Torto Addresses Grads at MIT/CRE Commencement '09
"This is the Best Time to Get into Real Estate"
Posted October 16, 2007
China and India are the world's two most populous nations, together making up nearly a third of the world's population. Yet even with their increased prosperity in recent years, they have a total of only about 20,000 movie theaters between them; the United States, by comparison, boasts 30,000.
Economist Raymond Torto shared this comparison in this commencement address to the MIT Center for Real Estate's 2009 graduating class. Emphasizing the opportunities that real estate now offers, Torto urged the graduates to consider the burgeoning markets abroad, where estimates suggest that three quarters of the world's development activity is occurring. Torto is Global Chief Economist for CB Richard Ellis, and was keynote speaker for the Center's graduation held on Saturday, September 26 at MIT's Stata Center.
Torto's points were not lost on the graduating class, whose 32 members personify international diversity. More than a third of the graduates hail from such far-flung corners of the world as Turkey, the Philippines, Korea, Japan, China, Mexico, Singapore, and India. When many arrived at MIT/CRE a year ago, they already had significant experience on major real estate projects, including high-rise towers in Mumbai and the Beijing Olympics.
Not only is the graduating class exceptionally international – reflecting the Center's increased efforts to establish partnerships with major educational institutions and prominent real estate professionals abroad – but it is also historic: it is the Center's 25th class. It brings to more than 800 the total number of graduates since the Center was founded in 1983 to improve the quality of the built environment and promote more informed professional practice in the global real estate industry.
Torto is one of commercial real estate's most renowned economists and forecasters, and he implored the graduates to be optimistic and creative as they embark upon their careers. "This is the best time to get into real estate," he told at them flatly, defying prevailing gloom about the recession's impact on the industry. Even in a recession, he said, opportunities abound. And he reminded the graduates that real estate is an industry driven by "cyclical opportunities," noting that during the last significant recession, in the early 1990s, fortunes were made in Boston on the purchase and subsequent resale of distressed properties.
As a part of the commencement ceremony, graduate Michael Burr Tilford of Boston presented the 2009 class gift — an endowed fund to enable members of the class of 2010 to participate in major competitions. Tilford urged his classmates, "Know yourself, go and take risks and help each other out" along the way. "You can only sell your integrity once," he said.
