Master of Real Estate Development

The Master of Real Estate Development, Master of Science in Real Estate Development, MRED or MsRED, is a degree offered at several universities in the United States. MRED programs generally focus on the three main elements of real estate development; design, finance, and policy.

Students are generally exposed to the full range of development functions - market analysis, finance, site planning, and project management and operations, in addition to all real estate product types - residential, retail, office, hospitality, and industrial.

Whether in the context of urban redevelopment, historic preservation, or suburban growth, MRED students learn from the developer's perspective the importance of relevant issues in law, economics, finance, market analysis, negotiation, architecture, urban history, planning, and construction project management.

The programs are a full-immersion focusing on the entire real estate development process-from dirt-to-deal, finance to façade-and includes industry topics presented by leading local and national developers.

The typical MRED student is a highly motivated individual who seeks to radically alter or enhance their career paths and join the real estate development industry. Students who graduate from the programs are committed to a career in real estate development.

For a long time, those wishing to study real estate development had to content themselves with pursuing a Master of Business Administration degree, perhaps with the option of concentration in real estate, and usually with a focus in finance.

Seeking to fill a gap in the scope of the traditional MBA, real estate development leaders across the country needed a way to education men and women to compete in the global market with superior qualifications — providing the research-based expertise necessary to solve complex problems in contemporary real estate development.

In the past three decades, a number of top academic institutions in the United States have created masters degrees specifically in real estate development.

Formal graduate education in real estate development began with the founding of the MIT Center for Real Estate in 1983. Other universities followed in establishing masters level programs with:

• University of Southern California (1986)
• Arizona State University (2003)
• Clemson University (2004),
• University of Maryland (2006)
• University of Miami (2008).

George Mason University in Fairfax, Virginia is currently seeking approval to offer a degree program by September 2009