Wisconsin a Pioneer in International Studytrips

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With virtually every university real estate program offering its students opportunities for international travel, what sets Wisconsin apart?

• Wisconsin was the pioneer in international real estate education. In 1991, Senior Lecturer Rod Matthews—who has logged 34 separate international trips in his 33 years at UW —took his first group of students to France, The Netherlands, England and Germany (where they lodged in the former East Berlin). Just last year, students traveled to three cities in China, to an international real estate conference in France, and to new development projects in Dubai and Chile. Two of the visits—China and France—were required as part of the real estate graduate curriculum.
• That longevity has led to unparalleled business and academic connections, easing the planning process and affording students exceptional networking opportunities.
• Many trips are sponsored by the James A. Graaskamp Center for Real Estate, an arm of the Real Estate Department. The Graaskamp Center is itself heavily supported by the 1,600-member Wisconsin Real Estate Alumni Association, founded in 1976 by Graaskamp and several graduate students.
• Students have additional opportunities to travel within the U.S. and abroad through the UW School of Business and through the Real Estate Club. 

"Many students have said that the international study course was the highlight of their UW educational experience"   Matthews says.

Cannes, France

Last March, first-year MBA Michael Scotti and 17 fellow grad students traveled to Cannes to attend MIPIM, where 21,000 dealmakers from 75 different countries meet annually to propose and hash out new projects.  Wisconsin’s students picked from an array of speakers and 40 separate sessions, ranging from the renowned urban designer Daniel Libeskind, who discussed world architecture trends, to Henri Giscard d’Estaing, CEO of Club Méditerranée. At the panels, topics ranged from the opportunities emerging from the sale of government-owned property, to investment opportunities in the Balkans, to the emergence of REITs across the world.

“MIPIM can definitely yield job opportunities,” Michael says. “Look at this way, there are more than 1,000 companies and there were maybe 20 to 30 students at the conference. Students can have a potential field day with those types of numbers.  I managed to get a verbal offer from a company based out of Germany.”

The students attending MIPIM were led by professor and French native François Ortalo-Magné, Robert E. Wangard Chair in Real Estate, who also led the trip in 2006. “The big thing this does,” Prof. Ortalo-Magné says, “is it re-sets their objectives. They have preconceptions about the set of opportunities open to them as real estate professionals. Then they go there and see real estate professionals from all over the world, and see things they never imagined.”

“I do believe it changes their lives,” he adds.

Read students' accounts of the sessions they attended. (PDF file)

Beijing, Chongqing, and Shanghai, China

The 2007 trip to China began in January with two days in Beijing, home to the Chinese government and the 2008 Olympics.  The group of second-year MBA students and faculty members, including Matthews and Ortalo-Magne, toured Tiananmen Square and the Forbidden City, then mingled with local residents at a variety of open air and enclosed markets.  The markets presented the students with an opportunity to improve their negotiating skills, a necessary skill for both real estate and international business.

In the States, you can’t walk into a store and negotiate prices,” says Melissa Wychocki, a Wisconsin second-year MBA student who is now a strategic consultant for Jones Lang LaSalle. “But in real estate, everything is about making a deal, everything is negotiable,” so bargaining with sellers over a piece of art is a great way to practice, she thinks.

While in Beijing, the students met Professor Lou Jianbo of the Center of Real Estate Law at Beijing University, who highlighted the issues facing the Chinese government as they privatize land, and summarized new policies about to be implemented. In addition, a representative of Jones Lang LaSalle explained how construction takes place in China. Wychocki learned a lot, she said.

 

 

“In the United States, buildings are completed from the ground up, with bottom levels being enclosed and finished first,” she says. “In China, buildings are poured at one time, finish out and close-ins are done on all levels simultaneously in order to begin the pre-sale process as soon as possible.”

Other cities visited by the students included Shanghai, where they met with executives from Citigroup Real Estate, Morgan Stanley and Hang Lung Development , and toured the Shanghai Planning Museum.  Lastly, in the interior city of Chongqing, students were introduced to their consulting job: Hongkong Land Ltd’s Bamboo Grove, an  8 million-square-foot planned mixed-use development along the Jialing River. “Our project is to provide feedback on best practices in the United States that they can apply to that development,” says Wychocki. “Are the demographics in sync with what they’re planning?” 

Sharon McCabe, a Wisconsin lecturer of classes in appraisal and feasibility, also accompanied students to China. She is especially fascinated by the Chinese property rights system, and how it is changing.

"What do you own when you own property in China?” she asks. The government is now issuing 70-year leases, but there is no discussion of the future beyond that, she says. “Chinese developers don’t see any downside to that, because they haven’t experienced it. It’s all been good times for them.”

Wychocki, who chose Wisconsin’s real estate program partly because of its focus on development, says it was fascinating to glimpse an emerging economy unfold and to see the creative process at work. “And whenever you can get in front of executives at that level, it’s invaluable.”

Plans are already underway for 2007-2008. China and MIPIM are again on the list, as is an undergrad trip to Munich for Exporeal, another international real estate conference.

Traveling abroad gives real estate students a “chance to kick the tires,” says McCabe. “When you travel, sometimes it reinforces what you learned and sometimes it raises more questions.”

“There’s only so much you can teach in a semester.”

CHINA TRIP FEBRUARY 9-18, 2007

Feb. 9

            Madison to Chicago

            Chicago to Beijing

           

Feb. 11

            Tianamen Square, Forbidden City, Projects of Beijing Capital Land

            Meeting, Beijing University Center for Real Estate Law

            Meeting, Jones Lang LaSalle, Beijing

            (Beijing Lodging: Hotel Intercontinental)

Feb. 12

            Beijing to Chongqing

Feb. 13         

            Meeting with Robert Wong, Hong Kong Land

            Bus Tour with Robert Wong

            Meeting with Partner of Hong Kong Land

            Lunch, City Tour, Dinner

            (Chongqing Lodging: Hilton Hotel)

Feb. 15         

            Chongqing to Shanghai PuDong   

            (Shanghai Lodging: Royal Le Meridian)

Feb. 16

            City Tour with Citigroup Real Estate

            Meeting, Morgan Stanley

            Plaza 66, Roy Ho, Hang Lung Development

Feb. 17

            Tour, Shanghai Planning Museum

Feb. 18

            Shanghai PuDong to Chicago

Feb. 18

             Chicago to Madison