U.Va. adds real estate minor in commerce school

The University of Virginia will start offering a real estate minor for the first time this spring.

The 15-credit interdisciplinary minor, housed within the McIntire School of Commerce, will be taught by faculty across multiple areas, including the College of Arts & Sciences, the School of Architecture, the School of Engineering and Applied Science, and the Frank Batten School of Leadership and Public Policy.

To be eligible, students must enroll in a “Foundations of Real Estate Finance” class in the spring of their second year.

Andrew Sanderford, the Robert M. White Jr. Bicentennial Professor of Real Estate and an associate professor of commerce, will serve as an administrator of the minor, along with other professors in the commerce, engineering and architecture schools.

“It feels great to be able to create a space for students interested in changing the face of the built environment – to have a path through the different schools that will allow them to pursue their curiosity in real estate,” Sanderford, a Charlottesville native who graduated from the college with a degree in history in 2005 and from the School of Architecture in 2010, said in a statement.

“The curriculum represents some of the classic ways to think about real estate, but will also have its own unique U.Va. spin that will allow really smart people to tell us what’s important about how to change the world. We’re excited about the volume of cool ideas that will come from the students.”

Applications will be accepted beginning Nov. 1 and are due Feb. 21, 2022.