The REMD group, part of the Design and Decision Support Systems (DDSS) research program, is responsible for education and research in the area of real estate management and urban development.

Understanding, modeling and optimizing behavior in the area of real estate

The transition from a sellers’ market to a buyers’ market that is taking place in all real estate sectors (offices, residential, retail, and so on) is profoundly impacting the sector. At the same time, the increasing importance of sustainable development, transparency of processes, innovation of businesses and alignment to changing needs of users demand reconsideration of the design of the built environment at the area of buildings as well as areas.

Traditionally, Real-Estate research is focused on operational and financial-economic aspects of real estate management and development. The REMD group distinguishes itself by focusing on users’ behavior and development of decision support tools. Thereby, buildings are consistently considered in their physical form and in a spatial context. The group combines multiple disciplines including planning, geography, management, economics and psychology.

Research at the REMD group focuses specifically on user and well-being aspects of new housing concepts (such as collaborative housing), new business and workplace concepts (co-working offices, science parks…) and vulnerable groups in society (such as the elderly) with the aim to create healthy working and living environments that meet current demands of users and society. The research combines qualitative methods, advanced econometric and spatial analysis, big data and large-scale modeling to test and develop theories of user behavior and support real-estate decisions.

The real estate market comprises various market segments, ranging from business premises (such as offices, stores and commercial buildings) to non-profit real estate (such as housing corporation properties). Equal attention is paid to these segments, using three perspectives:

• The user perspective - understanding the needs, preferences and choice behavior of users of space for activities such as residence, retail and businesses.
• The management perspective - understanding the management of real-estate on urban, portfolio and individual building levels. Decision support tools are considered important to improve the transparency of processes and quality of decisions in real estate.
• The development perspective - understanding land and urban development processes; key actors here are developers and also investors and public-private partnerships. Building design and an integrated approach to real estate at the scale of the neighborhood or city (region) are important in creating high-quality living and work environments.