The Institute, originally named as the ‘Institute of Real Estate Studies (IRES)’, was officially inaugurated on 1 June 2006. The establishment of the Institute could be traced back to its predecessor, which is the Centre for Real Estate Studies (CRES), set up within the School of Building and Estate Management, in 1991. After the split of the school into two departments - Department of Real Estate and Department of Building in June 2000, CRES became the research arm of the Department of Real Estate entrusted to chart the department’s real estate research direction.

Singapore set up the first real estate investment trust (REIT) in 2002, and the REIT market has since developed rapidly, making Singapore one of the largest REIT markets outside the U.S.. A taskforce, led by Professor Ong Seow Eng, at the Department of Real Estate submitted a paper to propose the establishment of a research institute to foster multi-disciplinary research that integrates real estate with capital market in 2006. The proposal was subsequently supported by then NUS President Professor Shih Choon Fong, with CRES being elevated to a university-level research institute, IRES, and Associate Professor Fu Yuming serving as its interim director from 1 June 2006 to 30 June 2007. The first Chairman of the IRES Management Board was Professor Cheong Hin Fatt, the then Dean of School of Design and Environment, from 1 June 2007 to 31 May 2009. Dr Seek Ngee Huat, one of the distinguished alumni of NUS Real Estate, was appointed as the Chairman of the IRES Board on 1 June 2009, and has been the Chairman since then.

In 2007, an international renowned scholar of real estate, Professor John Glascock, who was then the Grosvenor Professor of Real Estate Finance at Department of Land Economy, University of Cambridge, UK, was appointed as the Visiting Director of IRES from 1 July 2007 to 1 July 2008. Professor Fu Yuming then became the Acting Director after the departure of Professor Glascock in 2008. In 2009, Professor Deng Yongheng, who was then a Professor at the School of Policy, Planning and Development, University of Southern California, joined the National University of Singapore and assumed the Director’s role at IRES on 2 January 2009. He served as IRES Director for more than eight years before relinquishing the post in 2017. Professor Sing Tien Foo assumed the new IRES Director’s role from 1 July 2017.

Established as a university-level research institute, its key mission was to advance multidisciplinary research in real estate and related fields. The Institute promotes multidisciplinary collaboration and high-impact research on broad real estate issues in relation to, amongst others, finance, economics, urban development, wealth accumulation, demography, and environmental policies.

Over the years, the Institute’s footprints extended and deepened considerably. A name reflecting the broader and wider interests that the Institute had long been engaged in became more compelling.

With effect from 9 March 2018, the Institute has been renamed as the Institute of Real Estate and Urban Studies (IREUS). The insertion of ‘Urban’ made for a more all-encompassing name that would appropriately reflect the realities of the Institute’s multi-disciplinary nature. It underscores the importance of staying relevant to our changing urban environment. This rebranded profile also enables the broader community to look at what the Institute does from an all-embracing perspective.

Head of Institute through the years