerns. The seminar aims to use a semi-structured approach and real-world investment situations to engage students, allow students to learn from each other, and provide students with the knowledge and skills they need to debate and understand the analytical considerations for determining the feasibility of real estate investment projects.

Credits

Cross Listed Courses

Prerequisite

Econ 101 and permission of the instructor

Corequisite

Offered

spring

Instructor

Rexford Ahene

Notes

This popular INDS course was approved in the 1990s, became dormant after 2010 because of my heavy teaching load, and was eventually removed from the college catalog.