The Department is proud of the NUS team which emerged as champion at the 3rd annual undergraduate real estate case competition conducted by the Marshall School of Business at University of Southern California, from 14 -18 April 2008. Seven teams representing University of British Colombia, University of Texas, University of Wisconsin, University of Colorado, University of Southern California, University of Auckland, and National University of Singapore participated in the competition.

The NUS team comprised three students from Business School and three students from Department of Real Estate, viz Lim Wenjie (Captain), Cheok Shan Min Charmaine and Yip Zhi Yuan Mervyn. Dr Kwame Addae-Dapaah was the faculty advisor.

The competition consisted of a written report and oral presentation responding to a real estate case that was provided electronically to all of the teams at 6.00 am (PST) on Monday, April 14, 2008. The teams were asked to analyze the case to provide the necessary information to enable Oceanic Global Real Estate Opportunity Fund (the Fund), their employer, to decide whether, and under what conditions, the fund might move to place an equity stake in a large office property known as the Great Eastern Centre in Victoria, the capital of a fictitious foreign country called Atlantis. Thus, each team was required to submit a written report and give oral presentations responding to the case. The written reports were hand-delivered to the offices of the USC Marshall School of Business in Los Angeles by 4.00 pm on April 17, 2008. Each team presented oral reports in one of two groups of teams in a first round of judging at 7.30 am on Friday, April 18, 2008. Three finalists, University of Texas, University of Wisconsin and National University of Singapore, were selected to present oral reports in a final round before judges (comprising knowledgeable and qualified representatives of the real estate industry), participating teams and an audience of invitees from 10.30 am to 12.30 pm on Friday, April 18, 2008. Each team was given 40 minutes for the oral presentation, and questions and answers. In the end, team NUS was declared the winner on the basis of the quality of its written report and the exceptional performance of each team member during the oral presentations. University of Wisconsin and University of Texas took the second and third positions respectively.

Previous first place winners were teams from University of Texas, Austin and University of Wisconsin, Madison.