The Future of Real Estate: Innovation Challenge is a competition designed to support student exploration of innovative solutions to the challenges facing the real estate industry and the built environment more broadly.  In teams, students will be challenged to research the real estate industry, discern the challenges facing a particular aspect of the industry, and create an innovative solution, supported by a comprehensive business plan.  

The real estate industry, traditionally known for its resistance to cutting-edge technologies, has recently been transformed by technological advancements. This adaptation of information technology (IT) within the real estate sector is known as PropTech (Property Technology), and it has revolutionized how real estate and land use professionals conduct business.

Innovation across the industry has taken many forms; including online platforms to support the needs of potential buyers, smart buildings and infrastructure, predictive software to evaluate investment decisions, online communities connecting developers with investors, and more. 

We often associate innovation with disruptive technology, but innovation can also mean incremental improvements or ways to improve the efficiency of existing resources.  That being said, your innovative business solution can be high tech or low tech.  We hope that through this competition, students gain the capacity to understand the root causes of the challenges facing the industry, and leverage that understanding to come up with effective and scalable solutions.

Companies across the globe have emerged to solve complex problems facing the real estate industry.  Now it’s your turn to compete for a grand prize of $8,000!  

The sections across the top of this site will help you understand the case, deliverables, judging criteria, rules, and how to access our community of industry advisors.