Transcript for the video: Postgraduate Real Estate Investment
Shanaka Herat (00:22):
Hello everyone. Thank you for joining us. My name Shanaka Herat, and I’m a lecturer in the School of Built Environment at UTS. And I’m also the acting Cost director for the Master of Property Development & Investment and Master of Real Estate Investment. So this webinar is about those two cause master of property development and investment and master of real estate investment. And before I begin, I would like to acknowledge the Gadigal people of the Eora Nation Al people of the UR nation upon who ancestor lands our city campus now stands. I would also like to pay respect to the elders, both past and percent acknowledging them as the traditional custodians of knowledge for this land. I would further like to acknowledge the traditional custodians of the various ancestor lands from which our other attendees join us today and to pay respects to those elders past and present.
And now I would like to remind you all that this session will be recorded and will be available through the website subsequently. So this is the recording policy, and you will note here, that we will only record audio and screen share, and we will not be recording any video input from you. And this will be solely used for teaching and learning purposes and to share questions and responses with the community and to build an online text catalog of questions and answers for the benefit of prospective students. And if you have any problems with this recording, if you want to get more information, then you can contact marketingprivacy@uts.edu.au, and this is how you can ask questions during the session tonight. So you can see that there’s a Q&A box at the bottom of your screen, and then you can type your answers in that Q&A box. And then we have Jess who is supporting us to tonight and Jess will then help me to answer these questions at the end of the session.
All right, So this webinar is covering these two courses, Master of Property Development & Investment, and Master of Real Estate Investment. You can also see my contact details at the bottom of this slide. So if you want to get in contact with me regarding these two courses later, then you can contact me via this email address. So basically the Master of Property Development & Investment program is very popular for those who are aiming for a career in property development, property management, valuation, and also property investment, fund management and real estate equities, et cetera, and Master of Real Estate Investment program is particularly popular among those who are aiming to have a career in property finance, investment management, fund management, valuation and analysis, and also portfolio investment.
So what we are going to do now is that, I’m going through this course overview. And then at the end, we have one nominated student of our program and she’s joined us tonight and she will talk about her experience in the course. And also at the end, we’ll have another 10 minutes of Q&A. So if you have questions you can send through the Q&A box and we will discuss them at the end of the session. So these two programs, we call it MPDI, Master of Property Development & Investment and MREI, Master of Real Estate Investment. These are very popular among property agents, property valuers, asset managers, property managers. And also we have number of students who would like to have a career in property fund analysis and management. And we have some who are aspiring to become property developers or to work in those firms in the property development sector and town planners, architects, and designers.
And also we have some participants from finance, accounting and business areas. But here we are specifically focused on real estate, finance, accounting, and business compared to mainstream finance, accounting, and business. So we have some legal professionals, specialty solicitors and lawyers in the real estate area. And we have surveyors, construction professionals, engineers, project managers, and also lot of students do have a policy and community engagement background. And some do come from the not for profit sector. We have also occasionally science and environmental professionals and some of our students, they work in the State Government department, and councils. And also we have some from the community and defense housing providers. So you can see here, it’s a very broad range of course participants that we have in these programs.
So now I’m going to talk briefly about the pathways. How can you get entry to these two courses? So here, I’m going to talk about the direct entry and then what I call the indirect entry. So you can see here, the direct entry would be, if you have the main qualifications that are listed in the course website. So if you have met the qualifications that are required, then no problem at all. So you will get direct entry to both programs in MREI and MPDI. And then let’s say you don’t meet the admission requirements to get into those programs directly. And then you can enroll to do the graduate certificate. And graduate certificate is usually a four subjects, that you take over six months. If you are studying full time, or it’ll take you one full year, if you are completing the graduate certificate part-time basis.
So once you have completed the graduate certificate, then you can do an internal course transfer. It’s called an internal course transfer, so that you can get into the MREI or MPDI courses. Right now, let’s look at that admission requirements for direct entry. So if you want to enroll in the program directly, then you will need to have a UTS recognized Bachelor’s degree, or an equivalent degree in a cognate field. So usually cognate fields include business, finance, engineering, and architecture and related areas. So if you have a degree in those areas, then you meet the first requirement for direct entry. Plus you need to have at least a credit average in your bachelor degree.
And the third entry requirement is that you need to also have minimum of two years of work experience. And the work experience should be in a relevant field as well. Now, if you don’t meet a) and b) here, that means if your Bachelor’s degree is not in a related area, or if you don’t have a credit average, then you will need to have at least five years of relevant work experience to have direct entry to the courses. So we have seen in the past, some students who have competed a degree in another field, such as arts, and as these areas are not directly related to real estate, then you would require five years of relevant work experience.
So as we just discussed, the indirect entry would mean that if you don’t meet this criteria, then you can do the graduate certificate in property development and then apply for an internal course transfer to get into the MREI or MPDI courses. But if you are going in that route, if you are doing the graduate certificate, then you need to make sure that you have at least a credit average for your four subjects that you compete within the graduate certificate. And also you need course director’s approval for your internal course transfer. Let’s now look at the Course Structure. So we have on this slide, the course structure for the Master of Property Development and Investment, MPDI. So if you are starting your course in the autumn semester, in the left side of the slide, you can see that if you start in the autumn semester, you have four subjects in the autumn semester, they are core subjects, then another four subjects in the spring semester. And in the second year, you have three subjects in the autumn semester plus an elective subject.
And then spring semester, second year you have three subjects, core subjects and one elective. So this means you are completing 16 subjects in total. And this will take you two years, if you are studying full time and four to five years, if you’re studying part-time. So you can see here, there are 14 core objects and 2 electives. In yellow, you can see the two electives. And in the right side of the slide, you can see if you’re starting in the spring semester, you will have four subjects in the first semester, four core subjects in the second semester, and then three core subjects, and then elective subject in your fourth semester and then three core subjects and then elective in the fourth semester. So again, four semesters, two years, if you’re studying full time and four to five years, if you’re studying part-time.
So most of these core subjects are offered twice a year. So it doesn’t really matter whether you start in the autumn semester or spring semester. And something about these yellow subjects the elective, and electives are very useful because they give you the freedom to pursue your preferred career aspirations. Because we have a very long list of electives to choose from, and I will show them shortly. So you have the option to select any of those electives that will serve you well in the future. And in the Master of Real Estate Investment course MREI, you again have in the left here, that if you start in the autumn semester, you will do four subjects. Three core subjects, and one elective the second semester. And in the third semester, you will do three core subjects and then elective. So in total, it’ll take you one and a half years to the MREI course, that is if you’re studying full time. And if you’re studying, part-time, it’ll take approximately three years.
So very similar core structure. If you are starting in the spring semester, four core subjects in the first semester, three core subjects, and then elective in the second semester, three core subjects and then elective in the third semester. So again, it’ll take one and a half years if you’re studying full time and approximately three years, again, if you are studying part-time. So here for the MREI degree, you have 10 core subjects, 4, 3, 3, so 10 core subjects, and 2 electives, again, electives are in yellow, and there is a broad range of electives to choose from.
And for the MREI course, you can see that there are a couple of subjects that are offered by the UTS Business School, because they are more finance related subjects. There are couple of subjects that are offered by the UTS business school, within this course. So I mentioned that there are lot of electives to choose from. So in the left side, you can see the list of electives for the MPDI Master of Property Development and Investment. So you can see here courses related to management, construction, engineering, et cetera, as well. And in the right hand side, you can see the electives that are available for the MREI Master of Real Estate Investment degree.
And now let’s look at the credit recognition. This is also known as Recognition of Prior Learning. So in summary, if you have a post-graduate qualification and relevant work experience, then you are able to apply for credit recognition. Again, if you have a post-graduate qualification and relevant work experience together, then you are able to apply for credit recognition. But if you have an undergraduate degree from other institutions, then usually credit recognition is not allowed. But if you are a UTS student who completed the Property Economics degree, then you are able to request credit recognition for four subjects. So clearly if you completed your undergraduate degree at UTS in Property Economics, there is an advantage and you can apply for credit recognition for four subjects.
And if your undergraduate degree is from elsewhere from another institution and you have relevant work experience, then you are able to apply for subject substitution. In other words, if you have studied the similar subject before within an undergraduate degree elsewhere, then you can replace one subject or more subjects from your study plan and take another subject that you haven’t studied before. This is known as subject substitution. So UTS has recently tightened the regulations around the credit recognition. So this will be relevant for you, if you have a postgraduate qualification and relevant work experience. And the university website provides more information about this, and also you can send an mail to me, if you want to get more information. I can also forward you the relevant links from the UTS website, so that you can read more.
And moving on other subject related matters. If you look at the subject timetable, we have most of the subjects on Fridays and Saturdays throughout the semester. So usually one full Friday and one full Saturday will be considered as one block. And then you will have another block with another full Friday and a Saturday. So four full days will mean that you have completed two blocks for the subject. In terms of the teaching mode, most of our subjects are taught in-person on campus. And hopefully in few months time we will be able to return to the campus. So most of the subjects are taught in-person on campus. And in terms of the assessments, we have usually two to three assessments per subject.
And often the third assessment is the large assessment giving you 40 to 50 marks. And in these courses, we don’t have any final exams. This is also important for these two courses, that most of the subjects are really relevant for the industry. And that means we have received the accreditation from the Australian Property Institute. You can see here, there are a number of different accreditations available: Certified Property Practitioner, Certified Practicing Valuer is a very popular certification, then you have Certified Development Practitioner, Certified Commercial Property Manager, Certified Funds Manager. So when you look at our Master of Property Development and Investment Course, this is Australian Property Institute accredited course for CDP, RPV, CPP and CPV.
So you can see what they mean here. CDP means Certified Development Practitioner, RPV means Residential Property Valuer, CPP means Certified Property Practitioner and CPV, the most common one is Certified Practicing Valuer. So if you graduate with MPDI, you will be eligible for these certifications. And in terms of the other course, MREI Master of Real Estate Investment, it is not currently accredited, but we have plans to have accreditation for that course as well. So before we go into the Q&A session, now I would like to invite Mackenzie Moores-Sipos. So she’s a nominated student in our course, and she will now talk briefly about her experience in the course.
Mackenzie (22:13):
Hello everyone. Thanks for the introduction. My name’s McKenzie. I am currently working as a lawyer at Charter Hall. I joined this course at the start of last year, and so far have really taken a lot from it. A driver for this course is obviously sitting in meetings and not understanding the commercial reality of the decisions being made. It sparked an interest to develop my commercial acumen and I enrolled in the subject and have taken a lot from it and been able to apply it to my day job, which is great. The course, some subjects operate as if… I did Business and Law as my undergrad, and some subjects are quite sort of undergraduate like in terms of weekly classes. And with those subjects, I find they have been a bit more time consuming. However, the majority are taught in block sessions, which is great.
So it means you’re only really dedicating a Friday and Saturday. I was doing this mostly during COVID, a lot of the sessions have been done online, as you would all imagine. And with that has come a bit of self-directed learning, which is great. Because obviously you can fit it into your work schedule. I work full-time and I’m doing the course part-time and because of COVID and obviously we’re locked down, there’s not much else to do. I’ve sort of been able to take on a few more subjects. I’m doing three at the moment, and well it’s time consuming and difficult. There’s a lot of synergies with them. So for example, I’m doing investment asset allocation, real estate economics, and real estate equities. Fortunately, we’ve got the same for two out of the three subjects and what I have really enjoyed is the tutors are working professionals.
So, they understand that we’ve got busy schedules and a thing that really I’ve been grateful for is they said, make if available. So, for some assignments, obviously I’ve been able to tap in to the resources that I have available at Charter Hall. I’ve also met some peers from [inaudible 00:24:53] and when we’re doing group assignments, they can tap into their resources and we can share. So I think being able to meet people within the industry has also been very valuable.
So, overall a real positive experience. I’ve learned things that I wouldn’t have learnt if I hadn’t enrolled in the course. And obviously there’s some people that have Economics degrees and it’s clear that they sort of have been taught something before, but if you’re not one of those people, like I wasn’t rest assure the tutors understand that we’re all at different levels and they give extra support to those who need it. So, I’ve had a few one on one sessions, where it might be an excel type subject, which is not a strong suit of mine. And they’ve really spent some time with me to, develop my understanding of the program and what the rationale behind the formulas are and what we’re trying to achieve. So all in all a really positive experience. So if anyone has any specific questions, I’d be happy to answer them.
Shanaka Herat (26:06):
Thank you. So I think I will now answer a couple of questions that we have received from the enrollments. So the first off that question is about the length of the MREI, Master of Real Estate Investments. So that question asks if he or she can complete that in one year. So my answer would be, you need to have one and a half years at least to study full time and complete in MREI. So you can’t complete that in a year. You will need at least one and half years to complete that. And the follow up question is, is there a Master’s thesis? These courses operate as taught courses. So there are no Master’s thesis or dissertations involved, and you have number of assessments. You do a lot of group work activities. You write reports and do data analysis and sometimes mini projects. So there are a lot of learning and engagement and report writing and exam quizzes and other exercises, but no thesis is involved, because thesis are usually for research degrees.
So this is not relevant for this. And the second question we received beforehand was about the difference between Master of Property Development and Master of Property Development and Investment. So if you look at the Master of Property Development, that’s a course that we don’t discuss within this webinar, but there was a separate webinar for that, but it is of one and a half years, the duration and then Master of Property Development is more focused on property development, valuation, feasibility, construction, management and engineering aspects. But the course we discussed today, the Master of Property Development and Investment, it also includes in addition to those areas, investment finance, real estate equities, investment asset allocation, funds management, et cetera. So there is a strong investment and fund management portfolio emphasis within that MPDI Master of Property Development and Investment. Also the course duration is a bit longer, right? So Master of Property Development can be completed within one and a half years, but Master of Property Development and Investment requires at least two years, if you study full time.
So I’ve answered those two questions that we received beforehand. And I think there’s at least one more question in the chat box, right? So from Scott, one question, is any credit available in the MREI based on previous MBA at UTS? So looking at the credit recognition, I can say that you should be eligible as far as you have relevant work experience because it’s post-graduate qualification and relevant work experience. So obviously MBA is a post-graduate qualification. So as far as you have relevant work, I think you should be able to qualify for that. But if you want more information, you can send us an email or you can look at that criteria in detail as well. I think Jess has posted that link within the chat box. So it looks like it’s possible for you. We got two more questions. Are there any scholarships on offer? What is the cost? I think Jess might be able to respond to that, is that right? Jess.
Jess (30:09):
I posted two helpful links in the chat there about scholarships and fees for the attendees to use.
Shanaka Herat (30:15):
Yeah. Thank you. What is the weekly face to face class time in the part-time [inaudible 00:30:22]. So if you’re studying part-time, that means you will be taking approximately two subjects per semester. And I will try to answer that, then I will also let Mackenzie answer that herself. So I think, as far as we have two subjects per semester, if they are block subjects, you will have four full days, that’s it, for one subject. And then another four days during the semester for the second subject, and if you have weekly classes, then you’ll need to be present at least two to three hours a week.
Mackenzie (31:09):
Yeah. So I would say some of the core subjects, well, majority of the ones I had do last year, so if I’ve done four done six, seven, now maybe five were a weekly three hour commitment. So that was sort of around my comment saying they are taught as if it’s like a business type subject. So you’re expected to turn up to the lectures. I think again, because of COVID there was an understanding that obviously you didn’t need to go in and it could be done online, which I think as doing your masters, that suited me a lot better because if I was sitting at work, I could zoom in and with the block classes again, everyone sort of has a different style. So strictly some run from nine to five, some are more, I want you to do this work. I’m available that day. And we’ll ask the questions during that those timeframes or they’ll do short little sessions through the block period again, because I haven’t had any in-person block sessions. It’s difficult to sort of answer that. But the zoom, I think, has been a blend of learning.
Shanaka Herat (32:35):
Yeah. Thank you. Hopefully we all can return to campus soon so we can have this great experience engaging with others and yes.
Mackenzie (32:44):
Yeah. I think I am. Fortunately I met a good group the two days I went.
Shanaka Herat (32:55):
Yeah.
Mackenzie (32:55):
Yeah. [crosstalk 00:32:56] I’ve got another question. Is it possible to complete it in a full-time capacity if working full-time? From my experience, I would suggest if you have quite a heavy workload, if you are working, over 40 hours, well usually you end up working more than that. I would say, it’d be difficult. At the start, I was like, I’m going to enroll in many subjects and sort of knock it out of the path. But I find that I’m doing this to actually develop my skillset. So I didn’t want put pressure on and over extend myself. I really wanted to, do all the readings and make sure I’m actually learning. I’m not just doing it to [inaudible 00:33:40].
So, I would suggest if you are like that and you don’t just want to get through it and you rather want to learn through the process. I would suggest if you’re working full time, do the course part-time and a lot of the subjects run, so you might be able to do five subjects in one year because it’s not strictly an order spring session. I’m enrolled in something in November and then again in January. So I actually will finish it quicker than the three years, but that’s because I’ve designed my timetable in such a way that suits me and gives me a bit of a break between subjects if I need it.
Shanaka Herat (34:26):
Yes. Right. So we’ve got one open question. What’s the expectation of the skills regarding Excel, Python models? I think Excel would be expected, but Python, I don’t think it’s required because these are specialized softwares and the expectation is that you have a basic knowledge about this area and then we will start learning from the scratch, right? Yeah.
Mackenzie (34:49):
Yeah. I’ve never heard of Python, so definitely I don’t know that. Excel, one of the early subject development visibility, it’s quite good. They sort of send you a template on how to use Excel. So that’s a great workbook and [inaudible 00:35:11] we learn in investment management, I think which I did last year and portfolio rebounding formed part of that. And I suppose what I’m finding is all the foundational subjects has sort of led us to this point where we’re at now. So for investment asset allocation, we’ve actually got to construct our own portfolio. So a mix of shares, property, irate, bonds, cash, so your sort of tying all the subjects together.
Shanaka Herat (35:45):
Yes. And also I want to add here that we’ve got more than 50% of our students in these courses are already employed, most of them full time capacity. So that means you also get that peer learning. So most of them are very active in their industries, in their roles, property development, finance. We’ve had fund managers in the past. So when we have these experience peers, industry professionals, working with you, then that engagement and sharing knowledge, working with them is also an important part of your learning. Right? So I can’t see any other questions. So if you have any other questions, you can send them through the chat window or the Q&A works.
Jess (37:05):
Give people a couple more seconds in case they’re furiously typing their question in there, but I’ve also just put in the chat two email addresses that you can reach out to us. If you have any questions after the session as well, [inaudible 00:37:19] does weekly one to one video chats that you can book and 15 minute session direct with the man himself. You can ask all your questions if you need to as well. Doesn’t look like there’s any final questions we might wrap up there.
Shanaka Herat (37:38):
Okay. Thank you, Mackenzie, and thank you very much Jess, as well and thank you all for joining us and hopefully we will see you on campus one day.
Mackenzie (37:50):
Thank you. Thanks everyone
Shanaka Herat (37:50):
Thanks.