Competitions
The Berkeley Real Estate Club and the Haas Real Estate Group sponsor a number of external real estate competitions. Membership on these competitive teams gives students unparalleled hands-on experience with real world development and investment banking problems and the opportunity to demonstrate expertise in world-class venues.
A semester-long (spring) competition between graduate students at UC Berkeley and Stanford. Teams of five students (with the support of a faculty advisor) are given an actual site in January, and must propose the best use, design, financing and marketing of a commercial real estate project on that site. Proposals are judged by a nine-member jury of real estate professionals. Final proposals are presented at an annual luncheon in May, with hundreds of NAIOP members in attendance. The winning team gets to keep the prized Golden Shovel for one year. BREC will solicit applications in late November.
- 2025: 1st Place
- 2024: 2nd Place
- 2023: 1st Place
- 2022: 1st Place
- 2021: 2nd Place
- 2020: 1st Place
- 2019: 1st Place
- 2018: 1st Place
- 2017: 2nd Place
- 2016: 2nd Place
- 2015: 1st Place
- 2014: 2nd Place
- 2013: 2nd Place
- 2012: 1st Place
- 2011: 1st Place
- 2010: 1st Place
- 2009: 1st Place
- 2008: 1st Place
- 2007: 2nd Place
- 2006: 2nd Place
- 2005: 2nd Place
- 2004: 2nd Place
- 2003: 1st Place
- 2002: 1st Place
- 2001: 1st Place
- 2000: 1st Place
A fall semester competition (typically held in November) among top real estate graduate programs to analyze a real estate investment decision and provide a recommendation to an investment committee. Teams receive the case one week in advance, and have four days to develop an investment pro forma and presentation. All teams then travel to Austin to present to a panel of real estate finance professionals acting as an investment committee. Although the actual competition period is only one week, Berkeley’s team forms at the beginning of the fall semester, and completes a rigorous case preparation program (equivalent to three units of independent study credit) overseen by multiple faculty advisors. BREC will solicit applications in late August.
- 2025: Honorable Mention
- 2024: Honorable Mention
- 2022: 2nd Place
- 2021: 1st Place
- 2020: 4th Place
- 2019: 1st Place
- 2018: 1st Place
- 2009: 1st Place
- 2008: Honorable Mention
- 2006: 3rd Place
- 2005: 2nd Place
- 2004: 4th Place
- 2003: 1st Place
- 2002: 1st Place
A semester-long (spring) competition among several West Coast graduate schools where interdisciplinary teams (with the support of a faculty advisor) create a low income housing proposal. Beginning in January, each team identifies a viable site and then develops a proposal that includes design, finance, market, and community support elements while working with developer and community partners. The project proposals are judged by a panel of local professionals during multiple rounds in late April / early May. BREC will solicit applications in late November.
- 2025: 1st Place
- 2019: 1st Place
- 2018: 1st Place
- 2016: 1st Place
- 2010: 1st Place
- 2007: 2nd Place
- 2006: 1st Place
- 2005: 2nd Place
- 2004: 1st Place
- 2003: 2nd Place
- 2002: 1st Place
- 2001: 1st Place
A spring semester competition that draws teams of graduate students from across the country to develop entrepreneurial real estate ventures. Teams apply with a viable venture opportunity in late March, then are selected to present to a high-profile panel of real estate professionals in Chicago in late April. Jointly hosted by the Kellogg Real Estate and Entrepreneurship programs, teams have the opportunity to compete for $100,000 in cash and prizes and up to $10,000,000 in equity funding for their ventures.
- 2018: 1st Place
A spring semester competition (typically held in February) among the sixteen best (MBA-only) real estate programs to propose a solution to a real estate development case. The case is provided to competing teams one week in advance, who have four days to evaluate the site, propose the highest and best use, produce a design concept and structure financing. All sixteen teams then travel to Chapel Hill the following week to present their concepts before a high-profile panel of judges and compete for $20,000 in cash prizes. BREC will solicit applications in January.
- 2023: 3rd Place
- 2022: 1st Place
A winter competition in which graduate students from across the nation form multidisciplinary teams and engage in a challenging exercise in responsible land use. Beginning in December, teams have two weeks to devise a comprehensive design and development program for a real, large-scale development site. Submissions consist of boards that include drawings, site plans, tables, and market-feasible financial data. Finalists are invited to attend the final round of presentations in the host city before a panel of local real estate professionals, and compete for over $100,000 in cash prizes. BREC will solicit applications in late November.
The Innovation in Affordable Housing competition has been designed to replicate a real-life approach. 40+ multi-disciplinary teams comprised of graduate students in architecture, planning and policy, finance and other areas will be asked to address social, economic, and environmental issues in responding to a specific housing problem developed by an actual public housing agency (PHA).
- 2025: 1st Place
- 2019: 2nd Place
- 2010: 3rd Place
- 2004: 2nd Place
- 2003: 1st Place