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The second annual University Portfolio Challenge is underway. More than 180 students from top universities in the country are investing $1B in theoretical money in commercial real estate for the opportunity to win $30k.
The competition, hosted by real estate consultancy Altus Group in partnership with NAREIT and NACREIF, started in June.
“This is our second year, so it’s still somewhat new. We just really wanted to create something to further the education of real estate investing,” Altus Group director of research, valuation and advisory Charles DiRocco tells Bisnow. “The academics love it and it’s been very well accepted. These are going to be our leaders and this is a great opportunity to educate them.”
The challenge has gained momentum among real estate professionals and academic leaders, and participation has more than doubled—last year, 90 students from 15 universities took part. This year, 180 students from 32 universities are undertaking the challenge—including top universities such as Harvard University, Georgetown, Johns Hopkins and Penn State.
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Here’s how it works:
Students are given $1B (theoretically) to invest in real estate over the course of a year. Each university is encouraged to form one team and record its progress online. Unlike the first year, this year’s challenge offers quarterly incentives—a $2,500 reward to the teams with the best public and private sector performance of their portfolios. That’s in addition to the grand prize of $30k.
Last year, Texas Christian University took home the $50k prize for managing the best portfolio out of 15 competing universities. The university focused on listed REITs mostly in the self-storage and industrial segments, and its portfolio made just short of 35% in returns.
Quarterly winners will be announced throughout the year, so stay tuned.
“The majority of the classes are run by the faculty, I think, and this challenge is worked into the curriculum,” Chuck tells us. “The money goes to the school and to the actual program. We didn’t want to just dump money back into universities, we wanted to donate it to the program where the [University Portfolio Challenge] class was involved.”
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