Focus Areas

In order to identify the focus areas, we study the existing CoEs working in the area of Real Estate and Urban Development. This gives us a general idea about the best practices and the ways to disseminate them. Knowledge about the existing CoEs may also help in fostering collaborations in the future. 

Table 1: List of existing CoEs, their objectives and activities.

Name	Objectives	Activities
MIT - Center for Real Estate	To improve the quality of the built environment and to promote a more informed professional practice in the global real estate industry.	MS (Real Estate Development) Interdisciplinary research linking academia with industry Fostering collaboration of academia with global real estate industry at various levels
CEPT - Center for Urban Land and Real Estate Policy	Research and analysis to help improve land development and regulation policy. To initiate policy dialogue that will help to resolve land conflicts, establish secure rights and increase affordability. To support government in policy formulation and implementation.	Training and capacity building Facilitating exchange of knowledge between academic researchers and professionals. Research activities to generate strategic vision on major issues and provide solutions to real world challenges. Dissemination of research findings through various communication channels.
Mahindra TERI – CoE to Enable Energy Efficiency in Real Estate	Providing technical consultancy for the design and development of sustainable building complexes. Leverage state-of-the art research techniques, tools and performance measurement solutions to boost the development of green buildings in India. Focus on developing open-source and science-based solutions for India’s real estate sector.	Providing policy briefs for State and Central Ministries. Designing Guidelines for Developers considering the codes and bye-laws. Developing information databases. Providing access to simulation software.
Stanford Alexander Center for Excellence in Real Estate	To provide professional, practice-based programs that complement the academic curriculum of the Real Estate Program.	Real Estate Club to provide a strong platform to explore the real estate industry with a focus on educational and career opportunities. Students in the Real Estate Program are offered free registration fee paid membership in any of sixteen (16) real estate professional organizations that partner with the program. Scholarship opportunities in collaboration with real estate professional organizations for students. Innovative Practice Award to projects that will help in development of real estate projects.
ISOCARP – Centre of Urban Excellence	Strengthening cross-border collaboration globally. Upholding professional excellence in planning and advancing sustainable planning. Increasing awareness of major development trends and promoting best practices	Train young professionals and public representatives through our Young Planning Professionals Programme, seminars, and online education. Support public and private institutions through a variety of programmes. To contribute actively to the urban research.

A closer look at the objectives of the existing CoEs and the activities that they conduct to achieve them, gives us a broad perspective of the challenges that the real estate industry is facing. It also gives us a glance at how the real estate industry at the crossroads of fast diminishing resources, higher environmental awareness and regulations, and greater quest of technological advancement will shape itself for the future. Taking cues from the existing CoEs and consulting with the experts, we propose to lay the cornerstone of the new CoE in Real Estate and Urban Development at AIIM on the following broad themes and the real estate development issues that cuts across these themes.

Table 2: Focus areas of the center.

Policy	Environment	Technology	Knowledge
Land Use and Town Planning: Land usage involves management and modification of natural environment into built environment. With the growing demand for infrastructure, it is becoming a challenge for the real estate industry to efficiently use this scarce resource.
Sustainability, Resilience and Performance: At the time of alarming environmental concerns, it becomes a need as well as a responsibility for every business to provide sustainable solutions. Looking into the future, building sustainable habitats by inculcating advanced technology that promotes energy and ecological conservation is necessary for the collective wellbeing of the society.
Urban Governance, Policy and Regulation: In the development of urban infrastructure, government (local, regional and national) and its stakeholders play a major role. The real estate industry should not only be aware of government policies and regulations but should also understand the idea behind them and work towards making the regulatory bodies foresee the future hurdles focusing on long term developmental goals.
Urban Infrastructure Management: Keeping pace with the rapid urban growth, managing a host of institutional, physical, social and economic infrastructures is critical to the real estate industry. Quality and efficiency of Public service delivery by Urban Local Bodies is the corner stone of economic and human capital development of the cities and the country.
Real Estate Financing: Building infrastructure requires huge investments and hence, managing the investments, and financing projects has always been a key challenge to the real estate industry. With new instruments and structures such as Real Estate Investment Trusts (REITs), the sector is exposed to capital markets like never before. This presents both challenges and opportunities for the businesses and the policymakers.