Publications

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30 Aug 2004
Research & Ideas

Real Estate: The Most Imperfect Asset

As a driver of both the overall economy and of individual wealth, real estate is pretty hard to beat. As Harvard Business School professor Arthur Segel says, real estate is the largest View Details

Keywords: by Sarah Jane Johnston; Real Estate; Real Estate

December 2018 (Revised April 2020)
Case

Fluidity: The Tokenization of Real Estate Assets

By: Marco Di Maggio, David Lane and Susie Ma

In December 2018, the blockchain startup Fluidity was about to participate in its first tokenization deal, which would create digital access to property rights in a 12-unit Manhattan condominium complex. The deal was proof-of-concept for Fluidity, which hoped to... View Details

Keywords: Blockchain; Tokenization; Data Security; Revenue Model; Finance; Technological Innovation; Strategy

1992
Chapter

Turning Growth Options into Real Assets

By: W. C. Kester

Keywords: Assets

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25 Jun 1984
Lecture

Turning Growth Options into Real Assets

By: W. Carl Kester

Keywords: Growth and Development; Assets

September 2020 (Revised March 2022)
Teaching Note

Fluidity: The Tokenization of Real Estate Assets

By: Marco Di Maggio and Susie L. Ma

Teaching Note for HBS No. 219-057 View Details

Article

Real Estate Opportunity Funds

By: Nori Gerardo Lietz, Thea C. Hahn and David Geltner

Real estate opportunity funds are one of the fastest-growing segments of the real estate investment industry, similar in some basic respects to other private equity and alternative investment asset classes that seek high returns by taking on more risk in highly... View Details

Keywords: Real Estate; Opportunity Funds; Investment Management; Property; Investment Funds; Management; Performance Consistency

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March 2014 (Revised January 2015)
Case

Prodigy Network: Democratizing Real Estate Design and Financing

By: Karim R. Lakhani, Katja Hutter and Greta Friar

This case follows Rodrigo Nino, founder and CEO of commercial real estate development company Prodigy Network, as he develops an equity-based crowdfunding model for small investors to access commercial real estate in Colombia, then tries out the model in the U.S. U.S.... View Details

January 2021 (Revised May 2023)
Case

Love It or List It: An Aging Asset on Sixth Ave

By: Charles F. Wu, Moe Bakri, Mimi DiSipio, Clay Macfarlane, Sam Rashin and Baruch Shemtov

Keywords: Real Estate

March 2005 (Revised May 2011)
Course Overview Note

Conceptual Overview of Real Property

By: Arthur I Segel and Ann Winslow

Real estate represents the largest asset class in the world. Businesses in the United States have over $8.6 trillion of real estate assets on their balance sheets. Excluding housing--worth $16 trillion in the United States--and corporate-owned real estate, there is... View Details

Keywords: Property

2010
Case

Vander Mining Partners, IPADE

By: Roberto Charvel

In 2010 Vander Mining was trying to raise one of the few private equity funds specialized in mining. This was difficult among other things because institutional investors did not have a private equity team specialized in mining and emerging markets. View Details

Keywords: Real Assets; Business Startups; Business Plan; Economics; Metals and Minerals; Mining; Assets; Private Equity; Public Equity; Goods and Commodities; Emerging Markets; Market Participation; Mining Industry; Financial Services Industry; North and Central America

September 2017 (Revised July 2021)
Case

Asset Allocation at the Cook County Pension Fund

By: Emil Siriwardane, Juliane Begenau and Yuval Gonczarowski

Nickol Hackett, chief investment officer of the Cook County Pension Fund, is responsible for investing the fund’s $9 billion worth of assets on behalf of the employees of Cook County, Illinois. Like many other defined-benefit pensions at the time, the Cook County... View Details

Keywords: Asset Management; Investment Funds; Financial Strategy; Decision Choices and Conditions

28 Jul 2009
Research Event

Business Summit: Real Estate

next steps in real estate? This panel discussed the global real estate crisis, the future of securitization, and predictions for the future of the U.S. real estate market.... View Details

Keywords: Re: Howard H. Stevenson; Real Estate; Real Estate

February 2007 (Revised June 2007)
Background Note

Brazilian Real Estate Market

By: Nicolas P. Retsinas and Luke Ingles

From the late 1990s to 2004, Brazil had a reputation as a burgeoning market for foreign investment across many asset classes. Classified as one of the top emerging markets by Goldman Sachs' BRIC (Brazil, Russia, India, and China) Reports, the country has exhibited... View Details

Keywords: Markets; Property; Brazil

01 Jun 2006
News

A Capital Asset

of a dozen department bureaus and offices, including all matters related to worldwide embassy operations, security, consular affairs, personnel, and finance. In addition, Cohen secured congressional funding for and directed an overseas embassy-building program... View Details

Keywords: Garry Emmons; Executive, Legislative, and Other General Government Support; Government

09 Jan 2006
Research & Ideas

Rebuilding Commercial Real Estate

optimistic about the stock and bond markets, so they are moving money into real estate." "After the tech bust, people wanted real assets they could see and touch and... View Details

Keywords: by Roger Thompson; Real Estate; Real Estate

12 Mar 2007
Research & Ideas

The New Real Estate

2001, real estate has become a legitimate asset class and a good diversifier from stocks and bonds. Second, with graying populations in the West and Japan, real estate is... View Details

Keywords: by Arthur I. Segel; Real Estate; Real Estate

Article

Portfolio Value-at-Risk Optimization for Asymmetrically Distributed Asset Returns

By: Joel Goh, Kian Guan Lim, Melvyn Sim and Weina Zhang

We propose a new approach to portfolio optimization by separating asset return distributions into positive and negative half-spaces. The approach minimizes a newly-defined Partitioned Value-at-Risk (PVaR) risk measure by using half-space statistical information. Using... View Details

Keywords: Robust Optimization; Portfolio Management; Value-at-risk; Mathematical Methods; Finance