FIU Business is gaining recognition on two fronts in real estate education: student outcomes and faculty scholarship. Forbes Advisor ranked FIU’s online Master of Science in International Real Estate the No. 1 online real estate master’s program for 2026, and the latest Real Estate Academic Leadership (REAL) rankings placed FIU first in the world for real estate research productivity for 2021 to 2025.
Together, the rankings reflect the strength of FIU Business in a field that sits at the intersection of finance, development, investment and the built environment. While Forbes Advisor evaluated online master’s programs based on measures including affordability, student outcomes, student experience and credibility, the REAL rankings measured institutional research output based on publications in three leading journals: The Journal of Real Estate Finance and Economics, Journal of Real Estate Research and Real Estate Economics.
In the REAL rankings, FIU led all institutions with 55 publications. The paper, published in the Journal of Real Estate Literature, said FIU’s standing was driven by sustained productivity from a group of highly published scholars, including William Hardin, Zhenguo Lin, Eli Beracha, Walter D’Lima and Zhonghua Wu. The author rankings also placed Lin No. 2 overall with 16 publications, while Beracha and Hardin were both listed among the field’s top contributors.
Forbes Advisor, meanwhile, placed FIU first among five schools in its 2026 ranking of online real estate master’s programs after evaluating 19 accredited, nonprofit institutions across 15 data points. In its review, Forbes highlighted FIU’s affordability, online accessibility and the distinct positioning of its M.S. in International Real Estate, noting that FIU was the only school among its top five to offer an online degree specifically in international real estate.
The dual recognition helps underscore a connection FIU Business often emphasizes: strong academic research and strong graduate education can reinforce one another. Faculty scholarship shapes how real estate is taught in the classroom, while the program’s applied curriculum helps prepare students to navigate an industry increasingly shaped by global capital flows, urban growth, regulation and market volatility. This pairing of research depth and professional relevance has helped FIU build visibility in a discipline with growing importance in South Florida and beyond.
“These recognitions speak to the strength of FIU Business from two important vantage points: the quality of the student experience and the impact of our faculty’s scholarship,” said William Hardin, dean of FIU Business and real estate scholar. “To be recognized for both program excellence and research productivity reflects the momentum we have built in real estate and the value of connecting rigorous academic work with the needs of a fast-changing global industry.”
“We have worked very intentionally to build a program that is both academically strong and relevant to the real world,” said Eli Beracha, director of the Hollo School of Real Estate at FIU Business. “It is meaningful to see FIU recognized not only for the quality of its online graduate program, but also for the research contributions of its faculty. Those two things are closely connected.”
For FIU Business, the two rankings position the college as a leading name in real estate education at a time when demand for expertise in housing, investment and development continues to evolve.