Excellence in Real Estate Research and Education NewsREAL ISSN: 1793-7426 A Bi-Annual Newsletter of the Department of Real Estate | OCTOBER 2008 | Vol. 1 No. 2 Head’s Message Welcome to the second issue of NewsREAL, the bi-yearly newsletter of the NUS Department of Real Estate. Besides the regular updates on staff and student activities and achievements, there are 5 items in this issue which I would like to highlight. The first is the front-page news of Professor Deng Yongheng’s joining NUS in January 2009. Prof Deng is recognized as amongst the world’s top talent in real estate finance and his coming onboard will certainly boost the Department’s international standing as well as elevate our research. Recruitment of best people has always been one of the Department’s key strategies and it will remain so as we continue to attract global talent. The second is the report on the three committees and panel. At the Department level, we have the Department Consultative Committee comprising key leaders of the real estate industry who are also our alumni and introduced in our last issue. At the School level, we have the School Advisory Committee with two of the members being Mr Simon Cheong, Chairman and CEO of SC Global Developments Ltd, and Mr Wen Khai Meng, CEO of Capitaland Commercial Ltd, as well as the International Advisory Panel with Professor Robert Edelstein from the University of California, Berkeley as the real estate member. These committees’ and panel’s main purpose is to advise the Department and School on our strategies for future growth and development. This will help to ensure not only sound governance but also enhance our profile both locally as well as internationally. The third item is the event highlights of BEMA, the Department’s alumni body, and BEM Society (BEMS), the Department’s student body. Both are our stakeholders and it is one of our key strategies to further strengthen our connection with them. The fourth item is the introduction of the Institute of Real Estate Studies (IRES), which now replaces the former Centre for Real Estate Studies (CRES). As a university level institute IRES would have more resources to spearhead our research efforts in our strategic pursuit to be recognized as the leading global real estate hub in Asia. And last but not least, an academic institution makes its name through the programmes it has to offer. We are currently undergoing a curriculum review of the BSc (Real Estate) programme as well as studying the options for higher degree coursework programmes besides the existing MSc (Real Estate) programme. Going forward, the Department does have its hands full with several strategic goals to be achieved over the next few years. We certainly need, and look forward to, the support and encouragement of our alumni and friends. Assoc Prof Yu Shi Ming Head, Dept of Real Estate Top Real Estate Finance Professor Joins DRE Dr Deng Yongheng will be joining the Department of Real Estate, School of Design and Environment as a full Professor in January 2009. Dr Deng is Professor and Director of Doctoral Programme at University of Southern California. Dr Deng is a Fellow of Homer Hoyt Institute for Advanced Real Estate Studies, Fellow of the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (FRICS), and recipient of the Homer Hoyt Best Ph.D. Dissertation Award. He has published his research on the topics of mortgage and real estate capital market in Econometrica; Journal of Money, Credit and Banking; Real Estate Economics; Journal of Real Estate Finance and Economics; and Regional Science and Urban Economics. One of his research papers on mortgage prepayment behaviour has been ranked number one most cited works in the fields of real estate finance and urban economics by Real Estate Economics. Dr Deng is currently on the editorial board of Real Estate Economics and Journal of Real Estate Finance and Economics. Prior to joining USC, Dr Deng served as an Expert and Economist in the Office of Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight (OFHEO) – a financial regulator overseeing Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac – in Washington DC., and was a PostDoctorial Research Fellow at The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. He holds a Ph.D. in Economics from the University of California at Berkeley. He will also be taking up the post of the Director of the Institute of Real Estate Studies to spearhead cross-disciplinary research. 2 NewsREAL October 2008 International Advisory Panel The School of Design and Environment has set up an International Advisory Panel (IAP) comprising three eminent professors and a renowned architect (local member). The members of the IAP are: Chairman: Prof Douglas Kelbaugh (University of Michigan) Members: Prof Miroslaw Skibniewski (University of Maryland) Prof Robert Edelstein (University of California, Berkeley) Dr Liu Thai Ker (RSP Architects Planners & Engineers PL) The School hosted the visit of the IAP from 22-24 September 2008. The members of the IAP met faculty members, students, alumni and industry representatives, and senior management of SDE and NUS during the visit. The IAP members were led on tours of facilities and an exhibition of the works of faculty and students of SDE. The Panel members gained a better understanding of the School to enable them to make suggestions/ recommendations for the School’s next phase Prof Heng Chye Kiang presented a token of appreciation to Prof Robert of development. Edelstein, the real estate member of the panel. Back row, from left: A/P Tham Kwok Wai (HoD, Building), A/P Wong Yunn Chii (HoD, Architecture), Prof Heng Chye Kiang (Dean), A/P Yu Shi Ming (HoD, Real Estate), A/P Bobby Wong (Vice Dean-Research), Prof Cheong Hin Fatt and A/P Willie Tan (Vice Dean-Academic) Front row, from left: Dr Liu Thai Ker, Prof Douglas Kelbaugh, Prof Robert Edelstein and Prof Miroslaw Skibniewski School Advisory Committee The University set up an Advisory Board Committee for the School of Design and Environment in June 2008. The members of the Advisory Committee are: Chairman: Mr Chan Sui Him (Chairman, DP Architects Pte Ltd) Members: Mr Tan Kok Hiang (Principal Partner, Forum Architects) Mr Kong Mun Kwong (Deputy Chairman, Cathay Organisation Pte Ltd) Mr Seah Choo Meng (Executive Chairman, Davis Langdon & Seah Singapore Pte Ltd) Mr Simon Cheong (Chairman and CEO, SC Global Developments Ltd) Mr Wen Khai Meng (Chief Executive Officer, CapitaLand Commercial Ltd) The SAC is tasked with the responsibility of guiding the School in its strategic development and formulation of future goals for achieving academic excellence, relevance to industry and international eminence; and advising the Provost on any other relevant policy matters pertaining to the academic pursuits in design and environment at the National University of Singapore. The first meeting was held on 16 September 2008. Mr Simon Cheong and Mr Wen Khai Meng are the Real Estate representatives. (Left) Mr Wen Khai Meng, Chief Executive Officer of CapitaLand Commercial Ltd (Right) Mr Simon Cheong, Chairman and CEO, SC Global Developments Ltd Department Consultative Committee - 2nd Meeting The Department Consultative Committee (DCC) comprising Mr Chia Ngiang Hong (Chairman), Ms Chong Siak Ching, Ms Pauline Goh, Mr Pua Seck Guan and Ms Tan Poh Hong met for the second time on 22 August 2008. The Department took the opportunity to seek the Committee’s views on the BSc (Real Estate) curriculum review, the introduction of an internship module, “Corporate Management Training Programme”, proposed MSc (Real Estate Finance) programme as well as a new name for the graduate programme by research. The DCC had a detailed discussion on the issues, and evaluated the various options that were suggested by the Department. October 2008 NewsREAL 3 Staff Achievements 1 2 3 4 5 6 1 Dr Kwame Addae-Dapaah • His paper entitled “Value Property Premium: Is it Riskier?” presented at the 24th Annual American Real Estate (ARES) Meeting in Florida, USA in April 2008, has won an ARES prize for best paper in the Office Buildings/ Office Parks category. The paper is co-authored with Prof Paul Asabere (Temple University) and Mervyn Yip Zhi Yuan. • He is the recipient of the prestigious International Real Estate Society (IRES) Achievement Award for 2008. Each year, IRES present this prestigious award to a real estate academic who has made an outstanding contribution to real estate research, education and practice at the international level. • Appointed as a visiting fellow by Lincoln Institute, Center for Urban Development and Land Policy, Peking University, from 2008 to 2009. • Selected as an Outstanding Reviewer at the Emerald Literati Network Awards for Excellence 2008. The award recognizes the impressive and significant contribution he has made as a Reviewer to Journal of Property Investment & Finance throughout 2007. 3 Dr Muhammad Faishal Ibrahim 5 Assoc. Prof Harold Tan • His paper entitled “Brand Personality of Shopping DistrictsExploring the Orchard Belt and Marina Centre Shopping Districts in Singapore” presented at the 24th Annual American Real Estate (ARES) Meeting in Florida, USA in April 2008 has won an ARES prize for best paper in the retail category. The paper is co-authored with Larissa Lim Pei Ching. • Appointed to the Board of Advisors of Global Search Partners, an international executive search company. 2 Assoc. Prof Fu Yuming • Invited as Panellist at Pre-U Seminar 2008: Global City: Home for all, in May 2008. 4 Assoc. Prof Joseph Ooi • His paper entitled “An Analysis of the Financing Decisions of REITs: The Role of Market Timing and Target Leverage” presented at the 24th Annual American Real Estate Society (ARES) Meeting in Florida, USA in April 2008 has won the manuscript prize for best paper in the Real Estate Finance category. The paper is co-authored with Prof Ong Seow Eng and Li Lin. 6 Assoc. Prof Zhu Jieming • Invited as Juror, Baietan Urban Design Competition by Guangzhou Planning Bureau, in April 2008. • Invited as keynote speaker, 2008 International Forum on Urban Development and Planning, Beijing, 19-21 June 2008, by Vice Minister, Ministry of Housing and Urban Rural Development, China. • Invited to be adjunct Professor by the School of Architecture and Civil Engineering, Xiamen University Chia for 3 years (2008-2011) to conduct planning research. INSTITUTE OF REAL ESTATE STUDIES In recognition of NUS’ strength in real estate related research and the value of such research for both the financial industry and urban economic policies, the university established the Institute of Real Estate Studies (IRES) in 2007 to lead and support multidisciplinary endeavour in real estate related research. The Department of Real Estate (DRE), in collaboration with other NUS faculties, is driving the development of IRES. Professor John Glascock, who was visiting NUS from University of Cambridge, served as Director of IRES from July 2007 to June 2008. Professor Glascock helped to steer IRES’ collaboration with the government to develop a benchmark private residential price index in Singapore. IRES has supported NUS faculties in recruiting top scholars in real estate related areas, including Dr. Qian Wenlan, who joined NUS Business School in July 2008 after completing her PhD at UC Berkeley in the area of real estate finance. DRE, together with NUS Business School, has successfully recruited Professor Deng Yongheng, a world-class real estate finance scholar, to join NUS from University of Southern California. Professor Deng will take the post of IRES Director from January 2009. In the meantime, Associate Professor Fu Yuming serves as Acting Director. 4 NewsREAL October 2008 R e s e a r c h P r o j e c t An Assessment of the uniqueness and strategic contributions of leading real estate companies This report examines a range of performance indicators to identify the unique contribution of selected leading (successful) real estate companies to their shareholders and the real estate industry in Asia, Europe and North America. countries and regions, but differ in degree and in some cases the influence works in the opposite direction. This indicates a potential gain in portfolio diversification across the global real estate markets. In investigating the risk-return, correlation characteristics and conditional volatilities of global real estate securities markets, we note that the global teal estate securities market has developed significantly over the last decade, both in the market capitalization and the number of listed companies, and is set to continue to grow. A number of valuable and statistically significant findings are produced including the differential risk-adjusted performance across different markets, the influence of country-specific risk on excess real estate securities returns, time varying correlation between the markets and conditional volatilities, and portfolio diversification. These findings have economic motivations concerning the potential integration of international real estate securities markets and the possibility of including information on changing risk-return performance, correlations and volatilities to design more optimal portfolios for international real estate securities. We analyze the business strategy profile of the global real estate companies based on their “CORE” and “GEOGRAPHICAL” concentration and investigated the strategy / strategies that caused superior financial and stock market performance. Our results suggest that the stock market assessment regarding the diversification strategy adopted by real estate companies can be probably different from non-real estate firms documented in the mainstream finance literature. Specifically, business diversification strategies (instead of a “focus” strategy) might well be positively associated with better abnormal return performance. We attribute this change to the REIT factor and that many real estate securities markets are no longer dominated by real estate companies. As a result of increasing competition from REITS, 50% of the real estate companies undertake both property investment and development in order to increase the diversity of their source of revenue. In addition, more and more real estate companies have built up an international (cross-border) portfolio that helps diversify risk. This combination of business strategy / strategies can possibly result in superior stock market investment performance in the long term. More studies are required to confirm this issue. We find that leading real estate companies (i.e. with positive JI and above-average SI performances) are generally of larger size and command attractive market valuation relative to their underlying book value. They are usually profitable and are likely to take advantage of positive financial leverage effects, contributing to higher SGR and profitable growth in the longer term. Moreover, the financial variables that influence successful performance are largely similar for all Finally, this study documents some case evidence regarding the business strategies pursued by some leading real estate companies in maximizing their corporate performance. From the brief reviews, there is some clear evidence that an increasing number of leading real estate companies have taken on a “unique” business model that combines traditional development and business activities, both domestic and overseas, as well as a fee-based real estate fund management activities. This change has been prompted by the increasing threats brought by the development and maturing of an additional securitized real estate investment product, that is, real estate investment trusts (REITs), in many Western and Asian markets that were traditionally dominated by real estate companies. From the internal perspective, it further appears that periodic review of business models by corporate management, especially relating to questions of “asset light versus asset right”, “focus versus diversified” and “traditional versus contemporary models”, is important in ensuring the firm is always in its correct strategic business direction! Principal investigator: Assoc. Prof Liow Kim Hiang Collaborator: Assoc. Prof David Ho Kim Hin October 2008 NewsREAL 5 Report from Real Estate Career Centre Department of Real Estate (DRE) organises the Real Estate Internship Programme (REIP) for our third year undergraduate students to encourage our students to gain work experience during their long vacation from May to August each year. This year about 20 firms took part in the REIP to offer about 70 places for our students. The firms include real estate development companies such as Capitaland, Keppel Land and City Developments, consultancy firms such as Jones Lang LaSalle, Knight Frank, Colliers, Savills and Cushman & Wakefield, and real estate fund management companies such as Alpha Investments and Pacific Star. As a number of third year students were overseas on student exchange programmes, this year’s REIP was made available to second year students to take advantage of what would normally be reserved for third year students. Many firms were supportive and willing to accommodate them. As part of the REIP, various lecturers from our department were assigned as teacher-mentors to check on the progress of the students during their 2 – 3 month internship with the companies to which they were assigned, and advise them on work issues and how to benefit fully from the internship experience. Our staff met with the students during the internship period to obtain feedback from the students about what they learned and the kind of projects that were assigned to the students as part of their internship. The teacher-mentors also obtained comments and suggestions from the host companies about how the students were progressing in their work in these companies. All the students who took part in REIP reported that they learned a lot about the practical aspects of working in various job functions in the real estate industry. They said they now have a better appreciation of the professionalism required of them when they graduate and are grateful to the various firms which hosted them. We are fully appreciative of all the firms that supported our REIP by offering opportunities in their companies for our students to gain work experience. Plans are currently underway to prepare for the Real Estate Career Fair (RECF) 2009 which is scheduled for the first two weeks of semester two which starts on 12th January 2009. We shall work with various real estate companies who are the key employers of our graduates, to help them fill up positions in their companies. We had excellent support from top companies such as Capitaland, Keppel Land, Ascendas, GIC, Jones Lang LaSalle, CB Richard Ellis, Colliers, Savills, Cushman & Wakefield, DTZ and CB Richard Ellis, amongst others, during the 2008 RECF. Despite the current financial crisis, we believe that many companies will continue to participate in the RECF as it is a useful platform for them to spot talents amongst our students and to recruit them early. It is also an avenue for them to carry out effective branding and recognition of their company as well as initiate various dialogues and contacts with our students and staff during the career talks. We are also working with student societies such as the Building & Estate Management Society (BEMS) and SDE Club to organise a series of skill enhancement talks such as Interview Skills, CV writing, Professional Grooming and Presentation Skills to further improve the abilities of our students. Visitors hosted by Department of Real Estate Professor Walter Torous He is the founding director of the Ziman Center for Real Estate and Professor of Finance at UCLA Anderson. He visited the department on 19 September 2008 at the invitation of the Head of Department. Prof Torous met faculty and students during a tea session. Prof Torous is planning to come to NUS in 2009 for a year’s sabbatical. Professor Lu Wei He is the Director of the Institute of Economics and Social Forecasting, Academy of Social Science, Tianjin University of Science and Technology. He visited the Department from 10 - 21 August 2008. Prof Lu presented a seminar paper entitled: “Tianjin Eco City - An Introduction”. Assoc. Professor Soliman Abdullah Hamad Al Mohawis The Department hosted the visit of Prof Soliman from King Fahd University of Petroleum and Minerals (KFUPM), Saudi Arabia. He came here on research and for an academic exchange. Mr Abdul Hassan The Department hosted the visit of Mr Abdul Hassan from the University of South Pacific, Fiji. The purpose of the visit was to carry out research for his PhD thesis. 6 NewsREAL October 2008 Student Achievements and Activities NUS Student Achievement Awards 2008 The Team Red Dot, comprising three students from Business School and three students from Department of Real Estate, Lim Wenjie (Captain), Cheok Shan Min Charmaine and Yip Zhi Yuan Mervyn, has won the NUS Student Achievement Awards 2008 (Enterprise & other competitions Category). The award ceremony will be held on Friday, 31 October 2008, 7pm at Sheraton Towers. This award is a fitting recognition of the team’s championship win at the 3rd annual undergraduate real estate case competition organized by the Marshall School of Business at University of Southern California, from 14 -18 April 2008. Building & Estate Management Society On 19 March 2008, the Building & Estate Management Society (BEMS) organized a site visit to Surbana Corporation Pte Ltd at Jalan Bukit Merah. There was a good turnout of students from both Project & Facilities Management and Real Estate. The HR department of Surbana International Project Management was very hospitable towards us. The visit included a guided tour of the various departments of Surbana Corporation, and a briefing which gave us insight into the working culture of the company. After the office tour, we went to a construction site in Queenstown 21 where Surbana International Project Management gave us an overview of how a project management company handles the construction of a HDB estate. This was a beneficial experience for most students as it was their first visit to an actual construction site. Design & Environment (DE) Club A warm welcome back to yet another academic year in NUS; and to all freshmen: welcome to university life and to the School of Design & Environment (SDE) family. DE Club has planned a whole line up of social activities/events for all students of SDE for the 2008/09 academic year to ensure that everyone has a right mix of studying and fun. After all, life in a tertiary institute is not all about the books – It is also about acquiring soft skills, networking and learning how to deal/cope with pleasant and difficult peers, which are necessary for our future working life. DE Club’s social events provide the fora for you to passively (and subconsciously) learn and/acquire these invaluable life skills. Here is a breakdown of our activities and events by semester: Semester 1 • Inter Faculty Games • Night Cycling • Movie Under the Stars • Beach Day • DE Club Retreat • Exam Tea Packs Semester 2 • SDE Bash • Chinese New Year Buffet Dinner • Valentine’s Day • SDE Dinner and Dance • SDE Day • Youth Expedition Project • Sports Cell Initiatives • Exam Tea Packs Freshmen Projects (Weeks -1 & 0 of 2009/10) BEMS’ 39th Management Committee for 2008/08 has planned a number of activities for both Project & Facilities Management (PFM) and Real Estate (RE) students. These activities include: 1. Talks – Building and real estate professionals will be invited to share their experiences with students to prepare students for the working life; 2. Site visits to companies in the construction industry; 3. Workshops on CV writing, grooming and etiquette at interviews and workplace; 4. Joint activities with Building & Estate Management Alumni (BEMA), e.g. sporting activities and professional seminars. Furthermore, BEM Society will organize Real Estate Career Fair 2009 for Real Estate students, and a career talk for Building/Project & Facilities Management students. This annual event provides excellent opportunities for students to interact with potential employers who use the fair both to market their companies and recruit “suitable” candidates for their companies. For enquiries about these activities, contact Lim Kah Hong, President of Real Estate Standing Committee at kahhong.lim@nus.edu.sg. Lim Kah Hong, Albert President, 2008/09 BEMS • SDE Freshmen Social Camp • SDE Orientation Week • SDE Rag and Flag Everyone in SDE is very welcome to join in these events and activities! Please keep a lookout for the publicity posters that will be all over the school (as the events draw nearer) for details on how to sign up! With your continued support, we hope to make this year another memorable and successful one for DE Club. PS. Please check our blog at justbreakid.blogspot.com for the latest updates, news and gossips in SDE! Eugene Lee President, DE Club’s 19th Management Committee October 2008 NewsREAL 7 BEMA .... 16 years on BEMA was established in 1993 to form a central body for its members who are graduates from the Departments of Building and Real Estate and its predecessor departments. It aims to facilitate networking among its members to build a Professional, Cohesive and Strong BEMA community. As an alumni organization, BEMA organizes sports and social events such as an annual golf tournament and regular movie outings to promote networking among its members. Furthermore a visit was recently organized to the Asia Pacific Brewery. BEMA has been organizing professional seminars over the past ten years to enhance the professional knowledge of its members. These seminars, about 40 in number since their inception, cover a wide range of topics including: Global Investment, WSH and Building Control Act, Building Defects, Water Seepages and FengShui, etc. A BCA-BEMA Joint Seminar on ‘Green Buildings – Design, Maintenance and Retrofitting’ has been planned for 27 November 2008 at the BCA Academy. alumni development programmes. In 2007, BEMA donated S$50,000 towards the building of the new alumni house at the Kent Ridge campus. All members are encouraged to maintain their links with BEMA by updating their latest contact information. They could do so by emailing to secretariat1@bema.org.sg. Details of BEMA events are also available at www.bema.org.sg. Being one of the most active alumni organizations, BEMA has contributed towards the development of NUS and its NUS-DRE Research Student Alumni Network Launch With an established reputation for excellence in real estate research, the Department of Real Estate has been offering the Graduate Research Programme (both Master’s and PhD degrees) since 1985. About 70 students have successfully graduated from the programme. Most of them have either taken up managerial positions in reputable real estate companies (such as GIC Real Estate International China, Shanghai Real Estate Group, CapitaLand and Al Salam Bank) or become faculty members of reputable universities (such as Southwestern University of Finance and Economics, Renmin University of China, The University of Auckland Business School and Sun Yat-sen University). After graduation, our research degree alumni continue learn from the experiences of those with whom they keep in touch. With the launch of NUS-DRE Research student alumni network, the alumni can more easily connect both with the university and with fellow graduates. The Department is indebted to Ms Han Yin Hua (who obtained a Master’s degree by research in 2003) for the formation of the network. So far, more than 50 alumni are connected through the network. If you want to have a list of our alumni contacts, please contact Ms. Zainab (zainab@nus.edu.sg). If you know any alumnus who is not on the list, kindly ask him/her to send his/her particulars to Ms. Zainab. Alumni (ex-research students) and staff at Asia Real Estate Conference, Shanghai, July 2008. From left: Li Lin, Li Yun, He Chun Xing, Mao Zhi, Tu Yong (staff), Yu Shi Ming (HoD), He Xi Xia, Dong Zhi, Sing Tien Foo (staff) and Fan Gang Zhi. 8 NewsREAL October 2008 UPDATES Post Doctoral Fellow Dr Li Pei joined the department as a post doctoral research fellow in August 2008. He obtained his PhD from Renmin University, Beijing, China in 2008. He will conduct independent research in the area of urban and real estate economics. Summer Programme 2008 The summer programme for 2007/08, led by Assoc Prof Yu Shi Ming (Head of the Department of Real Estate) and Assoc Prof David Ho Kim Hin, took place in Hong Kong, Macau and Shenzhen from 31 May to 7 June 2008. The 30 student participants were exposed to two intensive weeks of seminars, lectures, discussion and research methodology to prepare them for the field trip. There were two guest lectures by Dr Boaz Boon (Senior Vice President of Research of CapitaLand Ltd) and Mr Jeremy Choy (Managing Director of MacQuarie Global Property Advisors Ltd). The participants visited, among others, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, The University of Hong Kong, Shenzhen Real Estate Research Public Lectures Series A total of five DRE Public Lectures have been organised since the beginning of the year. These serve as effective channels of professional education, knowledge sharing and interaction with major experts in the local real estate industry and respected individuals from abroad. Attendance has been relatively high at about 100 people per talk. The attendees include real estate undergraduates, postgraduates, research students, industry professionals and the public. Topics are concerned with real estate finance, investment, market analysis and development in the local and international context. Centre, Sino Land/Sino Group, ING Real Estate Investment Management (Asia), Goldman Sachs (Asia), The University of Macau and the Venetian IR, where they were briefed on various aspects of real estate business in these regions. The students were required to keep personal journals to log their learning experiences during the field trip. BCA - Built Environment Scholarship The BCA – Built Environment Scholarship scheme represents the concerted efforts of the Building and Construction Authority (BCA) and leading developers/consultants to offer young people of high calibre and vision an opportunity to take up the challenge of a career in the Built Environment. Capitaland, Frasers Centrepoint and Keppel Land, collaborated with BCA for the first time this year to offer the scholarships. This year, Ms He Yun, Real Estate Year 1 undergraduate, was awarded a BCA - Built Environment Scholarship. No. Date Speaker Designation Organisation Title 1 25-Feb-08 Professor George Earl Head of Bond University Mirvac School of Sustainable Development Bond University Sustainability and Real Estate Development Allies of the Future 2 12-Mar-08 Mr Ho Mun Wai Chief (Sports Knowledge & Futures) Singapore Sports Council Sports -Opportunities for the Real Estate!” 3 26-Mar-08 Mr Jonathan Yap CEO India Funds Ascendas Property Fund The Potential & Challenges of the Trustee Pte Ltd Real Estate Funds Business 4 25-Jun-08 Mr Lijian Chen Managing Director UBS Global Asset Head of Global Real Estate Management - Greater China Challenges of Real Estate Investments In Asia 5 24-Sep-08 Professor Graeme Newell Professor of Property Investment International Property Investment : The Expanding Role for Asia University of Western Sydney For those who are interested to be on our mailing list, please contact Kamsinah at rstki@nus.edu.sg For Feedback & Enquiries: contact Ms Zainab at zainab@nus.edu.sg or 6516 6635 Editorial Team Dr Addae-Dapaah, Kwame Choo Tyng Tyng Rebecca Er Zainab Abdul Ghani Kamariyah Ahmat Yusop Yvonne Yong Department of Real Estate National University of Singapore 4 Architecture Drive Singapore 117566 Tel: +65 6516 1932 Fax: +65 6774 8684 Website: www.rst.nus.edu.sg