A Day in The Life:
Real Estate Analyst
What is your job about?
As a real estate analyst my job hinges on me knowing my market, the West End of London, to the best of my ability and knowing how my market relates and compares, not only with the rest of London, but with the rest of the UK and beyond. This knowledge comes not only from taking an analytical perspective of trends reliant on quantitative techniques, but also by keeping my ear to the ground and speaking to people active in the market as well as my fellow analysts at CoStar. The other half of the job involves the communication of my findings with clients.
What does your typical day look like?
Typically, my day starts with dodging the London traffic on my bike, there's no better way to sharpen the mind in the morning!
I look at my Inbox - often things will arrive over night as we are headquartered in the States. If it's a Tuesday I'll have a meeting with the rest of the analytics team where we discuss what we've been doing over the last week and what we will to be doing over the coming week. The world of analytics is a measured one as data has to be understood and meaning drawn out of it, which rarely happens in a flash. So much of the day may be occupied with writing a section for a market report or putting together some slides for a client meeting. The variety of work depends on where we are in the quarter with forecasting markets performance being followed by writing up the market reports for clients.
What is the most challenging aspect of your job?
It has to be being on top of the markets I am responsible for and having an understanding of how the construction, financial and economic worlds collide.
And the best part?
The complexity in forecasting the performance of an asset class which has so many changeable variables which are reliant on so many outside influences makes the job very rewarding.
What advice would you give to someone who is interested in working as a Real Estate Analyst?
A background in real estate, statistics or economics is important. Someone looking to enter into the world of real estate analytics must be prepared for a challenging job where the learning never stops. To succeed the grasping of what is happening is of equal importance as the communication of that understanding to clients and colleagues.
