On November 15, 2024, the Princeton Real Estate Travel Case Competition team competed in the 16th annual Cornell International Real Estate Case Competition. The competition team is an initiative of the Princeton Undergraduate Real Estate Group (PUREG), an undergraduate student group aimed to connect Princeton students with interests in careers in real estate and Princeton alumni who work across every industry in the real estate field from financing to acquisitions, asset management to development, and more.

The 2024 Princeton competition team is made up of six undergraduate students (pictured left to right) Braden Lalin ’26, Ezekiel Akinsanya ’26, Sal Yitayew ’26, David Tang ’25, Christian Lalin ’25, and Jack Hunt ’26 (not pictured). Christian Lalin helped launch the team in 2023, competing in two competitions that year, the Cornell International Real Estate Case Competition at the World Trade Center in NYC and the Kislak Real Estate Institute Competition where the team earned third place overall. This year, the team, thanks to the generosity of the Princeton Economics Department sponsorship, was proud to once again compete in the Cornell International Real Estate Case Competition at JP Morgan Headquarters in NYC and also has plans to enter many more competitions soon.

The Cornell International Real Estate Case Competition attracts a global array of students and tasks the teams with analyzing an actual commercial real estate transaction, rendering a recommendation, and providing a presentation of their analysis and proposal. The competition itself is the culmination of an intensive five-day analysis preparation by the students and a full day of presentations. The teams are judged on their investment recommendations, approach to the problems, and presentation skills. Judges in the competition are real estate executives representing top companies in the industry.

Reflecting on this latest competition, Lalin shared, “Naturally, competing against schools with developed Real Estate academic programs has posed a significant challenge for the Princeton team. In addition to extensive research on our part, the team has also been significantly supported by a set team of advisors from the Princeton Alumni Real Estate Network.”

“These competitions have been an invaluable experience for the team to gain insight into the work and analysis that goes into the work within the field, but also to develop a deep skillset across communication, presentation building, investment analysis, financial modeling, qualitative research and more,” said Lalin, adding, “These competitions host teams from Universities from across the world. The team has had the opportunity to meet students who share this passion for finance, real estate, and entrepreneurship on a global scale. We are excited to see how the Princeton Real Estate Travel Team continues to grow and impact Princeton students over the course of the competition cycles to come.”

Congratulations to the PUREG team on their excellent presentation. The Department of Economics was proud to sponsor the team for this competition. All six members are economics majors and three of the students (Christian Lalin, David Tang, and Ezekiel Akinsanya) are minoring in finance through the Bendheim Center for Finance.