As part of its first-ever student academic paper competition, the Commercial Real Estate Finance Council (CREFC) recognized two Columbia students for their writing. For his paper, "Should All Real Estate Investors Be Value Investors?", Akash Shivashankara '14 was chosen as the first-place winner of the CRE Finance World Award Competition. For his piece about the evolution of commercial lease law in Brazil, Martín Kielmanowicz '14 was named the top runner-up. In his winning article, Shivashankara argues for the inclusion in commercial real estate of momentum-based investing (the "seemingly irrational strategy" of buying when asset prices go up and selling when they go down). As part of his victory, Shivashankara will have his piece published in CRE Finance World, the CREFC’s tri-annual publication. He will also get free admission to the CREFC June Annual Conference and will be awarded a $2,000 scholarship.
Sponsored by Amherst Securities Group LP, the competition was open to current graduate students worldwide. Papers were vetted and submitted on behalf of the authors by professors or program directors. The CREFC Editorial Board then judged the works for their originality, writing style, logic or reasoning, and the reader interest they would generate.