STF's Bio

Tien Foo is the Provost's Chair Professor at the Department of Real Estate, Business School, National University of Singapore (NUS). He currently sits on the Management Board of the Institute of Real Estate and Urban Studies (IREUS) (since 1 January 2023). He was the former Director of the Institute of Real Estate and Urban Studies (IREUS) (2017-2022), the former Head of the Department of Real Estate (2020-2022) at NUS, and the past President of the Asian Real Estate Society (AsRES) (2019-2021). He serves on the Boards of AsRES (since 2000) and the Global Chinese Real Estate Congress (GCREC) (since 2008).

He is the Centre for Liveable Cities (CLC) Fellow (2024-2026), a Fellow of the Asian Real Estate Society (AsRES) (since July 2024), and a Post-doctoral Honoree (2012) and Fellow (2017) of the US-based Weimer School of Advanced Studies in Real Estate and Land Economics, the Homer Hoyt Institute.

He is the current Editor of International Real Estate Review (IRER) (since 2020) - an official journal of AsRES and GCREC. He is the Editor of the International Real Estate Review, an official journal of AsRES and GCREC. He serves as an editorial board member of Real Estate Economics, Journal of Real Estate Finance and Economics, the Journal of Real Estate Research, the Journal of Property Research, the Pacific Rim Property Research Journal, and the Journal of Housing Studies (Taiwan). Tien Foo received the Outstanding Referee Award (2017) for Real Estate Economics.

Tien Foo has published more than 100 peer-reviewed papers in international refereed journals, including Review of Financial Studies, Journal of Financial Economics, Review of Finance, Journal of Financial Intermediation, Journal of Financial Services Research, Management Science, and American Economic Review (Papers and Proceedings,) Energy Economics, Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization, Transportation Research Part D: Transport and Environment, Transportation, Scientific Reports (Nature Portfolio) and the field journals, such as Journal Urban Economics, Urban Studies, Regional Science and Urban Economics, Journal of Regional Science, Annals of Regional Science, Real Estate Economics, Journal of Real Estate Finance and Economics, Journal of Housing Economics, Journal of Real Estate Research, among others.

Tien Foo has co-authored five books. The book "Kiasunomics: Storeys of Singaporean Economic Behaviours" was nominated as the 2nd Best Seller (Non-Fiction) in Times Chart, the 4th Best Seller of the Asian Chart of WH Smith, and the Finalist of Best Non-Fiction Title in Singapore Book Award 2018 by Singapore Book Publishers Association. The second and third series of the books, "Kiasunomics 2" and "Kiasunomics 3" were published in October 2020 and May 2024, respectively. The books collect multiple stories based on the research works done using Singapore's data and are written around the daily life stories of typical Singaporean families.

Tien Foo serves on the Panel of Assessors of the Appeal Board (Land Acquisition), Ministry of Law, Singapore (since 2010), the Valuation Review Board, Ministry of Finance (2019-2025), the Requisition of Resources Compensation Board (RORCB), and formerly as a Member of the Professional Development Committee (or formerly known as Examination and Professional Development Committee) of the Council for Estate Agencies (CEA), Ministry of National Development (2014-2018). He serves on the Singapore Chapter Board and Singapore Advocacy Committee of Asia Pacific Real Estate Association (APREA) (since 2021). He is the Honorary Advisor of the PropTech Association of Singapore (SPTA) (since 2018) and the Singapore Estate Agencies Association (SEAA) (since 2019). He serves as a member of the Fair Tenancy Industry Pro-Tem Committee and the Chair of the Rental Data Transparency Subcommittee (2020-2021).

Tien Foo holds a Doctor of Philosophy and Master of Philosophy in Land Economy from the University of Cambridge, U.K., and a Bachelor of Science with 1st Class Honors in Estate Management from NUS.