​Real Estate Competitions

Solve real-world real estate challenges.

The Burnham-Moores Center for Real Estate encourages graduate and undergraduate students to participate in local and international real estate-related competitions. It's a great way to put theory into practice, build upon your existing analytical and qualitative skills and deepen your relationships with your cohort and faculty.

USD teams have been very successful in these competitions. As a result of winning multiple first-place finishes in the international ARGUS University Challenge, our master's in real estate program has received increasing national recognition—and MSRE students continue to excel in this competition.

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Graduate competitions

Master's in real estate students have the opportunity to apply what they learn in the classroom and partake in highly competitive real estate case competitions. The international ARGUS University Challenge is one of our favorite and most successful competitions. This challenge brings together student teams from universities around the world to simulate a comprehensive real-life development analysis of a fictitious commercial real estate project. Submissions are judged by a panel of industry and academic professionals and the winning teams receive cash prizes. In the ten years the competition has been held, the USD School of Business team has taken first place on seven occasions and second place on three occasions. We are very proud of our graduate students.

ARGUS University Challenge Results

Year Winner Second place Third place
2020 University of Regensburg University of Pennsylvania University of San Diego
2019 University of San Diego University of Pennsylvania Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo
2018 Cornell University University of San Diego University of Chicago
2017 University of San Diego Cornell University Louisiana State University
2016 University of San Diego MIT Louisiana State University
2015 University of San Diego University of New Brunswick Florida International University
2014 University of San Diego University of Pennsylvania York University
2013 York University University of San Diego Florida International University
2012 York University University of San Diego New York University
2011 University of San Diego Emory University University of North Carolina
2009 University of San Diego Arizona State University
and Baruch College		 University of Colorado
and University of North Carolina
Master's in real estate students also had the opportunity to participate in the 2019 Realizing Returns University Race. This investment competition hosted by Smashing Results, LLC provides an interactive allocation tool for teams to invest $1 billion in a variety of real estate investments directly linked to well-known industry benchmarks. See the 2019 team's strategies.

Undergraduate competitions

USD undergraduate real estate students are invited to take part in the annual NAIOP University Challenge. The NAIOP University Challenge brings together teams from three local universities (University of San Diego, San Diego State University and University of California at San Diego), to compete head-to-head in a highest and best use site/case study of a piece of land in San Diego County. The Challenge is judged on three criteria: a written proposal, a 30 minute Q&A session before a panel of judges from the real estate industry and an oral presentation before more than 300 NAIOP members, city officials, guests and a panel of real estate industry judges. The USD undergraduate real estate team took first place in the 2019 NAIOP University Challenge. View photos and videos of the 2019 event.

View GlobeSt.com coverage.
View Times of San Diego coverage.
View Connect California Commercial Real Estate News coverage.
View Union Tribune coverage.
View San Diego Business Journal coverage.

The USD undergraduate real estate team also took first place in the 2017 NAIOP University Challenge.