The University of Groningen's Master of Science in Real Estate Studies offers a unique one-year educational programme in real estate to prepare you to become a leader in the real estate industry.
Real Estate Studies is a selective master. See more about the procedure under 'Entry Requirements'.
Real estate markets have become global, making the real estate profession an international enterprise. At the same time, global and commercial brokers report major differences among local real estate markets. That urges for real estate professionals who are trained in integrating financial, economic and geographic skills with knowledge of local institutions.
The Department of Economic Geography at UG is home to one of the leading Real Estate Centres in Continental Europe. It offers a unique one-year Master programme that will enable you to understand the fundamentals of real estate markets by investigating every field that impacts the real estate industry (e.g. finance, land economics, planning, construction, development, management, law). This gives the programme a multidisciplinary character. This allows us to provide you with research-based expertise to solve complex problems in contemporary real estate. This Master programme is accredited by the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors.
We seek focused, committed applicants who recently finished their bachelor programme and want to apply their intellectual gifts to contribute to the real estate industry. You will be joining a diverse group of students and professionals who all share a passion for scientific rigour applied to solve complex problems in real estate and other fields that impact the real estate industry.
As a result of our many years of experience, our graduates work as developers, consultants, financiers, local policy makers, real estate valuers, real estate managers, etcetera, throughout the domestic and international real estate industry, holding positions of leadership in the real estate industry worldwide.
If you are looking to do a two year programme and are interested in doing research, you can combine the Master in Real Estate Studies with our top rated Research Master in Spatial Sciences
I completed the master in Real Estate Studies at the University of Groningen in January of 2014. Before starting my master I studied Real Estate Management at the Hanzehogeschool. After my studies I started working at the international Real Estate consultancy Cushman & Wakefield, I've been employed here for the last five years.
During the master programme in Real Estate Studies you will learn to approach real estate and the environment from an academic perspective. What I found interesting was learning to approach the practice of real estate from a theoretical viewpoint. Doing this allows you to find explanations for how we deal with questions regarding real etate issues. As a result of this approach you can see that many topics can be reduced to a number of basic theories which are still very relevant in practice when entering the real estate work force as a professional.
After graduating in January 2014, I immediately started working at the taxation department of Cushman & Wakefield in Amsterdam. I started out as a trainee to learn more about the necessary job skills. Next to this, personal development was an important aspect of the training. After 2,5 years I was ready to start at a more commercial function, so I switched to the Office Agency team at Cushman & Wakefield in which I advise occupants and owners when renting, buying and selling office real estate.
Looking back at the previous five years, I can conclude that I have strongly developed myself as a real estate professional regarding both job specific as well as personal skills. A personal highlight was winning the Real Estate Young Talent Award 2018. This is a yearly award in which five young professionals are nominated by an expert jury. After participating in public debates, writing blogs and gathering online votes I was the happy winner of this prize.
All in all this master programme has provided a strong and stable basis for a successful career in the Real Estate business.
- Tim de Vries
This infographic shows in which workfield alumni of the master's programme ended up, and is based on alumni who graduated between 2022 and 2024. As is visible, the majority of the alumni have found a job relevant to their field of study within 6 months since graduating.
