Facility & Real Estate Management

- Overview of building systems (heating, ventilation, air conditioning, plumbing, electrical, fire protection, elevators) as well as basic terminology and simple operating principles (without in-depth engineering)
- Maintenance, inspection, repair - basic principles of upkeep
- Key legal foundations in facility management
- SLAs & specifications of services with a technical focus

- Thermal and energy building modeling with a focus on components, user profiles and building physics
- Modeling of plant systems including heating, ventilation and control systems
- Coupling of building and plant simulation to represent holistic energy flows
- Assessment of efficiency measures based on simulation-based metrics and load profiles
- Development and analysis of refurbishment scenarios taking energy-related, economic and operational-organizational factors into account
- Validation of simulation models and derivation of decision-relevant interpretations for facility management and real estate practice

- District and site development
- Urban-planning and spatial-planning framework conditions
- Diversity and inclusion factors in project development
- Calculation and interpretation of life-cycle costs
- Analysis and assessment of return parameters for new-build, existing-building and revitalisation strategies
- Integration of technical and planning requirements from building services engineering and spatial planning into development concepts

- Smart cities and smart communities as strategic urban and regional development approaches
- Digital and infrastructural technologies such as IoT, mobility solutions, energy systems and data platforms
- Urban transformation processes with a focus on energy, mobility, spatial structure and governance
- Analysis of urban-planning and spatial-planning foundations for smart district concepts
- Diversity and inclusion principles in smart city concepts
- Assessment approaches for smart measures in terms of sustainability, quality of life, cost and acceptance
- Stakeholder management and participatory decision-making processes in municipal transformation projects

- Workplace design from ergonomic, psychological and health-related perspectives
- Human factors in work environments
- Flexible workplace models
- Space typologies and floor-area concepts
- User experiences and feedback processes for evaluating workplaces and their continuous optimization
- Health, safety and comfort in work environments
- Change management in workplace transformations

- Technical building operation
- Maintenance strategies and life-cycle models
- Operator responsibility & technical compliance
- Performance metrics for operation & maintenance
- Sensor technology/IoT, condition monitoring, digital fault management, CAFM, BIM-FM
- Tactical decision preparation for building operation

- Project work on real-world case examples taking economics and ESG criteria into account
- Teamwork in interdisciplinary and intercultural groups
- Development and presentation of an innovative project concept

- Regulation & framework conditions
- Comparison of building certification systems
- Ecological & economic sustainability assessment
- ESG management in real estate practice
- Certification across the life cycle
- Stakeholder, risk & evidence management

- Property analysis using the land register and cadastre, zoning plans, submission plans and development regulations, as well as area definitions
- Basic knowledge of financial mathematics and real estate metrics
- Fundamentals of construction technology (building materials and structures)
- Basic knowledge of the Austrian Tenancy Act (MRG) and the Condominium Act (WEG)
- Fundamentals of real estate valuation
- Fundamentals of project development
- Fundamentals of building management

- Introduction to core concepts of regional economics, regional growth theories and urban and regional development
- Analysis of the objectives, instruments and mechanisms of Austrian and European regional policy
- Application of spatial data and methods, including the fundamentals of spatial econometrics
- Understanding the macroeconomic role of real estate markets within the micro- and macroeconomic environment
- In-depth study of real estate economics fundamentals such as market mechanisms, price formation and demographic factors
- Examination of risks and market phenomena such as real estate price bubbles
- Application of portfolio-theory approaches to real estate issues

- National & international valuation standards
- Derivation and review of value-relevant factors
- Derivation of property yield rates, discount rates, market rents & operating costs
- Valuation of special property types
- Review and plausibility-check methods, risk analysis, model validation

- Financing models
- Investment appraisal and cost-effectiveness analysis taking complex uncertainties into account
- Real-estate-related risk analysis covering market, property, financing and ESG-related risk types
- Behavioral finance in investments
- Application of quantitative risk and valuation methods
- Linking financing, risk and decision-making strategies

- Methods of property and portfolio analysis
- Due diligence processes & risk assessment
- Value-enhancement & optimization strategies
- Portfolio management, diversification, risk & performance metrics
- Budgeting, cash-flow models, life-cycle considerations, scenario analyzes
- Decision preparation for management & investors

- The role and organization of the corporate real estate function
- Corporate property strategies
- CREM governance, policies & stakeholder management
- Space & site portfolio analysis
- CRE options for action: densification, consolidation, expansion, flex-space models
- Interfaces with workplace management, HR, sustainability, finance
- Decision preparation for management

- FM strategies & organizational models
- Service delivery & contract models
- FM organization & change management
- Strategic cost & performance management
- Interfaces & integration
- Future topics & trends
- FM strategies & organizational models

- Hybrid and agile project management frameworks
- Stakeholder, risk and complexity analysis in life-cycle-oriented construction and existing-building projects
- Design Thinking & user research in buildings using personas, customer journeys, service blueprints
- Rapid prototyping for building, service and process innovations

- Fundamentals of intercultural communication
- Communication styles, value orientations and handling misunderstandings
- Team roles and decision-making processes in culturally diverse groups
- Intercultural conflict patterns and resolution strategies
- Building trust, empathy and perspective-taking in international contexts
- Diversity, inclusion and ethical dimensions of collaboration
- Reflecting on one's own cultural background and communication preferences
- Models and methods for analysing stress and resources (work-life balance)
- Mechanisms of gender roles, bias and structural disadvantage, along with practical approaches to gender-inclusive design of work and learning environments
- Practical exercises for team building and collaboration in international settings

- Mediation in an organizational context
- HRM-related areas of conflict
- Methods of collaborative leadership
- Mediative intervention techniques
- Facilitation methods for conflict situations

- Preparation for the study trip: thematic and organizational planning
- Introduction to international facility & real estate management
- Visits to companies, real estate projects, trade fairs or universities in the destination country
- Expert discussions with practitioners, authorities, project developers or research institutions
- Observation of international management and sustainability strategies
- Intercultural communication and professional conduct in an international context
- Follow-up: presentation of results, reflection and transfer into the study program

- Big data fundamentals in real estate
- Data quality, data governance, ETL processes and data pipelines
- Exploratory data analysis & feature engineering for large data volumes
- Modeling techniques
- Big data tools & ecosystems

- Fundamentals of professional scientific communication and principles of accessible knowledge transfer
- Audience-oriented writing and presenting for specialist and non-specialist audiences
- Storytelling methods for the structured and narrative preparation of complex content
- Design and analysis of media formats
- Visualising data and arguments with digital tools
- Communication ethics, transparency and responsibility in conveying science-related topics

- Identifying relevant research fields and deriving a precise master's thesis research question
- Structuring theoretical foundations and defining key terms and variables
- Developing an initial research design including method selection and feasibility
- Analysing the availability of data and sources as well as ethical and organizational conditions
- Discussing and presenting the planned master's thesis project

- Methodological grounding
- Quality criteria of empirical research
- Methodological research risks & bias
- Presentation and peer discussion of the research design

Students gain insights into current topics, developments and research findings in facility and real estate management. A range of experts from academia, industry and research provide practice-oriented impulses on questions of innovation and transfer. The content is explored in greater depth through moderated discussions, fireside chats or field trips and reflected upon with regard to its relevance for professional practice.

Topics covered include:
- current innovation and research trends in the sector
- examples of successful corporate and research collaborations
- approaches to knowledge and technology transfer
- sustainable and digital transformation processes in the real estate industry
- reflection on one's own learning and transfer processes in a professional context

- Scientific dissemination
- Scientific presentation skills
- Publication ethics & quality assurance

- Preparation of the master's thesis
- Academic writing & argumentation
- Preparation for the final examination