Programme Outline
Morning session (9:00am - 12:30pm)
Following the opening keynote address by Minister for National Development, Mr Chee Hong Tat, the morning session will focus on various issues gaining salience in Singapore’s public housing landscape. We have two in-house academics - Professor Sing Tien Foo and Associate Professor Fan Yi - respectively covering the socioeconomics of ethnicity in HDB blocks, and how public housing supports intergenerational mobility. We will also be featuring a speaker to cover topics relating to housing demographic trends.
Afternoon session (2:00pm - 4:15pm)
The afternoon session will focus on themes relating to climate mitigation, adaptation, sustainability, and liveability. For this segment, IREUS Board Member and CapitaLand Development's CEO, Mr Jonathan Yap, will broach topics concerning new housing typologies, green space integration, sustainable design, and integrated developments. In addition to our own academics - Professor Lee Kwan Ok and Lum Chang Chair Professor Qin Yu - sharing their latest research, we will also have another speaker on board to discuss strategies regarding the evolution of our urban landscape.
Networking and drinks (4:30pm - 6:30pm)
Guest-of-Honour
Mr Chee Hong Tat
Minister for National Development
(Minister's bio available at PMO's website: https://www.pmo.gov.sg/about-us/the-cabinet/mr-chee-hong-tat/)
Speakers and panellists
Sing Tien Foo
Provost Chair Professor, Department of Real Estate, NUS Business School, National University of Singapore
Widely published in international journals, Tien Foo is a versatile academic whose research interests straddle real estate finance, sustainability, urban economics and transportation, housing policies and economic behaviours. He is the editor of International Real Estate Review, the official journal of AsRES and GCREC. He also serves on various committees in the public and private sectors such as the Ministry of Law's Appeals Board (Land Acquisition), the Singapore Chapter of the Asia Pacific Real Assets Association (APREA) and others.
Fan Yi
Associate Professor, Department of Real Estate, NUS Business School, National University of Singapore
Ranked among the top 7% of female economists worldwide by IDEAS RePEc, Fan Yi's research focuses on social and environmental sustainability, and has been published at leading international journals, such as Nature Climate Change, Nature Cities, American Economic Journal: Economic Policy, Review of Finance, Journal of Urban Economics, Applied Energy. She is also co-editor of Labour Economics, the official journal of the European Association of Labour Economists.
Jonathan Yap
Chief Executive Officer, CapitaLand Development
Jonathan is CEO of CapitaLand Development (CLD), the development arm of CapitaLand Group since June 2025 and Executive Director of CapitaLand Group. With more than 30 years of real estate experience, he leads CLD in scaling up while capitalising on real estate opportunities fuelled by megatrends. Before his current appointment, Jonathan was with CapitaLand Investment (CLI), the listed real estate investment management business of CapitaLand Group. He last held the position of CEO, Listed Funds, overseeing CLI’s listed funds vertical, asset operating platforms in Singapore and Malaysia, and its India business.
Lee Kwan Ok
Professor and Deputy Head, Department of Real Estate, NUS Business School, National University of Singapore
A multiple-time recipient of teaching excellence awards, Kwan Ok's research connects real estate, urban economics, and public policy, focusing on household residential choice, neighborhood dynamics and effects, and housing affordability. Her recent work appears in the Journal of Urban Economics, Nature Cities, Nature Mental Health, and Real Estate Economics. She holds editorial leadership roles as Editor of Housing Studies and Associate Editor of the International Journal of Urban Sciences.
Qin Yu
Lum Chang Chair Professor, Department of Real Estate, NUS Business School, National University of Singapore
Qin Yu's research - ranging over urban economics and environmental economics - has been published in acclaimed journals like Nature Climate Change, Nature Human Behaviour, Nature Water, Review of Finance, and the Economic Journal among others. Currently, she is the co-editor of the China Economic Review, associate editor of Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, and sits on the editorial board of Journal of Economic Geography and Journal of Environmental Economics and Management.
(Watch this space for further updates as we get more experts to join us as speakers and panellists.)
Hosts and Moderators
Khoo Teng Chye
Chairman, IREUS, National University of Singapore
In addition to his role at IREUS, Teng Chye is also sits on the Steering Group of NUS Cities and is a Practice Professor with the College of Design and Engineering at NUS. Prof Khoo was formerly the Executive Director of the Centre for Liveable Cities and continues to be a Fellow there. Over the course of his career, he has assumed leadership positions in various statutory boards and government-linked companies such as URA, PUB, PSA Corporation, Mapletree Investments and Temasek Holdings.
Qian Wenlan
Director, IREUS, National University of Singapore
Ng Teng Fong Professor of Real Estate and Professor of Finance, NUS Business School
Wenlan - who is Director of IREUS - is also a professor of finance and Ng Teng Fong Chair Professor in Real Estate at the NUS Business School. Holding a PhD in Business Administration from the Haas School of Business, University of California, Berkeley, Prof Qian is also a fellow of esteemed institutions such as the Asian Bureau of Finance and Economics Research. Currently, she is an editor of Real Estate Economics and associate editor of Financial Management.
Joseph Ooi
Co-Director, IREUS, National University of Singapore
Professor, Department of Real Estate, NUS Business School
On top of his role as Co-Director of IREUS, Joseph is also Professor of Real Estate at NUS Business School, where he is serving as Programme Director of the Executive Certificate in Real Estate Finance (ECREF). Prof Ooi is also a Past President of the International Real Estate Society, which is a federation of six regional real estate academic societies.
Leslie Yee
Adjunct Senior Research Fellow, IREUS, National University of Singapore
Leslie is an active commentator on real estate. He has extensive experience in real estate, finance and investment, having worked for property groups GuocoLand and The Link Reit, as well as financial institutions Goldman Sachs, UBS and N M Rothschild & Sons. His expertise straddles strategy, research, capital markets and investor relations.
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