Walter Torous, a senior lecturer in MIT’s Department of Urban Studies and Planning (DUSP) and the Sloan School of Management, and director of the Master of Science in Real Estate Development (MSRED) program, has been appointed executive director of the MIT Center for Real Estate (CRE) effective July 1 2026. Dean Hashim Sarkis announced that law and urban planning professor Justin Steil will serve as faculty chair of the Academic Curriculum Council, and the two will steer CRE’s academic and strategic direction, reinforcing its position at the intersection of finance, design, planning, technology, and public policy.
In his new role, Torous will oversee CRE’s teaching, consortium activities, fundraising, and major events while continuing to lead the MSRED program. He will manage the center’s staff, budget, and strategic plan, working closely with Steil on the evolution of academic programs and industry engagement. He succeeds Professor Siqi Zheng, who served as faculty director from July 2020 to June 2026. Torous joined MIT in 2013 after serving as a professor at UCLA’s Anderson School of Management, where he founded the Ziman Center for Real Estate, and holding appointments at the University of Michigan and London Business School.
Torous notes that commercial and residential real estate in the U.S., Europe, and Asia is undergoing profound change: an aging population staying longer in homes, remote‑work reshaping office demand, and retail transformation are creating market imbalances. He sees CRE’s mission as educating the next generation of leaders who are fluent in technology and financial markets, enabling them to navigate volatility, sustain strong career trajectories, and act as stewards of the industry.
To achieve this, he proposes expanding the MSRED curriculum beyond DUSP to incorporate content from architecture, civil and environmental engineering, the Media Lab, Sloan, and other MIT units, while deepening engagement with the center’s 1,200+ alumni network to leverage industry insights.
Research‑wise, Torous is known for empirical work on derivatives, options, mortgages, and distressed‑firm restructuring. Recent projects examine why homeowners default on mortgages and apply machine learning to analyze how the U.S. commercial office market shifted during the Covid‑19 pandemic, offering lessons for developers. These studies underscore the growing relevance of AI and large language models in real‑estate decision‑making. Consequently, the MSRED curriculum now includes a class on AI and real estate, and Torous and Steil plan to add further interdisciplinary offerings.
Review: Torous’s appointment signals a strategic push for CRE to become a hub of technology‑driven real‑estate education and research, with cross‑disciplinary collaboration and industry partnership at its core.