Research workshop and industry roundtables explore synergies between MIT faculty and ASEAN real estate professionals
By 2025, an estimated half of the world’s urban population – 2.5 billion people – will live and work in Asia. As Asian cities rapidly expand and adapt to this reality, will they center sustainability in their process? If so, how will these cities define sustainability and by what metrics will success be measured? In the summer of 2024, a group of MIT researchers met with academics and practitioners in Singapore to discuss and better understand the landscape of sustainable real estate development in Asia and specifically in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) context.
Overlooking iconic landmarks such as the Marina Bay Sands and the Singapore Supertrees, an industry roundtable met in the Marina Bay Financial Centre Towers to highlight pioneers in sustainable real estate development in Singapore and ASEAN neighboring countries. The roundtable included over 30 senior industry participants, with actors ranging from developers, architects, financial analysts, and entrepreneurs. All participants were aligned through their efforts to promote and enhance sustainability as good business in the real estate industry in South East Asia. Keynote speakers included Tan Swee Yiow, President of Real Estate Developers’ Association of Singapore (REDAS), and MIT’s Siqi Zheng, the STL Champion Professor of Urban and Real Estate Sustainability. Their talks opened a platform to discuss the challenges and the opportunities in the sustainability landscape, including how to create an applicable definition and metric across ASEAN members; translating leadership will into action by risk averse middle management; and the need for documentation detailing how pioneering actors have successfully integrated greater sustainability goals into their business models.
Following the roundtable, faculty and researchers from MIT and the National University of Singapore (NUS) convened to share academic projects, research, and working papers related to the study of real estate. During the research workshop, three sessions tackled how artificial intelligence is changing real estate practice, the economic modeling of the impacts of climate change, and regional research focused on evolving markets. The workshop was organized by Wen-Chi Liao, Ambra Amico, Mingxuan Fan, and Takeo Kuwabara. Presenters included: Fabio Duarte, Filip Biljecki, Yuming Fu, Siqi Zheng, Ambra Amico, Man Zhang, and Wen-Chi Liao.
The culmination of the roundtable and workshop focused on discussions between MIT and NUS colleagues on areas of joint interest and potential future collaborations, leveraging the needs identified during the industry roundtable and matched with individual expertises highlighted during the workshop, all in service of enhancing sustainability in Singapore and the greater ASEAN region.
The workshop, roundtable, and continuing discussions are supported through the Asia Real Estate Initiative at the MIT Center for Real Estate and a generous gift from a MIT alum.
