21 Jul REAL ESTATE IN PRACTICE: LEARNING FROM REAL CASES
This seminar provides an introduction to the real estate sector, helping students understand how property markets work and why real estate is a key part of the economy. The seminar is designed for students with little or no prior knowledge of the industry.
Throughout the seminar, students will explore the basic structure of the real estate market, including the main types of properties such as residential, office, retail, and logistics. They will also be introduced to newer concepts such as Build-to-Rent (BTR) and Flex Living, which are becoming increasingly important in modern cities.
The course explains, in simple terms, how a real estate project is developed—from buying land to building and finally selling or renting properties. Students will learn about the different professionals involved in this process, such as developers, architects, investors, banks, and operators.
A key part of the seminar focuses on basic financial understanding, including:
• How real estate projects generate income
• The main types of costs involved
• Simple ways to measure profitability (e.g. return on investment and yield)
Rather than focusing on complex calculations, the course emphasizes intuition and practical understanding, using real-life examples and simplified case studies.
Students will also gain awareness of current trends shaping the sector, including sustainability (ESG principles) and changing living patterns in urban environments.
The seminar is highly interactive, combining short lectures with discussions, group work, and practical exercises. By the end of the course, students will have a clear and structured understanding of how the real estate industry works and will be able to analyse basic real estate opportunities from a business perspective.
LUIS GARCIA SANES
Luis Vicente Garcia Sanes is a senior finance executive with over 20 years of international experience in financial leadership, strategic planning, and corporate transformation across the real estate, investment, consulting, technology, and logistics sectors.
He currently serves as CFO at Azata Group (real estate developer + investor), overseeing finance, treasury, and real estate investment strategy. Previously, he was CFO of the Student Housing Investment Group at Azora and Group CFO at Ackermann (executive search, HR consulting).
Earlier in his career, he held senior finance roles managing multi-country operations across Europe and Latin America, working in Spain, the Netherlands, Perú and Mexico.
Skills
By the end of the course, students will be able to:
1. Understand the real estate industry and market fundamentals. Define the main types of real estate assets, explain how markets work, and identify main key drivers such as supply, demand, and location.
2. Explain the real estate development process. Understand the stages of a project from land acquisition to construction and final sale or rental, in the correct sequence.
3. Apply basic financial concepts to real estate in a real case. Identify revenue and cost components, interpret a simplified profit and loss statement, and calculate basic metrics such as ROI and yield.
4. Understand current problems the real estate sector is facing in Spain and in the world through real two cases studies
5. Analyze and compare real estate business models and opportunities. Evaluate two case studies, compare Build-to-Sell and Build-to-Rent models, and understand where to find opportunities using qualitative criteria such as location, demand, and risk.
Schedule
Which dates?
21-jan
28/0172027
04-feb
11-feb
18-feb
25-feb
What day?
THURSDAYS
What time?
9.30-11.00