MA (Hons) Real Estate Management and Finance [Dubai Campus]

Heriot-Watt University

Our BA/MA (Hons) Real Estate Management and Finance programme is not about preparing you to be an estate agent. Although estate agents are the most commonly known occupation, they represent only a small part of the real estate profession. Real estate is everywhere – it is your home, it is your school, it is your shopping centre, it is where you go on holiday, and it is even the places we want to preserve for future generations. Real estate includes the land and any buildings or improvements built on it – thus the built environment. Think about who uses real estate, who owns real estate and who invests in real estate. All stakeholders involved use the knowledge of real estate professionals. In fact, the largest owners and users of real estate are governments. The Forbes Magazine 2019 Global Ranking identified Canadian company Brookfield Asset Management as the largest public real estate company with assets worth 256 billion, followed by American Tower which owns cell towers. Weyerhaeuser Corp, a timber company, was number six. All these organisations need skilled and knowledgeable professional real estate staff to make strategic and operational decisions, such as when to buy, when to sell, whether they are getting enough income or whether expenses are too high, and how to negotiate rents and determine values. Banks, lenders and equity investors also are major investors in real estate and need the skillsets of real estate professionals.