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Oxford Saïd has received a one-million-pound donation from the Lalji Family to establish the Oxford Real Estate Fund

Published

The donation will enable the school to appoint a new dedicated professor in real estate.

Saïd Business School, University of Oxford has received a one-million-pound donation from the Lalji family to establish a dedicated Real Estate Fund at the school.

The donation will enable us to appoint a new dedicated professor in real estate, helping to expand the school’s real estate research. In addition to the professorship and teaching, the fund will promote wider University research and collaboration in real estate.

Expressing their motivation for the donation, the Lalji family said:

‘We are thrilled to have been able to support Oxford Saïd with its first professorship of Real Estate, and to be able to ensure the study and research of the subject at the School for the long term.

Education and academia are personally very important to the family, and Oxford Saïd’s focus on solving global challenges, such as housing and climate change, is also very much aligned with the family’s work and values. We could not imagine a better investment into the future of Real Estate in the UK, and thank Oxford Saïd for making us a partner in their vision.’

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The new professor will also be involved in the School’s Oxford Future of Real Estate Initiative (FoRE), an industry-supported research programme focused on the impact of innovation and technology on the global real estate industry. Their latest publications ‘Beyond Location: value drivers of office space’, and ‘The future of automated real estate valuations’, assessed the influence of building features and workplace technologies on rent levels and the benefits and limitations of using Automated Valuation Models, respectively. The findings have interesting implications for real estate research and practice.

Responding to the news, Dean Soumitra Dutta said:

‘We are grateful to the Lalji family for this generous and timely gift which will support real estate research and education at The University of Oxford. Real estate is the world’s largest asset class and is undergoing a period of significant change.

Real estate impacts us all in many ways, from carbon footprints to the cost of living and the application of advanced technologies. The Lalji family gift will help us better understand the changing role of real estate in our lives.’

 

It is hoped further funding from other potential donors will help develop the initiative, establishing a scholarship programme to help increase diversity within the real estate sector.

The Lalji family are in the real estate space, investing and developing real estate for the long term. They work across multiple sectors including hospitality, self storage and industrial and residential, office and life science.

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