Time is powerful. A few decades can turn a rural area into a modern city. But time does not change a man’s desire to give back to the community. Associate Professor Yu Shi Ming, Academic Director for the NUS MSc in Real Estate programme, shares his Singapore story.
It was a morning in Singapore in the early 1960s. While his grandfather looked on, six-year-old Yu Shi Ming had to practise his Chinese calligraphy. Then, he had to play Chinese chess, and afterwards, type on a typewriter.
It was a routine that he followed every morning. His grandfather had been a primary school principal in Indonesia, and wanted his grandson to learn practical skills such as typing, and also skills that would train the mind.
The routine shaped him into who he is today. Associate Professor Yu, now the Academic Director for the NUS MSc in Real Estate programme, says it taught him discipline and the value of consistent work. In his academic career spanning 40 years, he would find fulfilment in teaching and in serving the community.
The value of hardship
Times were tough during his childhood. When Assoc Prof Yu was in primary school, his father lost his job. His mother helped to make ends meet by peddling textiles at blocks of flats. Level by level, door by door. As the eldest son, he would accompany her on those trips.
“I appreciate that money is not easy to come by,” Assoc Prof Yu remarked. “As a treat, my mother would give me 20 cents to buy some food. That’s like a huge deal.”
In those days, 10 cents were enough to buy a plate of char kway teow (stir-fried flat noodles).
“I suppose, you know, hardship will teach you resilience, endurance and adaptability,” Assoc Prof Yu reflected.
Getting a scholarship
As a Colombo Plan scholar, Prof Yu left Singapore in 1974 to study Urban Valuation at the University of Auckland in New Zealand. There, he would learn about assessing a place’s value based on physical, legal and economic factors. His interest in real estate grew and he would go on to pass up a career in the public service to become a senior tutor at the National University of Singapore (NUS).
“Teaching is in my blood,” he declared, referring to his grandfather and his parents, who were also both teachers, all of whom had influenced him heavily.
In the years after, he would complete his Masters and PhD from the University of Reading in the United Kingdom.
Changing the perception of real estate
He started teaching at the NUS Faculty of Architecture and Building in 1981.
In 1986, two departments in the faculty merged to form the School of Building and Estate Management, later renamed as the School of Building and Real Estate.
“In fact, I was the one who helped to draft the proposal to change the names of the degrees and the school to ‘real estate’ in 1995,” Assoc Prof Yu revealed, saying that “real estate” is easier for the public to understand than “estate management”.
Assoc Prof Yu wants to debunk the myth that the study of real estate is only for real estate agents. “Real estate is one subject where you apply different disciplines, such as economics, finance, law, planning and management, in order to understand what it is about. It’s actually very complex.”
The BSc and MSc in Real Estate programmes help students to understand this field. Students learn real estate finance, economics, urban planning, land law and policies—knowledge and skills that prepare them for careers in shaping housing policies, in valuation, in asset management and in building sustainable cities.
Meanwhile, the PhD in Real Estate programme trains scholars to do impactful research on real estate markets and their impact on the economy, amongst other broad fields related to real estate. These programmes would go on to produce many alumni who are top executives in the industry, alumni who often contribute by giving industry talks or mentoring their juniors.
Assoc Prof Yu (front row, second from left) with his students from the Commercial Real Estate Appraisal class.
More shifts
In his time at NUS, Assoc Prof Yu would see more changes to the names of departments and schools, to better reflect the various fields at that time.
In 2000, the Faculty of Architecture, Building and Real Estate was reorganised into three departments: Department of Architecture (DoA), Department of Building (DoB) and Department of Real Estate (DRE), and its name changed to School of Design and Environment (SDE). Assoc Prof Yu became Vice-Dean of SDE from 2000 to 2007 and Head of the Department of Real Estate from 2007 to 2013 and from 2017 to 2019.
This year, the Department of Real Estate joined NUS Business School to create more opportunities in multi-disciplinary education and research. The move signals that real estate is seen more as an asset and investment, but Assoc Prof Yu reminds that we should not neglect other aspects of real estate, such as planning and law.
The real estate veteran has witnessed much of Singapore’s cityscape transformation. In 2016, Assoc Prof Yu co-authored the book “Singapore’s Real Estate: 50 Years of Transformation” with his NUS colleagues, Prof Seek Ngee Huat and Prof Sing Tien Foo. They wrote how real estate has played an important role in the transformation of Singapore from a third-world to a first-world country, as well as highlighted the uniqueness of real estate markets and institutions in Singapore.
Doing community work
Assoc Prof Yu also had a first-hand role in the transformation.
When Singapore’s town council system started around 1990, he was invited to contribute his real estate expertise. Town councils are involved in managing and maintaining common property at public housing estates.
Assoc Prof Yu has served in the West Coast Town Council for more than 30 years and is still active in his role today.
He also helps out in grassroots work and was Chairman of the West Coast Community Centre Management Committee from 1997-2007. At the community clubs located all over Singapore, management committees plan and organise programmes for residents to get together.
In 2002, he received a Public Service Medal for his grassroots work.
Assoc Prof Yu (centre) at a community event that celebrates Singapore’s 50th birthday in 2015.
“I suppose being involved in the community and in National Service let you see different segments of the society. You get a much better picture of people’s issues. That’s why housing is so important,” said Assoc Prof Yu.
He views affordability and proper maintenance and management of the estate as key to the success of any public housing programme. These are areas which he has taught in the BSc programme as well as in executive education. He has also written seminar papers and undertaken consultancy projects on housing.
Assoc Prof Yu joined the board of the Housing Development Board (HDB) for six years, and was also involved in setting up the Council for Estate Agencies, a government agency that regulates property agents and agencies in Singapore. In recognition of his contributions, the government awarded the Ministry of National Development Medallion to him in 2015 and 2016 and the Public Service Star in 2017.
Assoc Prof Yu (right) served on the judging panel for EdgeProp Excellence Awards in 2017.
Running the MSc in Real Estate programme
At 65, Assoc Prof Yu has received a few long service awards from NUS, culminating in the National Day Long Service award this year, but he says his tasks are not done yet.
He became the Academic Director of the MSc in Real Estate programme in 2020. As Academic Director, he oversees the students’ needs and reviews the curriculum. A new curriculum will be rolled out in 2022.
Like other MSc programmes in the Business School, there will be no exams, but there will still be quizzes. The new curriculum will also have new elective modules which will expose graduates to significant issues such as digitalisation and sustainability.
Over the past few decades, the programme has attracted many middle or senior managers who may not have a formal qualification in real estate. Assoc Prof Yu said, “They could be engineers, architects or lawyers who are already in some way connected to the real estate industry and find it useful to learn more.”
There is a good mix of students. Students find it interesting to hear perspectives of their classmates from different backgrounds, said Assoc Prof Yu. They could come from the public or private sector, and share anecdotes of the real estate experience from different countries.
The programme also has a global component. When travel restrictions ease further next year, Assoc Prof Yu hopes to resume the international field study component, where students spend one week overseas on site visits and projects.
The programme has received wide industry support. Assoc Prof Yu shared that the MSc in Real Estate programme has been popular because it can fill the gap in training the needed talent in this industry. He spoke of alumni who got promoted after graduation. He also spoke of companies that sponsor employees for the programme, and alumni who recommend their colleagues to join future cohorts.
Assoc Prof Yu said, “The programme allows students to fulfil their work aspirations and have more confidence in handling real estate issues. Housing, a basic human need, is one of the key sectors of the real estate industry in every country. There are housing issues across the world.
“Real estate is also the biggest asset class in investment. There are trillions invested in it. From the economic or physical perspective, there is a lot about real estate that people need to know.”
